Logic Pro mastering assistant causes distortion in offline bounced file

Yes, I am having this issue too. The crackle goes away when I turn mastering assistant off.

But some projects, with the exact same instrumentation, have not had this problem.

I hope Apple is working on this, because the mastering assistant is great -- when it works!

For me, the distortion can magically disappear by turning the mastering plugin off and on again. But not always.

The distortion doesn't appear to be proportional to the loudness of the parts of the track either. And it's very much in the lower frequencies.

Seems like this is a common issue. Hoping the folks at Logic are working on it!

One solution: I have found with some files that if I am sure to bounce at the same sample rate as the project, the crackling stops, or mostly stops. If I use another application to convert to 44.1 kHz, then my audio is stays clean.

I had the same issue. Bouncing the project Un-mastered and then creating a new project with just the audio file, and then using mastering assistant on that solved the issue. I was able to bounce offline without any distortion. Maybe all the instruments and data/the project's size causes the bounce procedure to become overloaded. Hopefully this works for you also.

I have a similar problem. For me it distorts a soon as I enable the mastering plugin. This happened quite recently. It has to do with Loudness. If I deactivate loudness compensation it doesn't distort, but the volume goes down. The only way to prevent it from distortion and loss of volume is to decrees the Loudness to beneath 0.6. This never happened before. How do I fix it?

Hello,

This is the same for me. I use a Macbook pro M1max. When using mastering only for VST instruments, it works fine. But when you use it only for an audio track, it crackles a lot and is not usable. Same result in PCM and in mp3... And for me, same result if I use real time or disconnected. If I bounce the same tracks without mastering, the result is OK. Someone could help ?

Unsure of your music type, if you're using sub-bass, or a lot of low-end and don't have the monitoring system to reproduce the low frequencies correctly and run the bass frequencies with too much gain,it's possible to overdrive the system. However that would assume you're over-driving a 64 bit system?? How high is the volume level on the Master. it should not go over 0db at any time.

I have the same issue as well. I am running Logic Pro 10.8.1 on an iMac 24" w/ M1 chip. + 16GB memory.

The distortion goes away when turning off the Mastering Assistant.

I did try bouncing in realtime, but there was an occasional distortion glitch. However, when playing back the track when Mastering Assistant is turned on (i.e. not bouncing), there is no distortion. Until this issue is fixed, I'll resort to using iZotope Ozone.

And, I'm hoping Apple with fix this in version 10.8.1 rather than forcing me to upgrade to Logic Pro 11.x.

Update to my post last month: The issue went away when I simply reduced the Loudness (gain) knob. But it's still puzzling as to why the distortion is not present when playing the track within the timeline, and only occurs upon playback of the bounced track. That's the “bug”.

I am having the same issue. Turning on mastering assistant is creating a hiss. Im having to use a gate. I'm using logic for backing tracks / click tracks for live performances with my band and i created a long set list (which has no issues at all) and a short set list with the same tracks, same khz, same db levels etc and in the shorter set list, there is a hiss that on the pa creates a horrible sound. i have no idea how to fix that hiss. I've muted all tracks, and its still there, only disappears when turning the mastering assistant off. and to note, in this instances, there are ony audio tracks, no vts. only plugins used are limiters and gate for the klopfgeist for the click. I have included pictures of the hiss being made by the mastering chain

Just to clarify, when I’m mentioning “distortion“ it’s a rapid clicking and stuttering sound.

Hi Etienne 243

I only use VST and it occurs randomly; I tried the realtime bounce as suggested my MBonnice and that solved the issue with a troublesome bounce. I’m using Mac Mini M2 … on a different but related issue of use MacBook for a studio setup, I’m sure you already know this but please don’t leave it with the power permanently connected as I did, with a resultant swollen battery and a trip to buy the Mini !

That's an intriguing solution. I'll try it.

This seems to be only solution that works for me every time. Can't believe they haven't fixed this yet....