How to increase Logic 9's performance?

[Ryanlauph]

Alright, I'm first to admit I'm a complete n00b at computers and stuff.

I've been stuck on my MacBook Pro (Late 2008 model) for 5 years. It's dying soon, it moos a lot when I start it up, and frankly, I'd just like to buy a faster newer Mac (I use Logic 9). 8GB RAM ain't cutting it...

Fellow Logic users (few and far between in MLR I know), what Mac model are you using (ideally laptop?) and what do you think of the performance? Should I switch to SSDs? Should I load projects from an external hard drive? I have a 1TB WD Passport which uses USB 3.0 but apparently FireWire 800 is better...

I'm so confused... help a poor soul out here!

[itroitnyah]

Haha, that profile picture.

Getting back on task, 8gb should in theory be fine. Unless the music you're doing involves a lot of use with samples and recording. The weak spot would be the processor, which probably suffers a ton when you apply a bunch of plugin effects and synthesizers and then... *shudders*... render the project. If you're looking at getting a new Mac, you could upgrade to a newer model MacBook Pro and it should be fine, unless you need more RAM than 8gb. There might be 16gb RAM models of the macbook pro though, haven't looked at them too much.

As for SSD, that will only help with loading projects and samples and plugins and stuff that are all on the SSD. It won't increase render performance or stuff like that. But an SSD would be a pretty great investment to help load stuff quickly (external storage is pretty slow from what I've heard and seen, and expensive as hell). The only trade off is that SSDs are also really expensive. They generally cost right around (averages) $75/128gb, $140/256gb, $275/512gb.

[Ryanlauph]

Ah, thank you very much for the advice. I do have a bad habit of using a lot of effects on one channel and not using sends too much, which I'm trying to get rid of. I don't like freeze (habit of changing stuff) but it might have to do when performance gets bad.

There are models where you can upgrade from 8 to 16GB. The problem is I don't think much RAM gets allocated to Logic; there was a time where my Mac had 4GB RAM and the performance didn't change much when I upgraded to 8. Is there a way I can allocate more RAM (like, through Terminal or something)?

Thanks for the tips bro!

[itroitnyah]

RAM wouldn't increase performance with music production for much other than the number of plugins your computer would support and the number of samples you can use, so it's no surprise that you didn't experience a performance increase when you upgraded to 8gb. The Logic Pro 32-bit version uses a maximum of 4gb. There isn't a limit to the 64-bit version, as far as I've seen. I'm also fairly certain that there isn't an extension or hardware plugin you can get to add more RAM (I know that windows can temporarily use flashdrives for extra RAM, not sure about Mac's though).

So unless you're really 100% certain that RAM is the issue here (Logic Pro 9 would even give you a warning that you're running out of RAM to use when you get within about 100mb or so), the only way you're going to increase your performance in Logic is to upgrade your laptop to a newer model. Or if transport ability isn't an issue for you, you can build your own computer and just load the Mac OS onto it.

[JSynth]

Logic X is 64 bit program. So you could upgrade to that, if you have the money (and if you want to lose your 32bit plugins).

Also, I'm using a Mac Book Pro from 2012. Logic 9 works fine for me (most of the time).

[BluNoseReindeer]

Hey man I used to use a 2007 macbook with logic 9 before upgrading to my macbook pro 2012 with i5 and 16gb ram. Once you start having trouble with logic not keeping up I recommend you start to use the freeze feature for the tracks. It will basically lock the track by rendering the track in the background. I used to have like 20-30 tracks on my old Mac. I just had to freeze half of them.