03-03-2012, 01:41 PM

Hi.

I'm having trouble recording more than 3 or 4 guitar tracks in GB. When I try and do more I get a message saying my track couldn't be played back and to check the optimization pages in the help documents. I've followed those suggestions (locking tracks etc) but I still only manage to get only one more short recording.

Im using a MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz, 4GB RAM, 1333MHz)

I've seen people with less powerful machines with 40+ tracks, any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

03-03-2012, 11:25 PM

There are a number of possibilities, but we'll tackle the leading ones first:

1. How full is your hard drive?
2. Any other programs still running, taking up RAM?
3. What speed (RPM) is the hard drive in that MBP?

03-04-2012, 02:56 AM

Hi, thanks for your reply. Here's the answers...

1. 576 GB (I'm assuming that's more than enough!?)
2. Nope, I made sure everything else was closed.
3. 5400 RPM

Does this suggest any possible issues?

03-04-2012, 05:09 AM

Are you saying that you have 576GB free on that hard drive, or that you have used 576GB of ... XXX?

5400 rpm could be a weak point. Are you trying to record 3 to 4 tracks simultaneously, or do you get the message when you are just *playing back* three to four tracks simultaneously?

03-04-2012, 05:44 AM

576 GB free, sorry should have made that clear.

I get the message when just trying to playback the song. I also get it when I'm trying to record but I only ever record one track at one.

03-04-2012, 11:42 PM

No problem.

With that much free space I am a bit baffled about why you're getting that message. I'm not going to tell you to run out and get a 7200rpm drive, though I'm sure that would "fix" the issue, because I don't know what the issue is.

Try this:

Boot up in Safe Mode (holding the shift key down at startup until you see "safe mode" at the login window) and try to work with GB as you normally would. Does the problem go away?

Alternatively, try creating a new (fresh) account and work with GB there. Same problem?

03-05-2012, 07:49 AM

Hi.

I'll give that a try tonight and see if it does the trick.

Thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated.

Stuart.

03-05-2012, 01:59 PM

Ok, so I tried safe mode with no luck.

The full message I get is "Part of the project was not played - This project has too many real instrument tracks to be played in real-time. To optimize performance, see the 'Optimizing GarageBand performance' page in GarageBand Help."

It's a brand new laptop so I'm feeling pretty frustrated with it!

03-07-2012, 05:18 AM

Did you follow any of the suggestions in the "optimizing Garageband performance" section? Any improvement?

At this point I'm inclined to say that a 7200rpm drive might be in your future.

03-07-2012, 05:28 AM

Yeah, I've tried them all. I can sort of muddle through, muting and unmuting tracks, closing GB and then opening it again etc but it's not ideal.

I'll have a look at a new drive then. Would additional RAM help too?

03-08-2012, 05:49 AM

You've got 4GB but yeah, more is always better.

09-08-2012, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by stusam81

Hi.

I'm having trouble recording more than 3 or 4 guitar tracks in GB. When I try and do more I get a message saying my track couldn't be played back and to check the optimization pages in the help documents. I've followed those suggestions (locking tracks etc) but I still only manage to get only one more short recording.

Im using a MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz, 4GB RAM, 1333MHz)

I've seen people with less powerful machines with 40+ tracks, any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Did you ever find a solution to this situation? I have been using GB for a solid two years without any such error messages. However, the other night one appeared, and now I can't do anything with GB. Same error you were receiving.

Thanks

09-09-2012, 02:17 PM

Its not your computer or the ram.

09-09-2012, 02:18 PM

Are you using what for the input...Audio card?

09-09-2012, 05:36 PM

I'm using a MOTU Microbook