Make sure you're not writing to your system drive. You can freeze tracks but you have to be willing to commit. When you're mixing, you should be able to increase the buffers full on and it shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for the reply. I have a separate internal drive set aside for audio, so I don't believe I've been writing to the system drive at all. As far as the buffer is concerned, you're saying I should have it set to 1024 when mixing?

althought your system is more than capable of handling the load for Logic there is one thing that can make a big difference.

Make SURE that you run your main effects, sound designer etc., on an aux instead of creating a new instance for each channel. If you are unsure of how then take the time to look up this procedure in the manual.

Okay, thanks. That sounds like that must be the problem. I'll do some looking into how to make that work. But it's possible to put a plug-in on one aux, and then have it effect various tracks differently?

Yes. I can't believe you were creating a new instance of each effect for each track. In that case, I'm amazed you were able to get 50 tracks!

You simply create an auxiliary track and use the effect as an insert. Then you just send a signal to the aux. via whichever aux. bus. You control the amount of effect via this aux. Make sure the mix of the effect is set to 100%. It's just like working on an analog desk.

Okay thanks. I'll give that a try. I knew I had to be doing something horribly wrong to be getting the terrible performance I was. Thanks so much for the help!

Alright, another question. I did some reading and I think I understand how one goes about adding plug-ins through aux channels and what the benefit is. But take a plug-in like Amplitube, which I use often. This seems to a big CPU power suck, but I use different settings for each of my various guitar tracks, and sometimes for other tracks too like, vocals or some percussion. If I put the plug-in on an aux track, I can't change the settings at all, only the mix level, right? So does that mean that in order to use Amplitube differently on different tracks (i.e. different amps, or different amounts of gain or something), I have no choice but to put it directly on the inserts?

If you need it to have different settings for each track you send to it, then you need to bite the bullet and suffer the performance drain.

Unless you find some way of creating a ridiculously complicated pre and post transform on the audio.

When you need an effect to affect the entire signal, like an amp sim or compression or eq, in that case you would use it as an insert on that track. When dealing with other effects like delay and reverb though where you only need to affect a part of the signal, you use an aux. send.

With amp sims I like to use the amp and speaker modelling only. I like to leave all the other effects like phase, chorus et al to other plugins.

like hueseph said before, freeze the tracks. record your guitar track, adjust your sound and then click on the little freeze button (you may have to configure your track header to see the button). when you push play it will print the track with the insert effects and bypass the original track afterwards. now record your next track, and so on.
if you need to change something on a frozen track, just click the button again and unfreeze it. it's so easy in logic 8.

Hello,
This might help you to work on large projects. You can freeze tracks that you are not working on by going to "View" then click on "configure track Header..."
Just like Logic express, it will pop up by the mute button.

I was getting the same message. I re-formated and re-installed OSX and it went away.

I have 2.3 dual core with 4 ghz of memory.

hueseph wrote:
Make sure the mix of the effect is set to 100%. It's just like working on an analog desk.

Hueseph, can you elaborate a bit more on the theory behind this statement please? I've never really considered maxing out the send on my channel strip to any given aux.

Also, can you talk about a best practice or approach to the level on aux channel itself? So, for instance, if I have my channel strip send maxed at +6.0, is it best to leave the output on the aux channel at "0"?
I've messed around with this a little bit since I read this a few days ago and it brings up (to me) an interesting perspective of how and which fader do I now use to control my channel levels. I have to assume that it's a delicate balance of actual channel volume and Aux output...?

I realize that ultimately there's no one best answer and I always end up just using my ear, but as I mentioned, I've never really thought about this before and I'd like to know a little of the 'theory' behind it.

Thanks.

Not on the aux itself but on the effects parameters. You're using the level aux send and return to control the amount of effect. Having the effect level 100% in the parameters will give you the effect only. Since you already have the dry signal, you blend using the send/return. I'm repeating myself, I know.

With the send set as pre-fader, you can have the guitar sound like a total wash with the dry channel fader down. Bringing that fader up will bring the guitar more up front. It's a balance though. Think of how you can use this with delay. Lots of possiblities this way. I'm repeating myself again. I know.

Post fader allows you to control the amount of signal sent to verb using the dry channels fader. Bring the fader down and the verb goes down. Bring it up and the verb goes up. This is a great way to keep things proportional. Good if you want to send multiple sources to one reverb to "keep them in the same room".

Ok, a lot of that helps.

However, at the risk of sounding like a total dweeb, I'm not clear on the whole pre-fader/post-fader aspect. Maybe I'm just having a time translating that into how Logic is laid out.

Simply: pre-fader sends the signal before the fader on the virtual mixer. Post-fader sends the signal after the virtual fader.

When pre-fader, control of the amount of signal sent is via the aux send.

When post-fader, the aux send acts like a master level and controls the maximum amount of signal sent. The mixer fader controls the amount of signal sent but does not exceed the level set by the aux send.

I hope that hasn't just clouded things more. I'm trying to be as clinical as possible.