Logic Pro X CPU spikes

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emenel
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Logic Pro X CPU spikes

Post by emenel » Fri Dec 18, 2015 5:46 am

Hey everybody,

I'm having a strange problem and thought I'd see if anybody else has encountered this.

I've been using Logic forever, and Logic X since it came out. Recently some projects that were running fine have starting spiking the CPU like crazy, making them almost unplayable. They are large, but nothing I've had trouble with in the past. I'm on a i7 macbook pro with 16bg of ram, should be lots of power.

The only clue I've been able to find is in a poorly written Apple support forum post about Logic X and gain causing CPU spikes.. this actually sounds plausible based on when my projects are spiking (ie. during loud passages rather than during heavy plugin load). Has anybody else found this?

I'm going to do some experimenting later today when I have some time.

kslight
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Post by kslight » Fri Dec 18, 2015 8:37 am

Have you tried the obvious, such as disabling wifi, disabling any 'energy saver' CPU throttling features, increasing buffer size, and disabling plugins?

emenel
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Post by emenel » Fri Dec 18, 2015 9:16 am

kslight wrote:Have you tried the obvious, such as disabling wifi, disabling any 'energy saver' CPU throttling features, increasing buffer size, and disabling plugins?
Yep.. this can happen even with a single track playing and one basic plugin like eq.

emenel
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Post by emenel » Sun Dec 20, 2015 8:29 am

A further development.

I did a live recording last night, just 6 channels. When I get it all setup for mix with my base plugins etc everything is totally fine. That is, until I close the mixer panel and hit play with the audio tracks visible, then it's instant CPU spike and totally unplayable. When I open the mixer and expand it to cover the entire screen, hiding the tracks entirely, it plays with barely any CPU.

emenel
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Post by emenel » Sun Dec 20, 2015 8:35 am

And another development.

If I zoom out so that the tracks don't scroll and the playhead is barely moving then the CPU goes back down.

Apparently, as far as I can currently tell, the CPU issues are largely due to Logic trying to animate the audio tracks and playhead. I can't seem to find any setting for turning this off, or changing the default follow behaviour.

If anybody else has tried this or can verify what I'm experiencing that would be great.

echodeck
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Post by echodeck » Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:24 pm

I get the same thing sometimes, its fairly inconsistent. Its hard to pin it down to anything in particular. wifi is off, anti virus disabled etc. Some times occurs even when I freeze stuff. I'm mostly just mixing like you would on an analog desk as well. Automation is generally limited to fader rides, panning moves, some stuff on send effects. I don't go crazy with plugins either.

I think some of my issues are due to the fact My audio is on the machines drive. I have a FW drive incoming so hopefully that might help.

I have changed my approach to mixing as well and it seems to help some. Less inserted comps. More bus compression. I never insert reverbs anyway. My machines spec is not as good as the OP's but I basically just use logic it as a desk most of the time.

One thing i have noticed is that restarting my computer seems to help. I'd also say its definitely worse after installing new plugins etc. I'll be following this thread with interest.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:29 pm

From your description, it seems to be a graphics issue between Logic X and your video card.

Have you made sure the Firmware / driver is current? I know, most Apples have set things, but there are ways to update them if really necessary. Check with both Apple and the vendor of the graphic card.

I used to love Logic. then Apple bought them. LOL.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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alexdingley
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Post by alexdingley » Sun Apr 23, 2017 6:40 pm

So, if this is still happening, check the Activity Monitor on your mac, during one of the spikes.

If you see an operation, called Kernel_task, taking 125%, or up 400% of your CPU, then this isn't a logic issue. This has been a sporadically problematic Mac issue for many of us on MacBook Pro retina machines... ever since 10.9, Mavericks. It was kicking my computer's ass for months before I realized what it was.

I'm on El Capitan now, and after my last clean install, it seems to be pretty well mitigated. If you have this issue, you can hack around in the system library (google "kernel_task fix -- your OS name here--") and/or doing a clean install seems to help.

It sure if this problem is actually what's got you bogged down, but it sounded close enough to mention my issue.

mrc
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Post by mrc » Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:34 am

What's the OS and version of Logic?

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:28 pm

Nice way to revive a dead post LOL.
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