iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Chapter 33. Troubleshooting GarbageBand

The truth is, most of the troubleshooting you’ll do in GarageBand has to do with accommodating its horsepower demands. You’ll know there’s a problem when you watch the Playhead turn orange or red, hear skips in the music, or get a note that “Some parts were not played.” That’s why most of this chapter is devoted to solving speed and horsepower problems.

Still, a few other things can go wrong, or at least can baffle you. Here, for your headache-relieving pleasure, are recipes for solving the most common problems.

The Speed Problem

GarageBand is a power hog. It thrives on memory and processor speed, eternally craving more, more, and more. Even a handful of tracks is enough to redline your system, turning the Playhead orange, then red, and finally summoning the dreaded dialog box shown in Figure 33-1 as playback grinds to a halt.

Figure 33-1. When GarageBand can’t keep up with everything going on in your tracks, you’ll see this message, or one that says, in the smaller type, “This song has too many real instrument tracks to be played in real-time, To maximize performance, look in GarageBand Help under Performance.”

Tip

The Playhead changes color, turning orange and finally red, as you approach the system-overload point. It’s your early-warning system that your piece is approaching GarageBand BogDown.

The following section presents the accumulated wisdom ...