So you bought Logic Pro X. You’re stoked. And you’re digging in and making great sounds.
But someday, something is going to happen.
It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. But someday the sound is gonna cut out, and an ugly message is gonna threaten your sanity:
There’s nothing that will kill your vibe faster than a System Overload.
System overloads can be a pain. And if you’re 60 tracks deep, with an average of 5 – 6 plugins a track, you could very well expect it.
WTF?!?!?!
Trust me – I know what you’re feeling right now.
You hit play. And the Apple Beachball starts to spin. 5 seconds go by, and Logic starts to play your song.
But two seconds in, Logic just craps out.
System overload.
You hit play again, this time no Beachball of Doom. Just straight to –
System overload.
And now you want to put your fist through your Mac.
But Wait!
Your Mac, let alone Logic, is performing thousands of tasks at every moment. Throw a CPU-intense program like Logic in the mix, and resources are gonna get tight.
The good news is, you can beat this! You can beat the System Overloads and Beachballs that stew your anger and threaten your Mac’s life.
Follow these steps, and you’ll be on your way to the Logic experience you deserve:
1. Change the Buffer Size and Range
99 times out of 100 a System Overload is due to bad Buffer Settings.
The Buffer is the way your Mac manages the thousands of processes it needs to complete.
Your Mac’s Buffer is like a waiting room. Processes check in and sit down. And the functions that need immediate attention receive first priority. While other functions hang out until it’s their turn.
If the buffer is too small and there’s too many processes arriving, your Mac overloads.
That’s why you need to help your Mac out. By setting the buffer size and range, you can help your Mac understand how important Logic is at any time.
To do this, go to Logic Pro X > Preferences > Audio…
This is the Audio Preference menu. Home to all things related to how Logic manages incoming and outgoing audio.
And when a System Overload pops up, you can bet your boots that the I/O Buffer Size is too small.
You’ve got 6 sizes to choose from:
- 32
- 64
- 128
- 256
- 512
- 1024
If you’re recording live or software instruments, you’ll need the smallest buffer you can get away with. If you’re at 64, try 128.
Keep going down until your Mac can handle the session. But make sure you or the musician playing doesn’t feel like the recording is lagging.
A buffer that’s too slow will introduce Latency. Latency is an audible delay you can hear while trying to record in Logic.
If you’re mixing or mastering, you can get away with the slowest size available – 1024. Since you’re not recording it doesn’t matter if Logic takes a little longer to react.
The Process Buffer Range is another level of managing the Buffer. Medium is the default setting. But you can set this to Large if you’re experiencing a bad case of the Overloads.
2. Use a Smaller Sample Rate
Logic is awesome because it handles a huge range of Sample Rates. From 44.1k to 192k, you can get as hi-def as you want with your projects.
The Sample Rate is how fast Logic is grabbing audio as you record it. It’s like a camera taking a picture. The faster the shutter speed, the faster the camera is capturing the image.
Samples Rates deal in frequencies over time. So a 44.1k sample rate is capturing 44,100 samples per second.
The good news is that 44.1k, the lowest sample rate, captures the whole audible range and beyond.
There’s some debate over sample rates, but one thing you should know:
The higher the sample rate, the bigger the audio files.
And the bigger the audio files? The more resources Logic needs to run your projects.
44.1k is more than enough to run your projects on. Often engineers use 48k.
The higher you go, the more you run the risk of System Overloads. So I would stick with 44.1k or 48k.
IMPORTANT: It’s never wise to switch up your Sample Rate mid-project. Doing so can make a mess.
Instead, make sure to set the Sample Rate before you start.
How to Change your Sample Rate
The LCD display in Logic should show your Sample Rate on the left-hand side:
If you don’t see the Sample Rate, you’ll need to Customize the Control Bar.
Control – Click in the Control Bar area, and click Customize Control Bar and Display…
Under the LCD column, you can enable Sample Rate or Punch Locators, And click OK:
Now you should see the project Sample Rate in the LCD display. By clicking on the number, a menu will pop-up and you can choose a Sample Rate that best fits your Mac.
Set your projects to 44.1k or 48k and enjoy!
3. Close All Other Applications
Often it’s very easy to leave applications open and hanging in the background. For example, leaving your web browser open while you work in Logic.
Even though you’re not using your web browser, it’s still using up your Mac’s resources to run. Which will only further irritate your System Overload problems.
It’s always best to Quit any other applications while you’re working in Logic.
Taking it even a step further, quit any applications that are running in the Task Bar:
As you can see, I have 6 applications running in the background. If I really want a better performance out of my Mac, I should quit out of all them.
4. Remove All Inputs to Audio Tracks
If you’re done recording to an Audio Track, it’s best to remove any inputs to that track.
