Average size of Logic Pro X projects

[Libertine Lush]

Hi everyone,

A novice question to help decide the SSD size I need in an upcoming MacBook purchase for my first foray into music production.

I'll be using Logic Pro X as my DAW and Komplete 10 as my VST library--that's it, nothing more. Assuming song lengths of 5 minutes and average complexity (not too many tracks), roughly what would the size be of such projects on average?

Thank you!

 

[baypharm]

For starters you definitely will want to obtain a very large external HD to keep most of those files on.

 

[threezero]

How do you go abouts reroute get logic's default folder for vst and au plugins and will there is any speed issue being store on an external hdd? Is it possible to keep some frequently use plugins on the computer and some externally?

 

[SimonUK5]

How do you go abouts reroute get logic's default folder for vst and au plugins and will there is any speed issue being store on an external hdd? Is it possible to keep some frequently use plugins on the computer and some externally?

Just create aliases for the folders you need off the internal storage.

I keep all my Plugins on my Internal SSD, and the big VST Libra's (Kontact etc) i keep on the external they come on.

To the OG question, my sessions are anywhere from 500mb to 10gb. Depends on the amount of Audio/Printed tracks.

 

[Libertine Lush]

To the OG question, my sessions are anywhere from 500mb to 10gb. Depends on the amount of Audio/Printed tracks.

Thank you!

By the way, do you do music production on any of the older/weaker systems listed in your signature? Curious to know, as I'm considering the 12" MacBook (I'm more than a novice; it'll be my first venture into this world and I have very modest initial demands), which going by some benchmarks (3rd party and Intel's) is comparable to a ~4 year old i5.

 

[SimonUK5]

Thank you!

By the way, do you do music production on any of the older/weaker systems listed in your signature? Curious to know, as I'm considering the 12" MacBook (I'm more than a novice; it'll be my first venture into this world and I have very modest initial demands), which going by some benchmarks (3rd party and Intel's) is comparable to a ~4 year old i5.

My main machine is the Mac Pro which i use for Pro Tools 11/Logic X under Yosemite. Runs great.

I run ProTools 7 and Logic 8 on the Powerbook for location recording sometimes. I also run PT11/Logic X on the Macbook Air all the time.

Running audio and stock VSTs is fine, its when you are chaining plugin after plugin onto tracks that your computer starts to slow down.

Just for ease of ports so its easier to get an Interface etc, i'd be looking at the 13'' Retina.

 

[Libertine Lush]

Running audio and stock VSTs is fine, its when you are chaining plugin after plugin onto tracks that your computer starts to slow down.

Could you explain what chaining plugins does? (So I can try to imagine if that's something I'll be doing much of, to then try to imagine how modest my CPU demands might be).

Thank you.

 

[SimonUK5]

Could you explain what chaining plugins does? (So I can try to imagine if that's something I'll be doing much of, to then try to imagine how modest my CPU demands might be).

Thank you.

I just mean having lots/multiple plugins on tracks. More Plugins = More CPU Used.

If you look around and read reviews on computers for Audio work, you will see something called the 'D-Verb Test' thats just seeing how many Reverbs you can get in a session without the computer wigging out.

 

[Libertine Lush]

I just mean having lots/multiple plugins on tracks. More Plugins = More CPU Used.

Ah. Thanks again.

 

[ChrisA]

For starters you definitely will want to obtain a very large external HD to keep most of those files on.

The above was good advice BEFORE they invented SSD. The internal SSD is MUCH faster then any external drive except if you had an external SSD with thunderbolt connection.

But do buy a bunch of external HD. Not one HD but a bunch of them. Shuffle off the old projects and use them for off site backup and for Time Machine. 1TB drives are now only about $70. Buy four, at least.

But the data you are working with can live on the SSD. Audio is not very large. And entire CD, uncompressed is only about 800MB, not even 1GB . You LPX projects will not be more than that unless you keep many "takes" and many tracks. Figure 80 minutes of music at 44.1K and 16-bits is about 1GB. You record at 96K and 24-bits so maybe 3GB for 80 minutes of 2GB per hours. Those are very rough numbers

Do the math yourself: three byte samples taken 100,000 times per second is 300KB/Second for one track.

 

[Libertine Lush]

The above was good advice BEFORE they invented SSD. The internal SSD is MUCH faster then any external drive except if you had an external SSD with thunderbolt connection.

But do buy a bunch of external HD. Not one HD but a bunch of them. Shuffle off the old projects and use them for off site backup and for Time Machine. 1TB drives are now only about $70. Buy four, at least.

But the data you are working with can live on the SSD. Audio is not very large. And entire CD, uncompressed is only about 800MB, not even 1GB . You LPX projects will not be more than that unless you keep many "takes" and many tracks. Figure 80 minutes of music at 44.1K and 16-bits is about 1GB. You record at 96K and 24-bits so maybe 3GB for 80 minutes of 2GB per hours. Those are very rough numbers.

Thank you! That's all very helpful.

 

[ChrisA]

Could you explain what chaining plugins does?....

He means running many of them on the same track. For example a pitch correction, then EQ, then a compressor/limiter, then reverb and so on al running at once. You can do several of these on a MacBook but at some point you reach a limit. The way you work around a limit is to "freeze" or "bounce" the track, this computes the rest of the plug-in or audio units and saves the result so it need not be re-comuted in real time. Given LPX's ability to bounce tracks you really have no problem running any number of effects per track. But of course once bounced you can't adjust the effect.

Logic worked just find when everyone only have the old G4 Power PC processors. They did a lot of track bouncing back then but got along just fine. With new computers people have forgotten about how to do this.

 

[Libertine Lush]

He means running many of them on the same track. For example a pitch correction, then EQ, then a compressor/limiter, then reverb and so on al running at once.

Thanks for the concrete example. I can better imagine what it means now.

The way you work around a limit is to "freeze" or "bounce" the track, this computes the rest of the plug-in or audio units and saves the result so it need not be re-comuted in real time. Given LPX's ability to bounce tracks you really have no problem running any number of effects per track. But of course once bounced you can't adjust the effect.

That's great to know about.