Hi everyone,
I posted a thread in another section of the forum looking for some buying advice on a Mac mini for use with Logic. Some guys over there suggested that I come here to explain the issue I'm having with my current setup, so the following is an edited version of my other post, which you can find here:
forums.macrumors.com
I have a 2019 16" MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 500GB SSD. Generally speaking—it's great. No real issues with daily use.
I've been spending more and more time using Logic, just as a hobby. But I've got a nice little bedroom setup going on—Universal Audio Apollo Solo with a UA Thunderbolt Octo-Core Accelerator, tons of UA, Waves, Arturia, and iZotope plugins. I don't usually run more than 12 tracks at a time on a project, but I do use these plug-ins (especially the UA ones) quite a bit—sometimes they show up on every track simultaneously, and there are always at least a few on the mix track. I should say that I never use the sampler on Logic—there may be a few MIDI-based tracks, but I'm mostly recording audio tracks with the interface.
Unfortunately, this seems to be too much for my MacBook Pro. I can close out all other apps and still get a system overload notice on a Logic project. Freezing tracks helps, but it doesn't save the day every time. The CPU monitoring function in Logic generally shows one core hovering around 95% and then spiking here and there, which I assume is causing the system overload. I don't really know anything about computers, so I'm likely wrong about this. According to my MacBook's activity tracker, Logic apparently uses anywhere from 4GB to 8GB of my RAM when it is open.
Right now I've got a project open: 11 tracks, 4 of which are MIDI drums, the other 7 are audio tracks. All audio tracks are frozen. When I jump around in the project, or open up a plugin, I'll likely run into the system overload message. I've gone through turning on and off various plugins (Arturia's REV140 seems to upset everything according to the CPU monitoring bar in Logic), but even turning off several high-powered plugins doesn't fix everything. Right now I've got Logic idling in the background: one of the core meters furthest to the right is constantly bumping up to 100%, and when it's not, it hovers just below that. When I hit play on the project, its next-door neighbor also comes up to 100% occasionally, and the two cores furthest to the left will often hover around 75%. I don't know what to make of all that, but maybe you guys do!
Any ideas? I don't know much about computers period, so I figure there must be some way to optimize my current setup for improved performance. I should mention I'm out of town right now, so no access to the UA stuff—however, I'm using my Apogee One right now and still have the same problems that come up back home.
Sorry for the long post. I'll be happy to provide more information about specs and whatnot if it is of any help—I'll just need someone to tell me what to look for! Any insight and guidance would be much appreciated.
-Jake
I posted a thread in another section of the forum looking for some buying advice on a Mac mini for use with Logic. Some guys over there suggested that I come here to explain the issue I'm having with my current setup, so the following is an edited version of my other post, which you can find here:
Which Mac mini for Logic Pro plus UA, Waves, iZotope plugins
Hi everyone, Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place, but I figured what I'm looking for falls under 'buying advice.' I have a 2019 16" MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 500GB SSD. Generally speaking—it's great. No real issues with daily use. I've been...
forums.macrumors.com
I have a 2019 16" MacBook Pro with a 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 500GB SSD. Generally speaking—it's great. No real issues with daily use.
I've been spending more and more time using Logic, just as a hobby. But I've got a nice little bedroom setup going on—Universal Audio Apollo Solo with a UA Thunderbolt Octo-Core Accelerator, tons of UA, Waves, Arturia, and iZotope plugins. I don't usually run more than 12 tracks at a time on a project, but I do use these plug-ins (especially the UA ones) quite a bit—sometimes they show up on every track simultaneously, and there are always at least a few on the mix track. I should say that I never use the sampler on Logic—there may be a few MIDI-based tracks, but I'm mostly recording audio tracks with the interface.
Unfortunately, this seems to be too much for my MacBook Pro. I can close out all other apps and still get a system overload notice on a Logic project. Freezing tracks helps, but it doesn't save the day every time. The CPU monitoring function in Logic generally shows one core hovering around 95% and then spiking here and there, which I assume is causing the system overload. I don't really know anything about computers, so I'm likely wrong about this. According to my MacBook's activity tracker, Logic apparently uses anywhere from 4GB to 8GB of my RAM when it is open.
Right now I've got a project open: 11 tracks, 4 of which are MIDI drums, the other 7 are audio tracks. All audio tracks are frozen. When I jump around in the project, or open up a plugin, I'll likely run into the system overload message. I've gone through turning on and off various plugins (Arturia's REV140 seems to upset everything according to the CPU monitoring bar in Logic), but even turning off several high-powered plugins doesn't fix everything. Right now I've got Logic idling in the background: one of the core meters furthest to the right is constantly bumping up to 100%, and when it's not, it hovers just below that. When I hit play on the project, its next-door neighbor also comes up to 100% occasionally, and the two cores furthest to the left will often hover around 75%. I don't know what to make of all that, but maybe you guys do!
Any ideas? I don't know much about computers period, so I figure there must be some way to optimize my current setup for improved performance. I should mention I'm out of town right now, so no access to the UA stuff—however, I'm using my Apogee One right now and still have the same problems that come up back home.
Sorry for the long post. I'll be happy to provide more information about specs and whatnot if it is of any help—I'll just need someone to tell me what to look for! Any insight and guidance would be much appreciated.
-Jake