When your audio tracks have an input enabled, that means Logic is expecting to record. This takes up valuable resources.
To remove an input, simply click on the input field of an audio track and select No Input:
5. Make Sure Software Instrument Tracks Aren’t Selected
Like tip number 4, Software Instrument tracks are also expecting to record at any moment. When you have a software instrument selected, Logic gives more priority to that track.
More priority equals more Mac resources.
So when listening back to your work, always make sure you don’t have an Instrument Track selected. This will reduce the load on your Mac.
6. Use Send Effects Whenever Possible
A classic scenario – you’ve got a reverb that sounds awesome. So you add it to 40 of the 50 tracks in your project.
Now your Mac is limping along like it caught it’s leg in a bear trap.
It’s always best to send many tracks to one reverb, versus copying and pasting one reverb to many tracks.
That way you can enjoy the awesome reverb across your project without the crushing load.
Need to brush up on how to use Sends and Busses in Logic? Check out this post right here.
7. Bounce Tracks in Place & Power Down
Sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, your project can’t shake the System Overload.
Your project has tons of plugins and instruments. And dagnabit, you need it all! You’ve got that kick exactly how you like it. And that vocal line sounds fresh as hell.
If you’re happy and committed to your sounds, then why not bounce those tracks in place?
That way you’ve got your perfect tracks, and your Mac doesn’t have to waste CPU to run plugins and instruments.
Bouncing in Place creates a new audio file with your plugins and processing printed to the region.
Bouncing in Place is easy:
- Select the track you want to bounce
- Hit key command Control – B to bring up the Bounce in Place window
- Make sure Bypass Audio Plugins is unchecked, and
- Hit OK
Logic will create a new audio file with your plugins and processing.
Now you can Power Down your old track to save CPU.
If you don’t see a Power button on your track, do the following:
- Hit key command Option – T to configure the Track Header options
- Enable the Power Button at the top of the menu by clicking the box next to Power Button
All that’s left is to hit the Power button next to your old track to turn it off 🙂
8. Freeze Tracks
Freezing tracks is the opposite of Bouncing in Place.
When you have tracks you’re happy to commit to, you have the Bounce in Place option. But when you’re not ready to commit, you can instead Freeze your tracks.
Freezing is actually a form of bouncing in place. Logic bounces the track, and any plugins you may have in use are now unavailable to use.
This allows Logic to reduce the CPU load.
But say you decide later that you do need to tweak a setting. When you Freeze your tracks, you can simply turn Freeze off, and tweak your settings.
When you Bounce in Place, you have to go back to the original track and then bounce again with your new settings.
Freezing is easy. If you don’t see the Freeze button in the track header, do the following:
- Hit key command Option – T to open the Configure Track Header window again
- Enable Freeze by clicking the box next to the Freeze icon
Viola! You should see the Freeze icon in your Track Headers.
Click the snowflake icon and hit play. Logic will do its thing, and you should have more CPU for your project.
9. Save Your Projects to an External Hard Drive
Sometimes you just have to drop a couple bucks to get what you want.
It’s highly recommended in audio circles to buy an external hard drive to run your projects from.
Your Mac is running your OS, Logic, and a slew of other functions. Tossing audio and virtual instruments onto the pile is a lot.
By saving your projects to an external hard drive, you reduce the workload for your Mac. Now your external hard drive is handling the load for:
- Projects
- Audio files
- Virtual Instruments
And more.
But all hard drives aren’t created equal. Solid State Drives, or SSDs are revered for their speed. But they also come at a great cost.
If you can’t afford an SSD, then shoot for a USB 3.0 external hard drive. Just make sure it runs at 7200 RPM.
“RPM” stands for “rotations per minute.”
You can check out a great selection from Other World Computing of SSD and spinning hard drives:
10. Upgrade Your Mac’s Memory
Remember all the talk before about the Buffer?
Your Mac’s RAM is where all that stuff lives. RAM, or Random Access Memory, is a physical component related to your Mac’s performance.
The memory sticks that sit inside your computer is the temporary waiting room for your Mac’s processes. And if your Mac doesn’t have much Memory, you can get System Overloads. Precisely because the waiting room doesn’t have much room.
Upgrading your memory means physically opening your Mac and changing the memory sticks.
It can be a little tough. And some Macs are limited about how much memory they can use. I would check out Other World Computing for info on changing out your memory.
Conclusion
Logic is fantastic. But all the goodies do come at a price. The price depends on your Mac’s processors, memory, and how big your projects are.
To avoid getting a System Overload, use the following strategies:
- Change the Buffer Size and Range
- Use a Smaller Sample Rate
- Close All Other Applications
- Remove All Inputs to Audio Tracks
- Make Sure Software Instruments Aren’t Selected
- Use Send Effects Whenever Possible
- Bounce Tracks in Place and Power Down
- Freeze Tracks
- Save Your Projects to an External Hard Drive
- Upgrade Your Mac’s Memory
This is great! I was just in my studio 5 minutes ago and had a System Overload error on Logic Pro X. I decided to take a break and check my email and here is this tutorial, fresh out of the oven. Its like you read my mind! Will definitely be using these to fix up my issues!!! Thanks!!!!
Thanks so much Corey! Glad to help 🙂
Great and useful tips!
I knew some of these roles already, but not all ones. I had been havig some “System overload” message even by rising the buffer and freezing all the tracks. I then also changed the “Multithreading” and the playback was perfect without interruptions!!!
Thamk you!
Thank you so much! I just got a MacBook and started using Logic and not even a week in and I got that darn overload message. My heart sank as I thought I just spent a lot of money on something that can’t handle my music production. However, these tips are so great and everything is okay now and my anxiety is gone. Thank you so much! You really saved the day.
Great resource and great solutions. I’ve used Logic forever and seems like the older version allowed me to use Autotune while recording so the artist could hear the effect live as they record, which helped them deliver a great performance. Now, between latency and just lag in general, it slows down the creative process.
Will definitely try these tonight.
Hey Rob, happy to help! Just in case you weren’t aware, Antares actually released a version of Auto-Tune called Auto-Tune Access for the reasons you mentioned. It’s light on CPU, and no latency. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out: https://www.antarestech.com/product/auto-tune-access/
It works!
Thanks so much. Best tips on this subject I have found.
Thank you, great info and very well written. Only problem is I still have a the problem. I’m wondering if anyone knows conclusively that when you switch off a track and/or mute all regions in the track that the plugins on that track will no longer cause any drain? Or should one delete all plugins on the unused track after bouncing? In my case I’m not even running a large session. 15 audio tracks, with logic eq and compressors bussed reverb and delay. I’m on a mac pro 5,1 3.33 hexcore 24 gigs ram that could handle 75 tracks laden with plugins on my last 44.1 session. this session is 96 k though and at 15 tracks simply old school cross fade drum editing is causing it to overload and crash continuously. Is my machine dying or is 96 k that much harder for it? What might need to be upgraded in my machine to make this work better? Ram, cpu? Any advice would be highly appreciated for I have found very little on this specific problem after days of searching. Everything is about virtual instruments and I have none in my session.
Thanks,
Hi Michael, thanks so much for your comment! The number 1 recommendation I can offer is that a Sample Rate of 96k is overkill for most applications. It can crush your CPU usage. Most audio professionals work at 44.1k or 48k. So if you’re willing to adjust your Sample Rate, that will most certainly make the biggest change.
Muting your tracks will not offload plugin processing. But since the release of 10.4.5, you can now Option-click the On/Off button in the track header in the Main Tracks Window to offload plugin processing for an entire channel strip. If you don’t need a plugin on a Channel Strip, I recommend removing it.
Lastly – I’ve found through the years that Logic is a little finicky when it comes to Beat Detective style drum editing. A safer bet would be to use Flex In Slicing Mode.
To convert your Audio Files from 96k to 48k or 44.1k, you’ll want to do the following:
– Save a Copy of Your Project
– Close your current Project and open the Copied Project
– Open the Project Browser by pressing F
– Select all the Audio Files in the Project tab
– In the Project Browser go to Audio File > Copy/Convert File(s)…
– In the Copy/Convert Dialogue that pops up, set the Sample Rate to 44.1k or 48k, and leave everything else untouched
– Select the Folder/Location you’d like to save these new files
– Once Copy/Converted, remove all the Audio Regions and Files from your Copied Project
– Change the Sample Rate of your copied project to 44.1k or 48k
– Import the Copied/Converted Audio Files
I do hope this helps!
Nice!
My tip when using many software instruments.
If you arrange software instruments before all audio recordings, it is perfectly fine to start in 44.1 with the highest buffer and range.
I do also use only mono channels during arranging. Not every software instrument provides that option, but at this stage, where possible, I only use mono instrument with an approximate sound I intend to use. I also use lighter alternatives to the heaviest programs.
When the arrangement is done, I save all the settings I like to new presets and remove all plugins.
Before recording I switch to 48 (some times to 88.2).
I start with the heaviest program (instrument) and go as far down the buffer and range as my mac can handle. Opens only one instrument and bounces one track at a time.
Then I bounce one and one instrument with the same buffer, range and sample rate. Always save presets and remove plugin (hides audio tracks when BIP) before I start on next.
