westremote Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 I recently bought a new iMac, with 2.7 Ghz quad-core i5, 8 gb of ram, and 2TB hard. I have Logic and Native Instruments updated to their most recent versions. I also keep all my projects on an external 32 gb USB 2.0 flash drive that is plugged directly into the back of the computer. I believe I'm doing everything necessary to make Logic run as smoothly as possible, but I still find moments of lag. Mostly, when I save, there is a momentary pause. This isn't that big of a deal, but if I try to save while Logic is playing, the pause is longer, and occasionally freezes logic. This is why I started keeping my projects on an external device, thinking that it would help to not bog down my internal drive. When I watch the activity monitor, I see a sudden spike in disk activity whenever I save. The CPU and ram seem to have plenty of elbow room, so I'm narrowing the crashes down to overloaded disk activity. Like I said, I thought the external flash drive would eliminate that problem, but it doesn't seem to do the trick. Is there anything else I'm missing that will help Logic runner better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n6smith Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Using a USB2.0 flash drive (or a 2.0 ext HD for that matter) is a bad idea for the purpose you have. You should use a FW800 Ext HD that is also 7200RPM (and not a Green Drive) to get the optimal speed from your system. Flash drives can be quite slow.... and problematic... and this is probably why you are getting a spike when you go to save. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westremote Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Well the spikes were occurring back when I had the projects on my internal drive. Also, I thought that flash memory was faster than hard discs. Isn't that the whole reason why solid-state drives are such a big deal? (in addition to the fact that no moving parts means they last long) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherking Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 flash memory IS fast, but...usb 2.0 is relatively slow. the bottleneck is the connection. dude, you've got TWO TB of storage on your iMac. keep your projects on the internal drive, and save the usb drive for running around with files...and nothing more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westremote Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Is USB 2.0 really slower than a hard disk? Also, I know I have plenty of space on the internal HD, but the goal here it to reallocate some of the storage to a new location so that the drive doesn't get bogged down trying to run to many processes at the same time. I've read that you should keep projects on an external device because your home drive is busy running everything else on your computer. Is that not true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherking Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 if you're going to do 'live' work with an external drive, it should be a firewire, usb 3.0, or thunderbolt drive. there's no benefit to a 'thumb drive' for this. yes, usb 2.0 is slow. seriously, store the files on your internal drive. 32G is a drop in the bucket on that drive, and you'll have a better experience than trying to work off of ANY usb 2 drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n6smith Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 Hopefully the 2TB isn't a 5400rpm drive... though it will still be faster than a thumb drive... but an external FW800 (or Thunderbolt) 7200rpm HD will be faster typically Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westremote Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 Okay, so I've switched back to the internal drive, and it does actually seem faster than the USB drive. However, Logic is still crashing on me. Basically, it happens randomly if I try to edit a plugin while Logic is playing (which is something I obviously need to do). What happens is I go to press space bar (to stop playback) but Logic doesn't stop playing. Then suddenly all the Logic windows are locked. I can move them around, but can't close or edit them. After about 30 seconds, it usually catches up and stops the playback. Again, neither the CPU or the RAM are bogged down. Why does Logic keep tripping on itself if the CPU has power to spare?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redlogic Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 However, Logic is still crashing on me. Basically, it happens randomly if I try to edit a plugin while Logic is playing (which is something I obviously need to do). What happens is I go to press space bar (to stop playback) but Logic doesn't stop playing. Then suddenly all the Logic windows are locked. I can move them around, but can't close or edit them. After about 30 seconds, it usually catches up and stops the playback. Again, neither the CPU or the RAM are bogged down. Why does Logic keep tripping on itself if the CPU has power to spare?? Unresponsive Logic 9.1.x + 10.7.x & 10.8.x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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