Mac Studio Ultra Logic Pro Audio dropouts

[Thetkokid]

Hello all,

I’m posting here in hope to sort out an issue I’ve been having with my new mac studio.

I’ve got the mac studio ultra - 64gb - 1TB.

All in all the system runs very smooth, however I have noticed a few issues today when working on an ongoing project.

I’m running on Monterey, with a Universal Audio Apollo x6. Recording at 48k, into logic pro 10.7.4.

I’ve got my buffer at 128, multithreaded selected as all cores (I’ve tried using automatic as well as selecting just the high performance cores but I see no difference as far as the audio dropouts). I’ve got playback and live tracks selected (have tried just playback but again haven’t noticed much of a difference) and I’ve got the large setting for process buffer range, again I’ve tried them at small and medium setting but not a clear difference as far as audio issues being resolved.

I’ve also got 4 SSDs connected to the usb A on the back of the studio. Running through a sabrent ssd bay.

My main issues are as follow :

A. I get a fair amount of intermittent crackles and pops in Logic - I’m only using maybe 12-15 tracks, and none of them are pushing the cpu heavily at all. I’m talking maybe 25% max, on any core. Ram has at least 40gb free.

I’m usually running composer cloud Hollywood Opus, Spitfire BBC, and Kontakt.

One of the strangest issues is if I run under Rosetta - running the exact same session, all of the pops and crackles go away and the cpu meters in Logic are halfway minimized.

I’ve been doing extensive testing with AU and I cannot seem to find out what the cause is here. All of my plugins that I use in session are currently native compatible, I even used pluginfo and temporarily removed every non native plugin from my component folder - yet still, I get pops and crackles intermittently where as running in Rosetta I do not. Very perplexing and frustrating on a machine that cost me nearly 5k…

Basically the CPU is clearly being hit way harder depending on the session.

Here are two videos showing Rosetta vs Native running the same session.

Logic Issues - nick-2092

nick-2092.wistia.com

Any help whatsoever would be extremely appreciated!

 

[Zest28]

I got something more funny. I got drops out and crackles on a project that used to work fine before the Mac OS update on the 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro.

But my M2 MacBook Air still runs the project fine after the MacOS update. What the hell is going on here?

I don't want to completly wipe and reinstall everything on my 16" M1 Max MacBook pro.

 

[lvleleven]

Are you running any part of the project off an external usb hard drive or usb soundcard? I’m trying to figure out whether the is update has broken USB bandwidth on M1 Macs

 

[Thetkokid]

I do have a usb hub but it is only housing basic stuff like an ilok, Midi controller, etc

 

[BrianBaughn]

What if you try playback through a different device?

 

[Thetkokid]

Yes I tried just using headphones out of the studio and perhaps it seemed better, but I still was able to produce a pop - it’s hard to say as they’re so intermittent I can’t just asses it immediately.

 

[MajorFubar]

I've had various similar issues. As you have observed, the solution seems to be to run Logic in Rosetta mode.
This is why in my studio blog in the Digital Audio subform (where this thread technically belongs) I have already stated that I regret jumping on the M-series bandwagon so soon, because of inherent niggling issues that didn't exist with Intel Macs.

These issues seem to be worse on the machines powered by the Pro, Max and Ultra chips than on the 'bog standard' models, based on my experience of my M1 Air vis my M1 Studio Max. This is despite Apple's claim that software and hardware see them all as the same chip. You only have to consider that the firmware-flashing app for my Icon control surfaces won't run on Pro/Max/Ultra Macs, but it's fine with my M1 Air, to realise the pack of lies there.

 

[Thetkokid]

That sounds about right, however, I do wonder whether this is more of a software / logic issue than it is hardware. I can't confirm as I only work in Logic.

 

[BrianBaughn]

It's all a software issue. There may be software issues with certain hardware but you gotta think it'll get worked out…eventually.

 

[Thetkokid]

It's all a software issue. There may be software issues with certain hardware but you gotta think it'll get worked out…eventually.

Are you also experiencing this issue?

 

[BrianBaughn]

Are you also experiencing this issue?

I'm not sure. I just got my Mac Studio and haven't used Logic Pro enough on it yet. I've got it working and a few of my plugins are running via Rosetta. It choked on me last week but I didn't really look into what happened.

I have a Presonus USB interface.