Logic Pro X + Komplete 9 Ultimate depleting my Mac Pro?

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I am currently using a mid 2010 Mac Pro and I use Logic Pro X and Komplete 9 Ultimate.
It´s a 3,2 Ghz Quad-Core with 16Gb RAM and 120 Gb SSD as OS, 500Gb SSD samsung pro for the Komplete Ultimate library and 2 x 2Tb Green Caviar discs for movies/projects and other stuff.

Seems like a nice setup but it glitches when I use some software synths (not alot of them). I play alot of guitar on my songs and use Guitar Rig 5 only for this. Every time I start up a project and press play it stops and tells me "System overload. The audio engine was not able to process all required data in time. (-10011)"

A typical project for me is:

8-10 audio tracks, vocals, guitars and bass. All with sounds from Guitar Rig 5.
4-8 Synthesizers, drums (addictive), all depending on project.
EQ, compressor, reverbs, some plug-ins.

Perhaps an upgrade is due? What do you think?

Been looking at the new Mac Pro, both Quad and Six-Core (phew, though price..) And the 27" iMac with the i7 and 16GB Ram.

The Mac Pro has the twin AMD graphics processors that I don´t need but have to pay alot for and the iMac has the screen built into it that I already have (A dell 27" IPS awesome display).

Anyone with some good knowledge about what Logic actually NEEDS processor-wise? Does it really use the Six-Core setup in the Mac Pro?

Thank you in advance!
"Music is my religion"

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Did you already changing your buffer size? Check http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1314?view ... cale=en_US for details.

You'll get latency (which sucks when recording) but with a higher buffer size I think it at least should run fine. Granted, my Macbook Pro retina has an i7 in it, but it runs way more tracks and plugins without reaching 40% CPU.

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Ok, so I tried this. My current sample rate was 128 and I´m using a Edirol FA66 as audio interface. According to that website you linked me to it should be accurate for a Firewire card. Tried to use 32 but it sounded like I was trying to do chip music or something =)

Seems like that´s not the problem then, I guess..
"Music is my religion"

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You should NOT use the Green Caviar HDs. That's probably where the problem resides. Those HDs are too slow for audio. I had that experience before, and had to change the HDs for Black. Black are OK for audio.
Your current system is more than enough for what your typical projects, as you described.
Last edited by fmr on Sun Apr 06, 2014 4:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Fernando (FMR)

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You should not be having those problems.

I have a 2008 2.8 Ghz 8-Core MacPro and I'm running _much_ larger projects than what you're describing. Not without problems, but definitely doable.

There must be something else going on.

What OS are you on? I'm still on 10.6.8 and the machine performs well in this setting. When I run it under 10.9 (which I have on another partition for testing purposes) I don't get great performance at all. So maybe that's an issue.

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fmr wrote:You should NOT use the Green Caviar HDs.
Okay, that could surely be a reason that it´s slow. Do you think this could be the reason for the error code I´m getting? I could try swap them for blacks instead. Thank you for your advice!
"Music is my religion"

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wonshu wrote:What OS are you on? I'm still on 10.6.8 and the machine performs well in this setting. When I run it under 10.9 (which I have on another partition for testing purposes) I don't get great performance at all. So maybe that's an issue.
That could be the issue. I´m on 10.9.2 and before I had no such problems. Is the Mac Pro not compatible with 10.9?
"Music is my religion"

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Guitarslayer wrote:
fmr wrote:You should NOT use the Green Caviar HDs.
Okay, that could surely be a reason that it´s slow. Do you think this could be the reason for the error code I´m getting? I could try swap them for blacks instead. Thank you for your advice!
I'll tell you what was my experience:
When I re-assembled my system, I bought Green Caviar HDs, because they were bigger, cheaper, and supposedly would save energy. When I copied the data, and was trying to run my projects, things that worked perfectly in the older system suddenly started causing overflows, audio dropouts, etc.
Since the CPU was much more powerful, and I had more RAM, and the audio interface was the same, I searched the HDs. I went to the Net, and compared performences. That's where I noticed how poor those HDs performed, even when compared with older HDs. Then I searched the Black series. After exchanging them by Black series units, all problems were gone. Those disks (Green series) simply are not suited for A/V, where a constant stream of data is necessary. They are suited for things like desktop work, backup, etc., but not realtime applications.
Last edited by fmr on Sun Apr 06, 2014 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fernando (FMR)

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fmr wrote:I'll tell you what was my experience:
When I re-assembled my system, I bought Green Caviar HDs, because they were bigger, cheaper, and supposedly would save energy. When I copied the data, and was trying to run my projects, things that worked perfectly in the older system suddenly started causing overflows, audio dropouts, etc.
Since the CPU was much more powerful, and I had more RAM, and the audio interface weas the same, I searched the HDs. I went to the Net, and compared performences. That's where I notriced how porr those HDs performed, even when compared with older HDs. That's when I searcxhed the Black series. After exchanging them bt Black series units, all problems were gone. Those disks simply are not suited for A/V, where a constant stream of dtata is necessary. They are suited for things like desktop work, backup, etc., but not realtime applications.
Every day I learn something new. Thank you for sharing. That was the reason for me too, buying the greens. :tu:
"Music is my religion"

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Guitarslayer wrote:That could be the issue. I´m on 10.9.2 and before I had no such problems. Is the Mac Pro not compatible with 10.9?
It's compatible (otherwise it wouldn't work at all) but it just doesn't perform very well.

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The initial "stutter" when starting the Logic transport for the first time after opening a project happens here to. After this first start, I stop and start again and it works as expected.

The "system overload" message box can be turned off in Audio preferences (the problem still occurs, but the annoying dialog is not displayed).

So I don't think a new Mac Pro is required. Mine is the 2009 model, it runs fine.

For a sample based plugin like Kontakt a buffer size of 128 samples might be OK, but I think NI recommend 256 samples.

Not sure about the Edirol sound card, the drivers are not considered the best. Something like RME would be a major improvement (both in terms of sound and the driver / latency).

Peace,
Andy.
... space is the place ...

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ZenPunkHippy wrote:Not sure about the Edirol sound card, the drivers are not considered the best. Something like RME would be a major improvement (both in terms of sound and the driver / latency).
Okay, but the RME is so expensive. I do have a friend also recommending the RME but does something like a Saffire Pro 40 work to?
"Music is my religion"

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