Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

> There are some shareware and terminal commands which show the processes
> running and how much CPU they are taking. I was shocked to find 40 things
> running at one time - all kinds of hidden processes.

Yes, actually this is quite normal in any modern system. (It even was in 
Window 95 but there this was well hidden). But if you look closer you'll see 
that most are 0% CPU most of the time. This is what "smooth multitasking" was 
all about when that was hyped years ago, like 64 bit is now. :o) You give 
processes priority, you can give them nicelevels so they only run when 
nothing important is going on, etc etc. And the whole big deal about 
CoreAudio is that it's part of the operating system and therefore can take 
all the cycles it needs.

> And I was also shocked 
> to find out the Photoshop was taking a huge hit on my CPU even when totally
> idle.

This does happen with some apps but it should be an exception. Still, don't be 
mislead by the %CPU number; if it was using CPU on a nice-level, it was doing 
it just because noone else wanted it.

> I worked on a song last week - it had about 8 audio tracks, maybe 8 virtual
> instruments and some plugs. And yet I was getting audio overload messages
> in Logic. So I feel I need all the power and stability I can get.

It has nothing to do with stability, but as for the power you might find that 
this number doesn't really drop significantly if you have other stuff running 
in the background, at least if it doesn't make your system swap the whole 
time or demands a high priority for another reason.

Maurits.