# Logic&Kontakt Guru help needed: CPU overload in a good system environment SOLVED!



## Sir Hannes (Aug 5, 2019)

Dear guys 

my song has one hundred tracks (needed, well organized), and Logic crashes only when Kontakt comes to play. From 8 cores three doing 40% job, 4 doing nothing, one is in red overload. No instrument track is selected. Purge and that stuff is all done. See below my details..
Today I found my life saver: while in Logics preferences multithread is on my max cores (8) I found in my Kontakt 5 plugin the preference was also on multithread cores 8. After I set this in Kontakt to "off" and restarted my project, it was smooth yayyy I could work work work, surf surf surf on my waves, do my job, proceed my to-do list - amazing system: the single core is down to 70%, the others doing some percentage more.

BUT: after restarting my Mac, this is gone. 3 cores doing their job, 4 nothing, another one is in red position. Session unplayable when a MIDI object triggers any Kontakt 5. I checked the preferences in Kontakt: still multithread is "off". Now it's the same shame.
Over hours I am googling the internet, logicprohelp, youtube-videos, Apples help; I deactivated a lot of plugins to search for the devil - still it's not that big plugin deal, neither in Mixbus nor Master-Chain. Found sth about AU Labs, found a lot blablabla, thought I need to ask the masters here. 


My system and my preferences:
- several Kontakt 5 multitimbral instances, 8x stereo output
- in Logic via AUXes (for dedicated effects and routing)
- all instruments purged samples, it's not more than 300MB total !! (edited, it's not 80MB)
- no Kontakt internal plugins
- Tracks with hungry PlugIns: freezed. except ars acoustica or Pro-R on Auxxes
- while playing no instrument track is in record mode
- unused tracks are hidden and all plugins deactivated
- in Masterchain no Oversampling activated
- I am working with multiple Auxxes to share intensive PlugIns (two on MasterAux1, two on MasterAux2)
- LogicPro preferences: buffer to maximum 1024
- LogicPro: threads 8 (of 8 cores), bufferthread max
- Automation not sample accurate
- OSX activity monitor says: the whole system uses only 35% CPU
- RAM: 1GB free of 8GB
- all samples on external SSD, project file on another SSD (all USB 3.0)

Used LogicPro Version: latest 9
Used Kontakt Verson: latest 5
Used Kontakt Instruments: Komplete internal, Sonokinetics, Berlin Brass/ Series
Used MacBookPro: 2014, i7, 8 cores 2,0GHz
Used OSX: Sierra 10.12.6

Note: I can't upgrade nor update.


The solution appeared - and disappeared. Which ghost I have to spend a holy smoke to get my session back to work? 




One more hint: in a cycle of two MIDI regions, triggering two instruments from the Kontakt 5 content library: 
first Retro Machines MK2 "Momentum Pad", 4,67MB Memory, max 7 Voices
second Funky Rio (E-Piano), 46,62MB memory, max 20 Voices
The Kontakt CPU meter shows 20% while playing total 27 voices. Disk meter stays on 0%.
Logic in stop modus, same CPU meter stays on 4%. I hit the exclamation mark with no change.


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## Sir Hannes (Aug 6, 2019)




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## Ashermusic (Aug 6, 2019)

How much RAM does your computer have and does Activity Monitor show the memory going into "Swap"?


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## Sir Hannes (Aug 8, 2019)

Dear Ashermusic,

thanks for your question regarding my topic. You ask for the RAM and the memory swap.

The Swap at activity monitor says 207 MegaB
The MacBookPro has 8GB RAM.

The used memory (total) is 6,78GB
-> 1,59GB APPs
-> 3,54GB reserved
-> 1,64GB compressed
Files in cache 804MB

I hope this helps. If you need more details, feel free and I will post them.

Thanks
Johannes


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## Sir Hannes (Aug 8, 2019)

And the memory pressure, this red-yellow-green graphic bar stays in the green area.


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## reddognoyz (Aug 8, 2019)

ha! I clicked in here to recommend Jay. A day late and a dollar behind.


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## Ashermusic (Aug 8, 2019)

Sir Hannes said:


> Dear Ashermusic,
> 
> thanks for your question regarding my topic. You ask for the RAM and the memory swap.
> 
> ...



My experience tells me that 8 GB of RAM is not enough, considering how much the OS itself uses. And yet you say the memory pressure is remaining in the green. Probably if you restart Swap clears out if it is green Memory Pressure.

So, sorry I don't know.


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## Sir Hannes (Aug 11, 2019)

Then I will bounce all Kontakt-Instances. Sadly enough it's super uncreative to change certain notes later. Logic&Kontakt = Making music or making workarounds.


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## marclawsonmusic (Aug 11, 2019)

Any chance you are running Logic 9 in 32-bit mode?

PS - I agree that more memory could help. OS needs enough to work and 8GB just isn't a lot - esp. with 100 tracks.


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## Sir Hannes (Aug 29, 2019)

Hi all,

it's not the RAM (*more* seems always better). It's not my CPU. I am running 150 Tracks and my CPU with LogicPro in 64Bit is around 40% after I bounced all Kontakt objects. SOLVED

What I did: while bouncing all MIDI objects into Audio Objects, which was annoying to route everything on stereo output 1-2, after I had to re-route everything on their busses, in case I have to change voices in the arrangment. I explored: I used couple of bars Retro Machines mkII with Orchestral Strings. This tiny 1,54MB NI Library Content Instrument caused CPU spikes up to 24%! It was just a filler, at no time I thought this causes trouble :( No wonder, that Logic stopped.

Again, I used all tricks and tipps to reduce what ever I can. I read all information at native-instruments I could find, about stand-alone, cores, sample server and so on. In the end, not only throwing out all Samples via PURGE - no, to throw out the whole Kontakt plugins in the whole session let me do, what I have to do: work on my artist projects. With 150 tracks, full of plugins and automation data, additional around 30 hidden tracks for backup, several software instruments (some freezed), 40 Auxxes so far, a huge Mix-Bus chain.

So if any of you get stocked with one core going crazy: think about if it might be Kontakt.

This effect costs me a stop of three months on this project. Money I lost, time to spend with friends I lost, no customer will pay me. It's 2019 and I am not on Windows 95...

Best
Johannes


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## Sir Hannes (Aug 29, 2019)

I posted a screenshot above, where you can see the CPU spike but Retro Machines Momentum Pad. Just above, there's this bug Orchestral Strings.


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## marclawsonmusic (Aug 29, 2019)

When you are playing back, do you select an audio track or instrument track?

If you select instrument, it puts Logic in ‘live mode’ which puts everything on one core. You know about ‘live mode’, right?


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## Ashermusic (Aug 29, 2019)

Sir Hannes said:


> Hi all,
> 
> it's not the RAM (*more* seems always better). It's not my CPU. I am running 150 Tracks and my CPU with LogicPro in 64Bit is around 40% after I bounced all Kontakt objects. SOLVED
> 
> ...



Of course, because after you bounced the Kontakt instances you freed up RAM and CPU.


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