Logic Pro (X) CRAAAAZZZYYYY things happening!!!!

N

ncurtis

Logician
Hello Everyone.

Been doing some recording these past few days and am having some problems. I've been recording audio tracks: guitars and vocals, using Warm Audio WA12 pre-amp into Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 for both. Also, simply straight into the Saffire. Unexpectedly, whilst recording, the whole sound greatly distorts, CPU and HD max out and then nothing works. Everything I click on thereafter results in a horrible digital 'thud', and nothing then works. I close Logic, reopen and everything's fine, for a while, then it happens all over again. I'm running Logic Pro X on 2013 Macbook Pro with a 2.3Ghz Intel Core I7 Processor with 16GB RAM. El Capitan 10.11.3. I/O Buffer at 32 and recording in Low Latency Mode.

Any ideas what's going wrong?
Thank you
Neil.
 
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You're not doing anything wrong: Low I/O for recording, high I/O for mixing.
It's just that your system is showing signs of significant distress in response to the current recording demands.

A buffer of 64 is still very low. 128 seems to be a sweet spot, in both my experience and web reading.
For me, playing MIDI guitar with it's inherent latency, a buffer of 32 was at first a big treat. These days I'm quite happy to use 128, and can go a long way before needing to bump it up to 512 or 1024.
 
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CSeye said:
You're not doing anything wrong: Low I/O for recording, high I/O for mixing.
It's just that your system is showing signs of significant distress in response to the current recording demands.

A buffer of 64 is still very low. 128 seems to be a sweet spot, in both my experience and web reading.
For me, playing MIDI guitar with it's inherent latency, a buffer of 32 was at first a big treat. These days I'm quite happy to use 128, and can go a long way before needing to bump it up to 512 or 1024.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this.
Do you then avoid latency by using 'Low Latency Mode' in Logic?

I'm just unsure why Logic reacts in the way it does. Like, really weirdly. And the fact that it then renders itself unusuable.

Thanks
Neil.
 
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You're very welcome!

I can't comment on the behavior of Low Latency Mode as I build one track at a time, and have never used it.
Your best bet will be to increase the I/O buffer size, and/or bypass non-essential cpu-hungry plug-ins until the mix phase.
Some experimention is in order.

I hope you find the right balance of settings.
 
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CSeye said:
You're very welcome!

I can't comment on the behavior of Low Latency Mode as I build one track at a time, and have never used it.
Your best bet will be to increase the I/O buffer size, and/or bypass non-essential cpu-hungry plug-ins until the mix phase.
Some experimention is in order.

I hope you find the right balance of settings.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this.
 
Upvote 0
Whenever possible, use direct monitoring. Either from your audio interface or via an external preamp and/or a mixer, whatever is available. This is not possible if you use virtual instruments of course. In this case you may be able to use some hardware sound for recording only. Direct monitoring gives a natural feel and improves your timing.
 
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Peter Ostry said:
Whenever possible, use direct monitoring. Either from your audio interface or via an external preamp and/or a mixer, whatever is available. This is not possible if you use virtual instruments of course. In this case you may be able to use some hardware sound for recording only. Direct monitoring gives a natural feel and improves your timing.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I don't know what direct monitoring is Peter!!!! How do I go about doing this?
 
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ncurtis said:
I don't know what direct monitoring is
Click to expand...
Direct monitoring means that your recording signal does not go through the computer for monitoring, ideally not even through the interface. Direct monitoring is much faster, depending on the method you get none or very little latency.

The signal gets splitted right after the preamp or in the interface. One line goes to the DAW for recording, the other one instantly back to your phones or speakers. Problem solved. The latency of the DAW does not matter. You simply play along the playback as you hear it and get recorded nicely in time.

The setup depends on your recording method and equipment. Below are two examples.

——

image.png

Your Warm Audio W12 preamp has already two parallel outputs, your interface can be internally routed and is able to deliver a mono or stereo playback to a small monitor mixer. Any 4-channel mixer can do the job.

——

The second best method and still good is to use the interface for monitoring, with or without an external preamp. The setup is simpler, but not as comfortable as the previous method.

image.png

Focusrite says "zero latency" for the Saffire Pro 40, but I am not sure if this is technically true. If the internal mixer works digitally, expect a little latency from the converters. However, this delay is very short and I am sure you can live with it.

——

For both methods you can turn off software monitoring in Logic forever and you don't use input monitoring anymore. Leave your buffer at convenient 512 or 1024 samples.

Set your plugin delay compensation to "All" and Logic will place your audio recordings exactly in time. Logic knows where in time the playback data is and how much later the playback goes out. For fresh recordings it compensates the difference and writes new data to the correct positions.

Logic effects while recording?
If you temporarily need a reverb for monitoring, you can also do it without software monitoring. Just take an Aux channel for the plugin, these channels play always, regardless of the software monitor setting. The latency will become a part of the pre-delay which you need anyway. In most situations the Aux channel works also for delay effects. I wouldn't use a 1024 samples buffer for a delay, but 512 or 128 are normally usable.

"Latency does not matter for a guitarist, he is used to it because of his amp several meters away."
We hear this quite often but it is a mistake. Recording with monitoring is a completely different situation and you really want no latency.
 
Upvote 0
Peter Ostry said:
Direct monitoring means that your recording signal does not go through the computer for monitoring, ideally not even through the interface. Direct monitoring is much faster, depending on the method you get none or very little latency.

The signal gets splitted right after the preamp or in the interface. One line goes to the DAW for recording, the other one instantly back to your phones or speakers. Problem solved. The latency of the DAW does not matter. You simply play along the playback as you hear it and get recorded nicely in time.

The setup depends on your recording method and equipment. Below are two examples.

——

image.png

Your Warm Audio W12 preamp has already two parallel outputs, your interface can be internally routed and is able to deliver a mono or stereo playback to a small monitor mixer. Any 4-channel mixer can do the job.

——

The second best method and still good is to use the interface for monitoring, with or without an external preamp. The setup is simpler, but not as comfortable as the previous method.

image.png

Focusrite says "zero latency" for the Saffire Pro 40, but I am not sure if this is technically true. If the internal mixer works digitally, expect a little latency from the converters. However, this delay is very short and I am sure you can live with it.

——

For both methods you can turn off software monitoring in Logic forever and you don't use input monitoring anymore. Leave your buffer at convenient 512 or 1024 samples.

Set your plugin delay compensation to "All" and Logic will place your audio recordings exactly in time. Logic knows where in time the playback data is and how much later the playback goes out. For fresh recordings it compensates the difference and writes new data to the correct positions.

Logic effects while recording?
If you temporarily need a reverb for monitoring, you can also do it without software monitoring. Just take an Aux channel for the plugin, these channels play always, regardless of the software monitor setting. The latency will become a part of the pre-delay which you need anyway. In most situations the Aux channel works also for delay effects. I wouldn't use a 1024 samples buffer for a delay, but 512 or 128 are normally usable.

"Latency does not matter for a guitarist, he is used to it because of his amp several meters away."
We hear this quite often but it is an mistake. Recording with monitoring is a completely different situation and you really want no latency.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this Peter. Really helpful.

Neil
 
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