I make a note of all recording settings before adjusting the buffer and range to mixing.
Unhide or import the tracks or stack.
When the heaviest instruments (plugins) need adjustments, I bounce all tracks to a stereo track. Except for the instrument to be adjusted. Then I creates new project alternative.
1. Deletes all tracks I am not going to use.
2. Loading the bounced stereo file into the alternate project.
3. Make the necessary changes.
4. Check that I have the correct buffer and range for bouncing (from my notes).
5. Then I bounce the instrument again.
6. Saves the project and returns to the main project.
7. Adds new audio file to the track.
Adjusts buffer and range before mixing.
This work very smooth for me but I always appreciate tips for an even better workflow.
Thanks so much for that detailed reply Chris. Not sure why I didn’t see it till now. Anyway, during the mastering of my last album the studio scoffed at me for working at 44.1, lol, said in my genre people would want high quality audio downloads as options and I should be working at a higher rate. I had previously thought it wasn’t worth it and could even cause distortion to the highs. But I looked into it and saw it was recommended to go higher but no higher than 96K. I am liking the sound of it, especially if I have to manipulate the audio.
Its funny I can time stretch and flex pitch no problem. I can use all the plugins I need. Its just in a session where I am doing simple but extensive cutting and crossfading of an audio track really slows it down to crashing or beach balling a lot. Since I’ve finished all the cross fade edits for now and bounced in place I’ve had little problems since. Despite adding many more plugins. Strange. I’d love to understand why I was having problems and what to upgrade in my computer.
As for Flex time in slicing. I so wish I could do that instead of hand edits. It doesn’t cause Logic to crash and is so quick, BUT, it sounds TERRIBLE. Sure on a bass or simple drum it can work wonders but on my tuned percussion like vibes or santoor flextime polyphonic turns the transients to an ugly mushy swish sound and I can’t get rid of it. Strangely it seems the less it has to stretch the audio the worse it sounds! Percussion in slice mode cuts off the beginning of transients causing clicks at the beginning of many hits and I have to go in and manually adjust every marker to go before each transient. I really can’t seem to get flextime to behave on strong transients (maybe there is some magic step I’m missing?) So I have been doing the edits the old fashioned way with cutting up the audio but then it is causing the aforementioned problems.
I’m having an issue with slow disk warnings as well. Running a 44.1 rate, no more than 16 tracks max including Busses. Channel EQ and an occasional compressor on each track. So no major overload of plugins. One send for verb. No ESX or what have you. My computer has plenty of storage. Checked all the above suggestions and haven’t had any luck. My one guess was that because I was storing the session on Dropbox that maybe depending on connection perhaps it’s digging along…? I moved the session on to an external and same deal. By all accounts I’ve read in various threads it doesn’t seem like I’m overloading the session by any stretch. I welcome any and all suggestions. Thank you
Hi Chris and thank you for helping the music community with all your valuable lessons.
I read the article but I still have the problem. Running Logic X pro 10.4.8 on my 2014 MB PRo 13.3 i5 8GB Ram retina.
I can’t manage to get rid of this annoying issue even with all the steps you mentioned. AND I ONLY HAVE 6 tracks right now, 2 software instruments and 3 guitar tracks, all on which I have tonebridge, other than that EQ, compression and 2 reverb busses.
It’s getting really frustrating to the point in which I can’t do anything, message appearing immediately after play.
Can you please give me some suggestions?
Thanks for all your help.
Hi, Bogdan! Maybe your software instruments are too heavy for your system.
Trun off all plugins and freeze all audiotracks. When arranging use a lighter option in mono if possible. When the arrangement is complete, switch to the software instrument you want to use in mono or stereo. One midi track at a time with the heaviest plugin first. Probably the drums or other instruments with multitrack option.
Freeze all audio tracks and make necessary changes. Use the same buffer and range as your other reckordings in the project or as far down as possible. Mute and hide all audio tracks. Soloing your software instrument. Bounce in place. Continue with the same procedure for other instruments. Freeze, mute and hide your new track.
If multitracks with drums. Find out how to bounce one drum at the time. Most simple to use the solo option in the software. Then you don’t need to make midi file for every single drum. Adjustment of drums in audio is simple as adjustments in midi with LPX.
When you have only audio tracks, adjust the buffer and range. Unfreeze all audio tracks and turn on plugins. Then freeze them all again. Also to make sure everything lives in the same buffer and range.
Unfreeze only the tracks you are working on. Don’t forget to freeze when done. Hope this work for you. It works very smooth on my Mac mini 2014.
Great list!
But you’d be amazed what cleaning up unused files can do for your project!