Optimization help - Logic Pro & Vienna Ensemble

[madkeys88]

I have a MacBook Pro that is probably 5 years old. Operating sys. is OS X El Capitan.; 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM; 320 GB SATA Disk (rotation rate: 5400); L2 Cache 3MB; Bus Speed 1.07 GHz; USB 2.

I know... a lot of information. Anyway, my computer was running Logic Pro (10...) without any noticeable problems. Then I got Vienna Ensemble and can't even record one Violin Legato String part without the recorded part going in and out (a big delay and drop-outs).

Any suggestions on I/O Buffer Size, Recording Delay Samples, Buffer Range in Logic? And/or, Audio Engine Settings in Vienna? My Audio Interface is a Scarlett 2i2 USB.

Maybe I'm just "dead in the water" with running Vienna until I can get a new computer? Anyway, I'd appreciate any help you may have.

Thanks!

[andygabrys]

keep in mind this is an opinion, but I would say you are dead in the water.

With my old mac pro 1,1 I had 20 GB of ram, a whole mess of hard drives running at 7200 RPM, and it was a 4 core Xeon processor at 2.66 Ghz. It would run a variety of instruments in VEP, but after I got enough tracks it would just hiccup and I would have to start freezing tracks and stuff to get much more. And there were some mix plugins that would make it freak out too (Slate FGX version 1 before it was recoded to be less CPU intensive).

So that computer was light years more powerful than the setup you are using (effectively a 2 core processor, with a slower hard drive etc.).

You will find that in terms of raw numbers of VI tracks you can run, you will have more power if you instantiate them directly in logic (assuming they are Vienna sounds, as Vienna instruments rather than VEP). There is a significant CPU overhead that VEP causes, and of course the good thing about VEP is that you can run many projects with the same open sounds, speeding up the time to switch because you don't have to load off the hard drive all your samples into RAM.

But that was also more of a PITA with older hard drives (and I am considering 7200 RPM here - 5400 RPM is barely usable for any audio applications). The time it took to load 10 GB of sounds could be a few minutes.

Now if you have streaming off SSDs for samples, its almost a non-issue because even fairly intensive sized projects (lets say RAM load of 10 GB +) load so quickly off the SSDs that I don't even have a chance to go make a coffee.

As far as Logic X settings:

I always use 1024 samples for buffer size - mostly because I use a UAD-2 PCI quad card for mix plugins and it runs much more seamlessly at 1024. I never change the buffer size for recording either. You might think this makes it impossible to record, but you can use "low-latency monitoring" mode in Logic, which makes the record enabled track run at a much lower latency.

Recording delay samples - leave at default.

Buffer Range - I use large, but I also have a mega-ton of stuff running. If you don't notice any clicks or pops in the audio, medium is fine.

Audio engine settings in Vienna - leave as default (2 x buffer size). Its not worth it to mess with it.

The problem is your machine mate.


There are a lot os used Mac Pro's out there right now. People are still jumping on the new ones at a slower rate, and they are selling their old ones.

I got a 12 core 2.66ghz true 5,1 mac pro for about $2,200 with 4 terabyte hard drives in it. I migrated stuff from my old Mac Pro like my SSD that is my OS drive), and bought a Sonnet Tempo SSD PCI mount card and put 2 x Samsung 850 EVO drives (512 GB each) on it. Its got uber power, loads samples very quickly, and since I bought my first Mac pro 1,1 in 2007 and used it successfully until October 2014, there is not reason why this computer shouldn't last 5 years.

At that time, then I can worry about the latest and greatest with Thunderbolt ports etc.

Hope that helps.

There are many threads on this forum that deal with new computers.

Good luck!

[madkeys88]

Andy, you da man! You've probably forgotten more than I will ever know. Much of the hardware stuff is over my head, but I can print this out and look the stuff up. I really appreciate the info. I pretty much knew it was my system.

BTW, I've seen loads of your responses to other members and I've only been on the forum a short time. I'm sure most, if not all are appreciative. Just THANKS. It speaks volumes on the kind of person you are. +1

[Len911]

The vienna ensemble pro 5 let's you run a second computer, mac or pc, through lan
It's $198 @ BH Photo.
So if you had an extra computer not being used, or bought a cheapy to run the vep5 and samples...
It's an option to maybe consider, depending on your budget and what you feel is best.


https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Vienna_Softwar ... semble_PRO

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... &q=1&Q=add

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... gnorebbr=1

[madkeys88]

Thanks Len. Interesting thing to consider. Thanks too for the links.

[mojobone]

What Andy said, and streaming samples off the same 5400 RPM drive as your DAW and system software is a no-go, but Len's solution may be a decent stopgap. Maybe add a Mac Mini with a hybrid drive as an ethernet sample server. Still, it's doubtful you'd get as much improvement as with a new machine.

[madkeys88]

Thanks mojo!