JesusisLORD Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Hello again. I'm composing a piece where at one point I bring in a bunch of samples for a great big crescendo. It seems that every time I hit that point, Logic freezes and I get the spinny beach ball. Is there something I can do in preferences, or do I need to do multiple bounce-down-to-audios? Thanks. Gabe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 How do you "bring the samples"? Are you putting them on one audio track? Multiple audio tracks? Triggering them through an EXS24? Is that a custom instrument or one that comes with Logic, and if the latter, which one? Also, keep an eye on the CPU and HD meters in your transport bar when this happens: does one of those meters jump high at the time of the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusisLORD Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 Well, I have a feeling the CPU would jump if it had the chance... but no, I don't think it is. All of my different samples (Cellos, Violins, Piano, so forth) are each on a separate track. Methinks I'm not supposed to do this either, but I don't know what else to do. Most of the instruments are samples from EastWestQuantumLeap's Symphonic Choirs and Orchestra. I don't think I'm using any Logic instruments in this one. By "bring the samples" I mean I'm triggering a bunch of different MIDI events at the same time... we go from 5 tracks playing to 10 or 15. Thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Well, I have a feeling the CPU would jump if it had the chance... but no, I don't think it is. Check and make sure next chance you get, and also check the HD meter - it could be your HD choking... By "bring the samples" I mean I'm triggering a bunch of different MIDI events at the same time... we go from 5 tracks playing to 10 or 15. So those are all software instrument tracks? All with an instance of PLAY? How many voices are used on each track? Or total? Thanks for the help. You're welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusisLORD Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 So those are all software instrument tracks? All with an instance of PLAY? How many voices are used on each track? Or total? Yes, yes, and I don't know how many voices. Just one instrument, but sometimes multiple notes, so I'd imagine up to 2 or 3 on strings and such, and up to 4 at a time on the piano. The choir track- 6 or 7. If you need more info... I'll have to get back to you in the morning. Thanks again, Gabe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 If you need more info... I'll have to get back to you in the morning. Good night - and let us know about the CPU and HD Meters when you get a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicControl22 Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Your computer is probably just overloading. There are a couple of solutions. You can get a better computer like a Mac Pro. You could also just freeze your tracks. There really isn't any point in bouncing in place or creating stems since you can just freeze i think. Unless you feel that there is some kind of quality loss...some people do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicControl22 Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 I guess really I would probably avoid freezing if you can. It really depends on who you work for/if your client is going to be there with you. Freezing/offline bouncing of any kind of still kind of frowned upon by a lot of people, especially people who aren't producers or composers and who are used to houses that do everything in pro tools. It kind of freaks them out and reminds them that you are using a computer that is doing calculations instead more traditional methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusisLORD Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 Good night - and let us know about the CPU and HD Meters when you get a chance. Here's a shot of where it freezes. I then get the beach ball. No meter reaction, though, like I said, I'll bet it would if it didn't freeze so fast. (Kinda like when I get the "System Overload" warning, only... like it froze up to bad to give me that either.) Is there a less stressful way for me to arrange the instruments? LC22- thanks. I actually am running a MacPro, but I may need to try freezing/bouncing separately. I'll see what else comes up here first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusisLORD Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 In case this helps, I played through another part and first time through the CPU meter jumped to red and I got the "System Overload" warning. I tried it again and it locked up just like it does at that spot in the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusisLORD Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 *friendly bump, before this gets too buried... I think I answered all questions?* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
involver Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Double click on the CPU meeter in the transport bar to see the detailed version. Are any of the individual meters peaking when it stops? If they are, read this article to understand why and see how you can fix it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3161 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplesly Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Being on 32-bit logic myself (with more or less the same configuration) and having spent lots of time exploring the limitations of RAM and sample streaming, I am pretty sure that you're just running too many instruments simultaneously without the proper tweaking in Play and Logic. Disclaimer: I use Motu MachFive 2, not EW Play, but I've been able to get pretty high track counts (with only 3gb RAM) on purely sampled orchestral elements by doing the following. 1) spread your EW sample data (if possible) accross multiple INTERNAL drives. Get reliable ones (like WD black) with a 32mb cache. You have a mac pro, so unless it's already full of drives being used for other stuff, you should be able to do this. Unless you are doing light sample VI work, internal drives are the ONLY way to go. 2) Run Logic at a sample buffer size of 512 with a large process buffer (audio preferences.) This might introduce a tiny bit of live playback latency, but I don't notice any on my 1st gen. Mac Pro system. 3) Set polyphony as LOW as possible - you don't need high poly on orchestral instruments. This will improve performance. 4) Set the preload size (the amount of instrument that initially gets loaded in RAM when you call up a patch) the samples (if you can in Play) to a fairly low number. The internal drives can handle the increased load it causes on most stuff. 5) Open Applications>Utilities>Activity Monitor. Check that the amount of actual RAM used by logic stays around 1.5-2GB. Virtual memory should not go higher than 3.0GB. Logic will become unstable and give you the "system overload" message quite a bit, or just hit you with the beach ball. 6) Turn things off in Logic's prefs like Sample Accurate Automation. Put Solo mode in 'CPU-saving'. Reduce your number of undo steps to 10 or less. Conserve Ram wherever you can. 7) If all else fails, freeze tracks, or consider running your orchestral template outside of Logic in Bidule. Good luck.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camillo jr Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 simplesly has made several good recommendations. Here's one more - use more instances of Play to spread the load. You would need to reload some instruments and then move regions to the new tracks but that should help spread the processing to more than one core, which is possibly what is happening now. Looking at Logic's CPU meter while the song is playing will show you if one core is doing most of the work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusisLORD Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Being on 32-bit logic myself (with more or less the same configuration) and having spent lots of time exploring the limitations of RAM and sample streaming, I am pretty sure that you're just running too many instruments simultaneously without the proper tweaking in Play and Logic. Disclaimer: I use Motu MachFive 2, not EW Play, but I've been able to get pretty high track counts (with only 3gb RAM) on purely sampled orchestral elements by doing the following. 1) spread your EW sample data (if possible) accross multiple INTERNAL drives. Get reliable ones (like WD black) with a 32mb cache. You have a mac pro, so unless it's already full of drives being used for other stuff, you should be able to do this. Unless you are doing light sample VI work, internal drives are the ONLY way to go. 2) Run Logic at a sample buffer size of 512 with a large process buffer (audio preferences.) This might introduce a tiny bit of live playback latency, but I don't notice any on my 1st gen. Mac Pro system. 3) Set polyphony as LOW as possible - you don't need high poly on orchestral instruments. This will improve performance. 4) Set the preload size (the amount of instrument that initially gets loaded in RAM when you call up a patch) the samples (if you can in Play) to a fairly low number. The internal drives can handle the increased load it causes on most stuff. 5) Open Applications>Utilities>Activity Monitor. Check that the amount of actual RAM used by logic stays around 1.5-2GB. Virtual memory should not go higher than 3.0GB. Logic will become unstable and give you the "system overload" message quite a bit, or just hit you with the beach ball. 6) Turn things off in Logic's prefs like Sample Accurate Automation. Put Solo mode in 'CPU-saving'. Reduce your number of undo steps to 10 or less. Conserve Ram wherever you can. 7) If all else fails, freeze tracks, or consider running your orchestral template outside of Logic in Bidule. Good luck.... THANK YOU for all that. Off to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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