About dynamic plug-in loading in Logic Pro for Mac

Logic Pro 10.4.5 only loads the plug-ins and software instruments that are needed to play the project, which helps projects open faster.

Dynamic plug-in loading helps projects with a lot of plug-ins and software instruments open faster. When you open a project, Logic analyses the project and only the tracks that are needed for playback are made active. Here are the types of track that Logic makes active when you open a project:

  • Audio tracks that have audio regions (not including frozen tracks)

  • Software instrument tracks that have MIDI regions (not including frozen tracks)

  • Tracks with input monitoring turned on

  • Tracks with plug-ins that generate sound without requiring any input (such as the Test Oscillator)

  • Tracks with external or ReWire inputs

Tracks with plug-ins and software instruments not needed for playback are made inactive and dimmed in the Mixer.

When you select an inactive track, Logic will load the plug-ins on that track. Logic also loads plug-ins on an inactive track when you do things such as adding a region to the track, unfreezing a frozen track or adding a plug-in to an inactive track.

Manually make tracks inactive and active

You can manually make tracks inactive to save system resources. Press and hold the Option key, then click the On/Off buttonNo alt supplied for Image in the track header in the Main window. If you can’t see the On/Off buttonNo alt supplied for Image in the track header, choose Track > Configure Track Header, then select On/Off.

When you make a track with audio regions inactive, you also turn off the track’s audio regions. If you close the project and then reopen it, the whole track will remain inactive until you manually activate it.

To activate a channel manually, click the track header On/Off buttonNo alt supplied for Image in the Main window. In the Mixer, click an empty Audio Effect slot, then choose Activate Channel.

Turn off dynamic plug-in loading

You can turn this setting off for each project:

  1. Open your project

  2. Choose File > Project Settings > General, then deselect “Only load plug-ins needed for project playback”.

Published Date: