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How much memory do you need on a Mac to run Logic Pro effectively?

D

deviddiya

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 8, 2012
1
0
I am a musician and have had experience with Logic Pro, but never with my own system. I want to get a Mac Pro and I have two options of 4 GB of memory or 8GB of memory. Obviously, the 8 GB would be ideal but its an additional 1,000 dollars!

So my questions is, can Logic Pro 9 run smoothly with just the 4 GB memory?
 
Don't buy memory from Apple. 1000.00 for 4GB more? You are also probably wanting a MacBOOK Pro as they are limited to 16GB. Mac Pro is the tower and can have like 96GB of memory installed. Logic should have as much memory as you can get for what you need. Meaning 8GB is a great starting point. It also depends greatly on what kind of stuff you want to record/ create. The more effects and virtual instruments the more memory you need. I do 12 track stuff usually with BFD and Waves SSL on most tracks. I have 12GB and have no issues. Avoid only 4GB but order it that way from Apple and buy from 3rd party. 8GB kit is under 100.00 usually.
Here is some:
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=5427267FA5CA7304
 
deviddiya said:
I am a musician and have had experience with Logic Pro, but never with my own system. I want to get a Mac Pro and I have two options of 4 GB of memory or 8GB of memory. Obviously, the 8 GB would be ideal but its an additional 1,000 dollars!

So my questions is, can Logic Pro 9 run smoothly with just the 4 GB memory?
Click to expand...

Where are you finding 8 GB for $1000?
Even Apple don't charge that much.

I have run Logic Pro on a 2011 MBP 17 with 8GB RAM. It works very well handling a huge number of virtual instruments and AU plugins.

You don't need a Mac Pro to run Logic Pro unless you are doing something like film scoring with massive sample libraries. An Intel Quad-Core i7 based iMac or MBP is a much more cost effective choice, freeing up money to spend on decent monitoring.
 
If you run something like Omnisphere or other high stress plugs, 16-32.
 
8 GB will be fine IF you are primarily using audio tracks with the simple Logic synthesizers and effects. If you pan to use memory intensive sample-based VI's like Kontakt, Omnisphere, etc, you want 16 pr even 32 GB. It very much denis on how you use Logic
 
16GB mate. Buy it from www.macsales.com

As stated, Omnisphere, and others like Nexus, Trilogy etc are all ROMpler/SAMpler based and will chew RAM.

Also nice to have extra RAM lying around in case you wanna do a whole bunch of other things without having to quit Logic, or if you want to ReWire other apps like Ableton or Reason in.

Scott
 
The only correct answer here is AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AFFORD

Don't buy it from Apple

While Logic and other softwares offer minimum req's, that only tells you a little bit.

If I were to follow the minimum system requirements with my Pro Tools rig, I wouldn't be able to play half of the sessions I do - or record into them without delay.

The RAM requirements are more dependent on the kind of track count and plug ins you will be using... and whether or not you are streaming video....

Some of my plugs are CPU intensive, some are RAM hogs, some are both.

All depends on what you are doing.

Also, running an SSD for the system drive, and also a separate SSD for your Audio drive, will make that joker scream.

I would suggest the Mac Pro tower... I hear SO MANY people recommending people laptops for intensive work, and it makes me cringe.
1st, no expansion slots (What if you want to run high end gear via PCIe?)
2nd, what about your dedicated audio drive? best solution is a second internal SSD, easiest on a tower
3rd, What if you are doing video work that requires more GPU than the laptops offer?
4th, What about the crazy load you put on em in huge sessions, and laptops don't dissipate heat as well as towers - you're baking that sucker - remember, RHOS compliance? Yeah, all the good stuff is gone now, even from the solder..... #1 point of failure I see in laptop MOBO's?????? --->>>> Lifted IC's due to solder letting loose from a couple years of baking in the laptop.
(Granted, I have a Late 2007 Santa Rosa MB, but I don't use it for intensive work much - occasional photoshop/illustrator, but that's it)
I have more reasons but these are the biggest

When I'm spending good money on a machine that I'm gonna beat the snot out of, I want the best chance of it being upgradable, and lasting a long time.

things to consider... everyone will have their own opinion, this is mine
 
TableSyrup said:
The only correct answer here is AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AFFORD

Don't buy it from Apple

While Logic and other softwares offer minimum req's, that only tells you a little bit.

If I were to follow the minimum system requirements with my Pro Tools rig, I wouldn't be able to play half of the sessions I do - or record into them without delay.

The RAM requirements are more dependent on the kind of track count and plug ins you will be using... and whether or not you are streaming video....

Some of my plugs are CPU intensive, some are RAM hogs, some are both.

All depends on what you are doing.

Also, running an SSD for the system drive, and also a separate SSD for your Audio drive, will make that joker scream.

