The dreaded words, System Overload

Short of freezing and unfreezing tracks all the time, does anybody have a solution for this? I find it so frustrating when I’m starting to work on automation of my leads and Logic is just giving me this message over and over. I’ve put the max amount of ram on my computer (8gb) and store most stuff on an external drive to free up the hard disk but it still happens continually. Then the 32-64 bit bridge starts crashing too.br
br
It gets to the point where I can’t be bothered to work on tracks any more. Any body else got the same problems?

i have/ had this problem, my solution has been to install an SSD disk instead of the regular 5400 rpm, everything got so much better. and after upgrading to LPX it got even better, But it still happens sometimes. but not nearly as often as before.

I understand the frustration, but try and keep things in perspective by remembering how lucky we all are these days to have so much computing power at our disposal, for such a relatively cheap price.br
br
It wasn’t all that long ago that people were forced to produce tracks on set-ups where maybe you were limited to only using 8 tracks at a time, or maybe you only had a few seconds sampling time and could only work on one part at a time!br
br
There are always ways around these things mate, you have to remember that as producers, we have never had it so good!br
br

the 32-64 bridge could be causing your problems… are you having issues running in 32bit? what all have you got running in your project.br
br
These days i always get suspicious of people running out of power as it never happens to me… i just never use that many tracks… makes me wonder what all is in these tracks and are they just using too much stuff.br
br
For me most things should just be Drums, Bass , couple of leads, maybe 2 pads and some FX. nothing the majority of CPU could handle with even pretty demanding plugins.br
br
br
br

Are you running everything from your system drive?br

It’s even worse when I run it in 32 bit mode. br
br
There’s 45 tracks in the project, including 12 drums (mainly audio), 20 odd FX (mainly audio), 5 Bass, 3 pads, 5 leads/plucksbr
br
It’s when the leads and mid bass kick in that it struggles, seems to be midi parts with a lot of notes that cause the problemsbr
br
I may try this SSD route, see if that helps

[quote]chris agnelli (20/09/2013)[hr]Are you running everything from your system drive?br
[/quote]br
br
Yeah everything is on the system drive, but I only use my mac for music so it’s not that full, maybe 100gb of music / samples.

What plug-ins do you have running when the computer starts to struggle?br
br
From experience, some plug-ins can use so much more processing power than others. br
br
I had one project i worked on, where i kept having the same problem as you, and couldn’t understand it. Turns out it was just one single plug-in (a 3rd party filter) causing all the problems, as soon as i removed that plug-in from my project, and replaced it with another, all was fine!br
br
Maybe quickly go through each of the plug-ins in turn, and see if one in particular is causing this problem?br
br
Then you can either replace said plug-in, or perhaps try and bounce down the audio once the plug-in has done it’s thing, then remove the plug-in. At least this way you can keep the exact same sound(s).

I only use logic plugins on the channels, occasionally Camel Crusher distortion but I don;'t think that causes issues, then I will use decent reverbs and delays on the buses, usually waves, breverb or lexicon RP Delay. br
br
Synth wise, ANA seems to cause more problems than Albino3 or Sylenth, I try to use a single multichannel ultrabeat for the drums.

Some of those plug-ins might be the cause of your problem?br
br
I’m thinking things like the Lexicon plug-ins might zap alot of CPU - especially if you use a few of them in a project for different types of reverb etc?

What is your computer spec? Running everything from your system drive is never a great idea, although I do it myself - the drive does struggle from time time. Decent spec’d computer shouldn’t have to much trouble. Do you have loads of short audio files contained in your tracks - say hats and shakers etc etc?

It’s just a Mac Mini 2.5ghz, but I upgraded to 8gb of RAM.br
br
There’s quite a few loops and loads of chopped up FX audio in there, 20 or so channels.

Try turning off the in built Reverb in ANA it is quite a CPU hog.

I feel it may be the drive is struggling, try bouncing out the chopped up loops and any small audio files into longer continuous file say 8 or 16 bars or even longer, let me know if that helps. The computer and ram are well spec’d enough. Even try running from a external drive 7200rpm at least or SSD.br
br

Yeah is does seem to be the drive, the messages have just got worse!br
br
Disk is too slow or System Overload.br
(-10010)br
The Sudden Motion Sensor may have parked the hard drive head, or the disk performance is not sufficient to read or write all audio tracks, or the system was not able to process all data in time.br
br
I’ve just removed all my music and samples to the external drive to free up the hard disc but it’s still doing it. The hard drive now has 220gb of free spacebr
br
I’ve also made sure there’s no start up programs running in the background, just Logic.br
br

[quote]chris agnelli (20/09/2013)[hr]I feel it may be the drive is struggling, try bouncing out the chopped up loops and any small audio files into longer continuous file say 8 or 16 bars or even longer, let me know if that helps. The computer and ram are well spec’d enough. Even try running from a external drive 7200rpm at least or SSD.br
br
[/quote]br
br
Sorry missed this one. I’ve just glued all the audio, and fingers crossed, no crashing. I always thought audio was process light compared to midi but it seems it could be the problem! br
br
Cheers Chris. Off to Passion Classics tonight, hope to hear some of your tracks!

Nope spoke too soon, still getting the message, but back to the original System Overload message now.

i had this exact problem, upgrading your Harddrive to an SSD disk will remove this problem almost 100%.br
the standard in my macbook pro where an 5400rpm disk, and it doesnt have the capacity to process that many audiofile/processes. If you have a full project and watch the HDD meter in Logic you will see that its almost at 100% most of the time. After upgrading i never get it up to more than 50% AT MAX. br
If the the project crashes its because my CPU, Upgraded my RAM to 16gb which was the first problem, then after that the disk became the problem. Now its my cpu. but i think i have to get a new computer in order to fix that problem.

[quote]lonewolf (21/09/2013)[hr]i had this exact problem, upgrading your Harddrive to an SSD disk will remove this problem almost 100%.br
the standard in my macbook pro where an 5400rpm disk, and it doesnt have the capacity to process that many audiofile/processes. If you have a full project and watch the HDD meter in Logic you will see that its almost at 100% most of the time. After upgrading i never get it up to more than 50% AT MAX. br
If the the project crashes its because my CPU, Upgraded my RAM to 16gb which was the first problem, then after that the disk became the problem. Now its my cpu. but i think i have to get a new computer in order to fix that problem.[/quote]br
br
I’m already maxed out at 8gb for the Mac mini, but will definitely look at getting a SSD drive, is it tricky to install / switch everything over?

[quote]br
I’m already maxed out at 8gb for the Mac mini, but will definitely look at getting a SSD drive, is it tricky to install / switch everything over?[/quote]br
br
no not really, took like 10 min to do! the hardware but the software transfer take some time but its not difficult. Check it out on everymac.combr