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!

I'd just... run it in Rosetta

Rosetta allows the computer to translate to an Intel ecosystem that was honed for 15 years.
It's slower in theory, but in practise, until all the bugs are ironed out with every single plug-in, it's often going to be better and more stable in my opinion.

The new M1/M2 computers are so fast that you could literally halve the CPU speed and be faster than most Intel Macs ever made

It's just Logic and Monterey i feel, still waiting on a proper update.

I have the same Ultra/X6 setup, but I run 44.1k and buffer at 256 and set to use most of the cores. I only use Rosetta mainly for compatibility, but everything is fast and smooth for the most part. Every blue moon I restart the mac and Logic to freshen up any lag. Also currently on ventura 13.1. Logic is due for an update though. A couple ventura / Logic bugs still there. All that said, you may have had a funky X6 unit or some sort of compatibility issue therein.

Does performance seem any better when running in Ventura? And do you run natively or Rosetta there. I was running Rosetta sessions last night and I was getting an system overload error…

To anyone who cares, I've been going back and forth non stop with these m1 issues. I have been able to either fully solve my pops / clicks / logic restarting playback due to cpu overload of a single core issue, or at the very least reduce them extremely. Here are the steps I took to investigate this and what I've come to understand.

I purchased an m1 MacBook Air, and I migrated my entire system from the Mac Studio onto it.

I then purchased a Razor thunderbolt dock -- that way I could easily connect every peripheral device, including my audio interface, which is a UA Apollo X6 - thunderbolt 3 version, to both setups, by simply plugging the single dock connector cable into either system, bringing them into theoretically the same environment, just on two different machines.

I then ran sessions in which I was having intermittent audio issues as described above, on both machines. I was trying anything I could to cause the machine to pop / click or restart playback -- often times this would happen if I was typing, using a browser or copy / pasting / editing within the DAW during playback.

I was able to make these issues happen on both systems. So, from there I began narrowing down the devices. I tested on both systems with my USB hub disconnected - it still happened. I tried it on both systems with the monitor I was using disconnected - it still happened. I tried it with no midi controllers or external hard drives connected - it still happened.

I then disconnected my Universal Audio Apollo X6 - connected via thunderbolt 3 cable, and I attempted to run just the session listening from the headphone jack of my laptop, after about 25 minutes of testing I could not reproduce the issue.

I then tried the same test with the Mac Studio, again, into the headphone output, and no UA device, tested it for a good 25-30 minutes, no issues.

I then re-connected the UA to both systems and within the first playback on both systems, I was able to re-create the issues.

I then tried an alternate thunderbolt 3 cable, the issues happened again.

I then updated the laptop to Ventura - as the Studio is my work machine and I cannot risk it not running older sessions.

Ventura on the m1 air made no such difference as far as the audio issues were going. They happened with the UA, and did not happen when it was disconnected.

I then went to Guitar Center, purchased a cheap Focusrite 2i2 3rd gen, USB C device. Ran my monitors into it and I've been playing the problem sessions with it and have yet to hear any audio issues. Across both systems. I've even had it on play during the entire time I was typing this and still haven't had the issue happen.

I've called apple support and filed a ticket with UA. Apple told me that it is on UA and not them to fix the issue, as when doing playback with the built in audio output, there are no issues.

No better in Ventura really. maybe worse. Not sure what UAD interface is doing to slow you down, but I haven't had that issue specifically. That said, I hope UAD soon has an update for ventura, but I find that it is the 3rd party plugins in general that cause most of the problems in Logic. I would also suggest restarting the mac often between sessions. it helps 100%.

10.7.5 is here.

No pops/clicks with my X8p or Twin X with the Mac Studio Max and Logic Pro and I normally run with the buffer on 32 or 64 even when mixing. What thunderbolt 3/4 cables are you using? Mine are all under 3ft in length.

IMO, running Ventura might be opening the door to unknown bugs or issues. I would stick to Monterey for now. Double check your software settings and plugin compatibility. They can be listed as "compatible" but still not work correctly. Some plugins can work correctly but simple be terrible CPU hogs. I would also have a thunderbolt chassis for (4) SSD's vs a USB chassis.