I would suggest the Mac Pro tower... I hear SO MANY people recommending people laptops for intensive work, and it makes me cringe.
1st, no expansion slots (What if you want to run high end gear via PCIe?)
2nd, what about your dedicated audio drive? best solution is a second internal SSD, easiest on a tower
3rd, What if you are doing video work that requires more GPU than the laptops offer?
4th, What about the crazy load you put on em in huge sessions, and laptops don't dissipate heat as well as towers - you're baking that sucker - remember, RHOS compliance? Yeah, all the good stuff is gone now, even from the solder..... #1 point of failure I see in laptop MOBO's?????? --->>>> Lifted IC's due to solder letting loose from a couple years of baking in the laptop.
(Granted, I have a Late 2007 Santa Rosa MB, but I don't use it for intensive work much - occasional photoshop/illustrator, but that's it)
I have more reasons but these are the biggest

When I'm spending good money on a machine that I'm gonna beat the snot out of, I want the best chance of it being upgradable, and lasting a long time.

things to consider... everyone will have their own opinion, this is mine
Click to expand...
Hi Table syrup,
I just bought a mac pro:

3.2GHz QUAD CORE Intel Xeon
6 GB (3 x 2 GB)
1TB 7200 rmp serial ATA 3GB's Hard drive
ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB

I think i am going to buy a 480Gb PCI card SSD to run logic off
or do you think i should just go with a good SSD drive (samsung 840 pro) with an mac pro compatible adapter for the 3.5" bay

I am a little confused between the differences of the two. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Josh
 
depends what you are doing. On my 1st gen intel Mac mini with only 2gb ram it runs Logic 8 fine, so long as all you are doing is recording and playing back straight midi and PCM audio.
It is when you get into virtual instruments and sample based instruments that the need for additional ram shoots up.
I've also found that most DAW software will rapidly allocate more ram as you create additional edit points in your audio files.
I've not had too much problem with Logic in that regard, but I have kind of backed away from heavily edited production. Still, if you do stutter editing or massive comps of vocals and leads it can get in your way.
That all said, audio production is not nearly as taxing as video or 3d animation. 8gb ram is plenty, 16gb is just future proofing.
Of course, the next version of Logic could be a total hog.

I would also mention that Mac pros are generally pretty picky about ram.
They may or may not run ram from the same company purchased at different times. It is better to get all 16gb (or 32gb) at one time to be sure it works, rather than try and upgrade the ram in incremental pairs.
Of course some folks may have done that and it works great, but in the Mac pro's I have serviced I never have any luck with hodge-podged ram.
 
Last edited:
deviddiya said:
I am a musician and have had experience with Logic Pro, but never with my own system. I want to get a Mac Pro and I have two options of 4 GB of memory or 8GB of memory. Obviously, the 8 GB would be ideal but its an additional 1,000 dollars!

So my questions is, can Logic Pro 9 run smoothly with just the 4 GB memory?
Click to expand...

There's more to it than just Logic Pro's needs and footprint. You also want the OS to be as quiet as possible. For 10.7.5 (without customization), that happens at around 24GB (tested). And then of course it's useful to add LP's footprint to that. If you load in any of the three artist projects from DVD #7 in LP9 yo'll see the most those use is about one GB. With such a usage pattern the 24GB is probably still fine. But some people like to go nuts with over-spec samples so if you're one of those then I suppose projects could average 4 or 5 GB and you might wana go with 32GB in total. Also, Logic Pro 9 (and 8) can have multiple projects open simultaneously so if you wanna work that way it just depends on how many you want to have open. :p I only ever have three at most and only for version selecting just prior to choosing the final cut.

Right now 32GB is between $275 and $325 for any MacPro except the MP3,1 if you intend to buy spec RAM for it at 800MHz and then it's like $475 to $550 somewhere. So to say that with most models 32 or 24GB of RAM is very affordable.

To answer your question, no, Logic Pro 9 can not run smoothly with just the 4 GB memory and 8GB may be occasionally problematic. 16GB and it will always run smoothly but not at peak system performance when/if things get heavy. So if I were documenting the "Suggested/Recommended System Requirements" for Logic Pro I would write 16GB. Apple wrote 4GB (LOL!!!) http://www.apple.com/logicpro/specs/


BTW, Lynda does Logic! :)
http://www.youtube.com/user/lyndapodcast/search?query=Logic
 
Last edited:
josh squash said:
Hi Table syrup,
I just bought a mac pro:

3.2GHz QUAD CORE Intel Xeon
6 GB (3 x 2 GB)
1TB 7200 rmp serial ATA 3GB's Hard drive
ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB

I think i am going to buy a 480Gb PCI card SSD to run logic off
or do you think i should just go with a good SSD drive (samsung 840 pro) with an mac pro compatible adapter for the 3.5" bay

I am a little confused between the differences of the two. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Josh
Click to expand...
The PCI SSD will be way faster than the Samsung 840, due to only SATAII in your MP.
 
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