Garageband Performance Issues With New Macbook?, Newbie needs some help optimizing garageband Options

[nebdrof]

Hey all! Got a new mac user here with some questions about the CPU hog that is 'Garageband'. Either I've selected some memory heavy track options, recorded something improperly, or have other unknown system issues that I could use some help sorting out.

Hardware: New Macbook with 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2GB Memory (1067 Mhz DDR3) with about half of the hard drive filled with pictures/music etc. 121G of 256G

Software: Gb that came installed on the machine and no other plugins/add ons.

Recording: 6 track/2:00 min song, 2 mic tracks (guitar,vocal), 3 Gb instrument tracks (bass and 2 keys), and 1 Drumbeat loop from the Gb loops (effected drumkit 08) all relatively light on effects

Issue: "Part of Project was not played" - Too many real instrument tracks to be played in real time. To optimize performance...blah blah blah. I've followed most of their optimizing tips to no avail. I've uploaded a screenprint of garageband, the warning and current CPU usage monitor which does not seem to be maxed...

Question: Anything else I should be doing to make this thing work? Is there another program that is not as resource intensive that has similar functionality. I do have Adobe Soundbooth as part of the Adobe Production Premium package but use that mainly for video/photo editing.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help!

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[nebdrof]

All great suggestions, thanks.

Houstonmusic, I maxed my buffer but it still seems to randomly quit with that warning. Are there certain drum loops that require more processing power than others? I've removed nearly all of my effects from the tracks themselves.

Deaconblue (nice name, I'm from Alabama), stupid question: booting from system dvd... how do you do it? should it have come with my mac?

Thanks again!

[manchoa]

All great suggestions, thanks.
Are there certain drum loops that require more processing power than others? I've removed nearly all of my effects from the tracks themselves.

Drumloops can be both audio and "real instruments". Real instruments need more "power" because they are sampled in real time. I see You use lot of real instruments in Your track. Real instrument is a virtual instrument and You use your Mac as a sampler. This means (again) realtime rendering. As the internal soundcard is not ment for this job (its only for primary recording/playback), it does not have its own processor and/or memory. So everything that in normal condition soundcard would do, no you "give" to your computer. Basically it means, that soundcard uses Your computer memory, processeor and harddisc to process all the rendering. Normally this is all done with the soundcard memory and processor. If you dont want to spemt money to a normal soundcard (if you want to make music, youll have to, sorry), then one way is not to use real instruments ! Or use them one by one. Make a track with real instrument, record it to audio and then delete the real instrument track. THen add another ect. Finally mix your song only with audio files. Ofcourse, at one point you run out of power even this way. The more you use effects, that need realtime rendering, the faster you run out of power even with only audio files. Such effects are all reverbs (the large and more complex the reverb, the more power it needs) , flangers - choruses, ofcourse all mastering effects (compressors take a lot of power from Your computer) except equalizer.
So - to some point You can use internal soundcard, if you don't use real instruments or record them to audio, then mix your tracks and bounce to single stereo file and do the mastering with the stereo file.
But better - buy a firewire or USB soundcard. This must not be a expensive profi interface. You can make your things with interface such as Line 6POD studio, M-Audio Fast track, Steinberg CI2 (very good one !) or Edirol UA (also very good). They all cost around 170 - 200 EUR (220 - 260 USD) so I think they don't hurt Your wallet.

Tommy


[One more thing about real instruments You use. As I already told you - these are sampled instruments and you use Your Mac as a sampler. It means, that all the real instruments are made from a number of different audio files that are rendered back in real time if you play the instrument. Different isntruments have different number of audio files, depending, how complex the sound is. The fingered bass You use in Your song for example, takes 44MB of samplememory (in You case memory of Your Mac) and it's made of 116 audio files ! Simple way to understand it, is that by selecting this real instrument, you have loaded 116 audio files to the memory for instant realtime playback.
Pianos, organs and all other polyphonic instruments that have long decay for every note, takes a lot of more memory. The organ You use, takes about 200MB at least.