Logic Pro system overload

Haych

Why am I getting system overload alerts in Logic Pro?

I've been using Logic for a while, started using it with a 2012 Mac mini but have recently(ish) upgraded to a late 2019 MacBook Pro.  Never, ever had an issue when running it with the Mini but recently I've started getting system overload alerts!

It's not like I'm using lots of plugins or even many tracks.  I'm even seeing the alerts in projects I recorded on the old Mac Mini!  If it worked there why won't it work on what should be a much more powerful machine?

I've changed buffer size settings as recommended on Apples no help pages but hasn't really made a difference.

Gotta be honest, starting to think it's a Big Sur thing, everything was alright until Big Sur came along.

Anyone else having the same problem?

poopot

Go through all of this.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203930

Haych

That's the same no-help page I looked at earlier.

I didn't enable the performance monitor though, but have done now.  The Processing Threads meter is working at about 10% of maximum and the Drive I/O meter isn't even registering on the scale.

So clearly plenty of processing capacity spare, it shouldn't really be having a problem. 

Danny1969

It's not generally an available power thing... almost never really it's an OS priority thing, basically the OS virtually halts some processes to devote more attention to something else. Unfortunately with BS and to some extent Catalina it's harder to pin point as these OS's are more attentive to the SMC and actual firmware. 

Unfortunately on the more modern Macs it's harder to setup a proper dual boot system otherwise I would have recommended booting from an old version of OSX to run Logic until all bugs have been ironed out. You can still do it but the T2 chip models need reconfiguring and there's no SD card slot so it's more of a pain. 

poopot

Have you got midi instruments in your project?

Haych

poopot said:

Have you got midi instruments in your project?

No, I am far from that sophisticated a musician.

Haych

Danny1969 said:

It's not generally an available power thing... almost never really it's an OS priority thing, basically the OS virtually halts some processes to devote more attention to something else. Unfortunately with BS and to some extent Catalina it's harder to pin point as these OS's are more attentive to the SMC and actual firmware. 

Unfortunately on the more modern Macs it's harder to setup a proper dual boot system otherwise I would have recommended booting from an old version of OSX to run Logic until all bugs have been ironed out. You can still do it but the T2 chip models need reconfiguring and there's no SD card slot so it's more of a pain. 

Could I not just acquire an external SSD and boot from there using an older OS?  Pretty sure I've done that before, but not for Logic related stuff so don't know what I/O performance would be like if I did that.

poopot

Ah ok...

logic is always armed to record midi... (there’s a record capture button if you look)... if you have any software instrument tracks logic will be ready to capture on those tracks... even software loops...

best to bounce to a new track and turn tge
midi track off, saves a bit of processing power...

also, any tracks you have that are recorded, put the input to no input... that also saves a bit...

Haych

poopot said:

Ah ok...

logic is always armed to record midi... (there’s a record capture button if you look)... if you have any software instrument tracks logic will be ready to capture on those tracks... even software loops...

best to bounce to a new track and turn tge
midi track off, saves a bit of processing power...

also, any tracks you have that are recorded, put the input to no input... that also saves a bit...

Thanks, will look out for that.  I might have inadvertently lied mind as I do use the drummer tracks and I'm pretty sure that's MIDI data somehow.  Maybe not the same thing to which you were referring but thought best to throw it out there in any case.

Danny1969

Haych said:

Danny1969 said:

It's not generally an available power thing... almost never really it's an OS priority thing, basically the OS virtually halts some processes to devote more attention to something else. Unfortunately with BS and to some extent Catalina it's harder to pin point as these OS's are more attentive to the SMC and actual firmware. 

Unfortunately on the more modern Macs it's harder to setup a proper dual boot system otherwise I would have recommended booting from an old version of OSX to run Logic until all bugs have been ironed out. You can still do it but the T2 chip models need reconfiguring and there's no SD card slot so it's more of a pain. 

Could I not just acquire an external SSD and boot from there using an older OS?  Pretty sure I've done that before, but not for Logic related stuff so don't know what I/O performance would be like if I did that.

Yeah you can but your model has a T2 chip and the newer OS versions put a kind of secure boot lock on it for security, so you first you need to disable the boot lock. Least I'm pretty sure it does ... click apple - system information then controller or bridge and will tell you . 

Then disable secure boot 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208198

poopot

Haych said:

poopot said:

Ah ok...

logic is always armed to record midi... (there’s a record capture button if you look)... if you have any software instrument tracks logic will be ready to capture on those tracks... even software loops...

best to bounce to a new track and turn tge
midi track off, saves a bit of processing power...

also, any tracks you have that are recorded, put the input to no input... that also saves a bit...

Thanks, will look out for that.  I might have inadvertently lied mind as I do use the drummer tracks and I'm pretty sure that's MIDI data somehow.  Maybe not the same thing to which you were referring but thought best to throw it out there in any case.

Drummer is midi... bounce it out to another track then turn off the drummer track... don’t delete the drummer track just turn it off... if you need to do any edits to the drummer track, turn it back on, edit and bounce out to a new track then turn it off...

you’ll be surprised.

Haych

Thanks @poopot, will give that a try.  

So I understand you correctly, you mean to bounce it as an audio track?  

That suggests MIDI is more intensive to process than audio?  

Have I sort of got that right?