Reducing Latency & Playback Errors with Apogee Devices in Logic Pro X: – Knowledgebase

If you experience intermittent latency or playback issues in Logic, we must first determine if the latency is caused by the Apogee hardware, or if it's a computer software issue. The best test to check that your Apogee hardware is working correctly is to directly monitor inputs in Apogee Maestro 2 (For Apogee USB devices) or in the Control app (for Apogee thunderbolt devices) with Logic closed.

When direct monitoring is setup in Maestro or Control inputs are directly routed to your unit’s hardware outputs, bypassing your recording software. This removes the recording software from the test so we are only evaluating the Apogee hardware.

Direct monitoring in Maestro 2 for USB devices is explained here.
Direct monitoring in the Control app for Thunderbolt devices is explained here.

If you get no latency or noise when directly monitoring inputs and when playing back audio on your Mac outside of Logic, this will generally confirm your unit is working correctly.

This means that the cause of the latency is software-related.

If you get playback issues in Logic Pro specifically, the following will all help to reduce latency and CPU processing which can commonly cause playback errors in Logic:

Try lowering your buffer size when recording,
turning on low latency mode in Logic,
freezing tracks,
and converting software instrument tracks to audio tracks

Here are some helpful Apple articles for reducing playback & recording errors in Logic Pro specifically:

Manage Logic Pro input monitoring latency:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207527

Avoid system overloads in Logic Pro:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203930

Another troubleshooting step to try is to test recording and playback in a new empty Logic session when recording at a low buffer size. See if your latency is reduced or eliminated in this new session as that's a clue to what may be causing the issue.

If your Apogee device is not detected in Logic as an audio device, but is detected in System Preferences > Sound, then deleting your Logic Preference files and/or re-installing Logic as explained here should fix this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200260

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