# Is My Laptop Too Weak?



## Andrew0568 (Oct 8, 2019)

I have a 2018 Macbook Pro with 2.3 GHz quad Core i5 and 16GB of RAM. In Logic with a buffer size of 256 samples, large buffer range, and 32 bit summing, my system will start crapping out with only ~20 tracks. Is this normal?


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## Nick Batzdorf (Oct 8, 2019)

What instruments are on those tracks, and how much RAM is Logic using?

Am I right that you're using the built-in SSD for streaming?


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## MarcHedenberg (Oct 15, 2019)

Ditto as the last comment. I've met peers in school recently who have pulled off some impressive tracks on Macbook Airs of all things (I have no idea how. It just depends on what you're working with.


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## Andrew0568 (Oct 19, 2019)

Sorry, thanks for the replies!

I'm using CSS, CSB, and Berlin Woodwinds primarily. I can get by with judicious freezing of the Cinematic Studios but the Berlin Woodwinds will cause my system to come crashing down

Yes, Im using the on-board SSD. Would you recommend an external drive instead?


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## JamieLang (Oct 19, 2019)

Absolutely NOT an external drive. berlin is rough in terms of its input scripting (thus CPU) so my short answer is “maybe yes”...but, do you ahve another DAW? My experience is that Logic is SO not efficient. Thats, I think why people post benchmarks and esoteric stuff about how efficient it is....because the truth is, in the real world its not. 

On my little Air, Studio One (3?) and Cubase anything and Reaper ALL have lower latency VI perfromance. And by that i mean your buffer is only set to 256 for less latency....right? So,if Presonus can set to 512 and be less latent under fingers....its functionally better for VIs, IMO. And i only know that because i had VIs in RL that I couldnt get glitch fee and low latency in LPX....and so I used either S1 or Cubase. Not like i sit around testing this stuff. I grabbed those demos because LPX was letting me donw in this very specific way—repeatedly....different VIs....different SRs....different projects....same USB interface, always more of a problem in LPX. 

I ultimately oulled a ten year old PC tower out of the closet to load the VIs into Cantible....just sequenced them in Logic.

Ive since returned to Windows as primary machine.


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## SupremeFist (Oct 19, 2019)

Andrew0568 said:


> I have a 2018 Macbook Pro with 2.3 GHz quad Core i5 and 16GB of RAM. In Logic with a buffer size of 256 samples, large buffer range, and 32 bit summing, my system will start crapping out with only ~20 tracks. Is this normal?


256 buffer is pretty low and taxing on the CPU for mixing big arrangements. You could try it at 512 or even 1024, and just hit the low-latency mode button when you need to record a new track in.


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## JamieLang (Oct 19, 2019)

The low latency mode button does nothing related to the buffer latency. Meaning it will reduce the latency by disabling latent AUDIO plug ins the same at a 32 sample buffer or 1024.

OP, have you set up a dummy track with no ins or outs mapped to rest the project cursor/focus on while not active recording a part? Do you understand why that can help? The principle that Logic allocates the track you select and everything in its signal flow (all auxes/master plug ins) to a single core. When you click on another track it reallocates that single core/thread....and puts what you just clicked OFF of into the multithreaded process buffer pool....so, by setting up that dummy, and resting the focus there, you effectively make it multiprocess the whole project while you do editing and mixing.


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## SupremeFist (Oct 19, 2019)

My misunderstanding, thanks for clearing that up!


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## Rick McGuire (Oct 19, 2019)

If you’re able to upgrade your ram, I’d do that. Especially if you’re using anything orchestral tools. From my understanding you’re not able to upgrade RAM in the latest MacBooks?


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## JamieLang (Oct 20, 2019)

So with RAM, you can SEE if that's a problem. You call up the big project that's choking...you open Activity Monitor, and look at the RAM usage. Are you near 16gb allocated? Second thing to look at--how much is showing that it's compressed? When OSX starts running out of RAM, it compresses the data stored in RAM--so, you might show 15gb used but 4gb compressed--that's bad--means you don't have enough RAM for what you're doing.

But, also--if they're on the internal NVME drive, you should be able to set Kontakt's buffering to 6k or 12k easy (vs is the default 60?)--so, if you ARE running out of RAM, with a disk that fast, you just tell it to use less. It will make instruments load exponentially faster, too.

OP....? Any progress?


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## NoamL (Oct 20, 2019)

yes, please post a screenshot of your Activity Monitor, subscreen Memory, when a full project is loaded.


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## Andrew0568 (Oct 20, 2019)

JamieLang said:


> OP, have you set up a dummy track with no ins or outs mapped to rest the project cursor/focus on while not active recording a part? Do you understand why that can help? The principle that Logic allocates the track you select and everything in its signal flow (all auxes/master plug ins) to a single core. When you click on another track it reallocates that single core/thread....and puts what you just clicked OFF of into the multithreaded process buffer pool....so, by setting up that dummy, and resting the focus there, you effectively make it multiprocess the whole project while you do editing and mixing.



I've never heard of this, thanks for the great advice!

Here are a few screenshots showing how much memory is being used just when I load up the instruments with nothing on the tracks


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## JamieLang (Oct 21, 2019)

That should be fine, but it IS starting to get close. Theres a few there where Apple is compressing some RAM....in two of the shots Logic itself has some compressed RAM, which is not ideal.

Now adjust the Kontakt buffers down. Whats the default, yee people who use Kontakt more than I? 60k? With an internal nvme, youre likely OK to take it down far. I found Spitfire had issues when i went all the way to 6k....so, I think i end up at 12k. Nothing else I use has an issue with 6k. If you want to be super safe in experimenting, try just halving it to 30k....That should be a cakewalk to take away a big chunk of that RAM use.

Also, what is the Avid thing? You might also spend some time questioning the amount of stuff running (thus loading into memory at startup. But, the Kontakt config is going to save you the bigger chunk of RAM.


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## JamieLang (Oct 25, 2019)

OP....get this more workable?

I know some Spitfire "playable" patches require LIENAR TIME in their scripting, rather than CPU cycles...and I remember some Berlin stuff being really "playable" that way with their Kontakt scripting. So, with something like that--if you have a 30 core 6GHZ Xeon, you would STILL need to bump the buffer up higher to play them--much like audio processing that uses lookahead buffers for linear time analysis.

Since a 256 buffer is equal to whatever linear time it is at the sample rate you're at...that instrument might REQUIRE 512 at that sample rate (and higher at higher rates) be set while it's input enabled.

So, if that one instrument needs a bigger buffer, a new computer might very well NOT change that.


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