Logic Pro X and Komplete 9 Ultimate (system overload/disc too slow)

Hi Guys, first and foremost I should say that when it comes to technology I am really quite limited in my knowledge.

Anyway, I have been getting this (system overland/disc too slow/problems syncing the audio) messages on some of my tracks lately. The thing is, is that I haven't even scratched the surface of these recordings yet. I have primarily been laying down bass and drums first (through my piano using the software drums and bass) with a very quick guitar track (actual guitar, not piano turned into guitar sound) put down so I can adapt the drums and bass to the changes of the guitar. I don't understand whats wrong. I used to demo songs in garageband but I recently upgraded to Logic Pro X and Komplete Ultimate so I could record pro sounding stuff at home.

There were times in Garageband where I would have huge amounts of tracks in some songs and sometimes that would slow down and be a bit annoying but by and large having recorded around 200 songs in garageband. Granted I didn't use another software system like Komplete with garageband, I just used the presets. But I have never seen anything quite like this with Logic. I thought it was supposed to better than garageband hence having to pay for it.

I have spent around 2 hours today reading up on stuff on the Apple forums and it hasn't really helped especially based on the fact that like I said I haven't even scratched the surface of these recordings yet. I would go back to garageband but the man in the shop informed me that it won't support Komplete.

Can anyone help please ?

Some information that may be relevant. I have a 3tb hard drive which I run all my song files through and the library of Komplete and I use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface. I used to use a Line 6 UX2 as my interface but the guy in the shop convinced me this was better. Although I am not sure if the interfaces are even relevant to the problem. My laptop (MacBook Pro) isn't full of files or anything like that. Its very very clear. I have some songs in iTunes and use the internet but mostly it is used for music production.

Many thanks for any help.

 

are you running that latest version of Logic X, which is 10.0.7?

what is your Audio I/O Buffer Size in Logic? fyi, mine is 512

how old is you Macbook and which Mac OS do you have and how much Memory do you have and what is your Processor?

sowari

 

Hi Sowari, thanks for responding. I shall try to answer your questions as best I can. I am not the best with technology.

So my mac is OS X 10.9.4. On the bottom of the mac casing is a stamp date of 2010 but I have only had it less than a year. I bought it brand new so maybe its just been sitting in storage for a while. There is however another thing that says 13 inch, mid 2012. Im not sure if the 2012 refers to a year or not.

Processor is 2.5 ghz intel core i5

Memory 4 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3

My 500 GB SATA disc which i assume is the internal hard drive has approx. 375 gb free space.

With regards to Logic, yes I have the 10.0.7. I only bought/downloaded it a couple of weeks ago.

My I/O buffer size is set to 128. I haven't touched it. I guess that is the default.

Hope I answered all the questions correctly.

Thanks

P.S In terms of memory I am using an external 3tb hard drive so that should be a big help on the memory usage.

 

thanks for the reply.

my Mac has 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor and 8 GB of Memory which will make it faster and a bit better for music production than your one.

however, the i think it is your I/O buffer size that is causing you the most problems. i would suggest you change it to 512 - which is what i use. when recording you might want to try 256 but for mixing definitely have it set to 512.

also, are you using a setting of 44100 with your Interface?

sowari

 

Hey Sowari, thanks for the info. I shall set it to 256 and see if that helps. What do you mean by 44100 with interface ? I can't see any numbers like this in the Logic settings.

 

my Audio Device - a MOTU UltraLite mk3 has a small interface where i can set the Sample Rate. but Logic also has specific 'Project Settings' for Audio.

sowari

 

Hi Sowari, my interface doesn't seem to have any thing for me to set the sample rate. It just has the usual gain knobs etc. I am going to see if I can find project settings in Logic later on.

In the mean time, I had to send a rough version of one of my songs to someone so I sent it to iTunes and then went into my email and attached the song to the email. As I was finding the file for the song, there was lots of information on song file. One of which said sample rate 44100. So I guess everything is fine in that regard.

I remember garageband had something called track lock which I assume Logic has and so I am going to start using that to free up some space.

Thanks again for responding.

 

not all Interfaces where you can set the Sample Rate.

in terms of Logic, are you using Logic X?

anyway, for each 'Project' you can set the Sample Rate:



sowari

 

If you are using virtual instruments it helps to create an empty audio track and select it before you hit playback.And only use necessary FX while arranging.
My MBP has the same processor and twice the RAM, when I mix a track I need to bounce all instruments to audio before I can use all the plugin FX I want and then I need to bounce the mix before I can master. Never really used GarageBand but Logic 9 is very CPU heavy, did some testing with Logic 7, 9, Tracktion 2, 3, Renoise and Reaper. Reaper won, Logic lost.

 

Thanks for that I checked and it is 44.1 kHz. I guess thats the default. Yes I am using Logic X.

I was having major problems last night. I actually had to stop recording as it was going crazy slow. This is on guitars I should add. It seems I am going to have to record a guitar part, edit it if need be then track lock/freeze it and move on to the next part which is going to be a massive pain.

Nielsdolieslager - How does creating an empty audio track help ?

 

If you have a virtual instrument track selected CPU use is different. If you are playing along with a drumtrack played by Studio Drummer for example and that track is selected, Logic reserves a lot of CPU for that instrument. If you freeze the drum track and select an empty audio track your CPU has more "room" for other stuff.

 

I appreciate that, thanks. I shall take it on board.

 

Any improvements?

 

Yes indeedy. I put the buffer size to 256 as Sowari suggested and I track locked/freezed the drums and bass which allowed me to do the guitars without any real hitches and I have now frozen them so I can do the vocals. It glitches a little now and again when I am playing the songs back to see if everything is right but it is much much better. Im not sure how much cpu it takes to do vocals but we shall see. Like I say much much better. I have no idea why we set the buffer to 256 and then change it to 512 for mixing but you
guys' knowledge is greater than mine. I thank you both.

 

larger buffer size = less CPU usage and less glitches.

sowari

 

Hi Sowari, so what does changing the buffer size to 512 do when mixing? Does it give a better sound or something ?

 

when mixing it is good practice to have a buffer size that does nor cause glitches/audio hangups/errors. 512 works for me and i get a consistently good sound. when mixing you don't notice any delay latency because everything starts at the same time, whereas when you are recording. you might want a lower buffer size to avoid hearing delays between playing something and hearing it.

sowari

 

Another solution is to do a basic mix and "freeze" all of the tracks except for those being recorded.

What this does is add mp3(or whatever filessystem you use) as a playback only file. So, instead of say 10 tracks that are playing back and also have 10 tracks of effects taking up processor use, it simply plays back a mp3 with the effects already recorded.

You can flip flop back and forth, takes some time tho if you make changes to the mix or an effect.

Basically like an old school bounce down only you can go back and remix and rebounce etc.

 

Many thanks for your advice guys. I am still having a few problems but much better.

 

HI i have logic pro X 10 , i use KOMPLETE 10 Ultimate products as plugins, my mac spec is i7-2.8GZ, 4gb RAM and 750 GB hard disk,can you please suggest the I/O BUFFER so that i dont hear the drop outs and pops ???