Monitoring System Performance

Digital audio editing is a system-intensive process. With multiple audio files zipping around your computer and DSP effects chewing up your CPU power, your computer is working hard! As you apply more and more DSP plug-ins to your song's tracks, you'll notice your system beginning to slow down. In a few minutes you'll learn how to use Logic's Freeze function to combat this problem, but in the meantime, your single biggest asset in monitoring your computer's performance is Logic's CPU window.

The CPU window shows you how much of your system's resources are being devoured by your song. Let's open the CPU window and watch it work.

1.	Press the spacebar to start playback.
2.	Choose Audio > System Performance (Option-Y). The CPU window opens. The Audio meter on the left of this window monitors your CPU's performance. As you apply more and more DSP effects, this meter will pulse higher. At the very top there's a bright yellow warning band. When the Audio meter level nears this band, it's time to free up system resources, because your system will start to bog down and become slow. (If this occurs, you'll need to freeze some tracks, but more on that in a moment.) The Disk I/O meter on the right keeps track of the strain on your hard disks as audio is pulled off them. This meter follows a very simple rule: The more audio tracks used in your song, the more strain is put on your hard disks. A slow hard disk, such as the 4200 rpm disks that come with PowerBooks, will not let you use as many tracks as a faster disk, like the 7200 rpm discs in Power Macs.
3.	Place the CPU window in the bottom right corner of your screen, and refer to it often!