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Garage band, crackling with multiple tracks.

R

rchip

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 26, 2011
204
17
Hey guys, just started recording in Garage Band - the new version.

I'm having a problem, I currently have 7 tacks open. One drum track, 6 guitar and one bass. When I'm playing them back, or pressing record, they are starting to crackle upon play back - like the sound is getting scrambled! It's fine with just a few tracks but the more tracks I add the worse it gets!

If I export the track to iTunes, it plays back fine (which is good).

The problem is - I need to add a lot more tracks to finish this song but I can't really add anymore as the problem gets worse the more tracks I add!

I have a 2011 mba i5 with 4gb ram.

My recording interface is an apogee One. I've also tried a focusrite itrack solo and I have the same problem!

Does anyone know what the problem might be?

Thanks!

Rich

EDIT - I'm trying to continue recording now, but its pretty much impossible - the drum track I'm trying to play to is crackling so much!

UPDATE!

I just got this error message in playback


'Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI'
'Sample Rate 42820 recognized. Check conflict between GarageBand and external device'

I don't have anything MIDI running I don't think? Just my guitar into the apogee one and the drum track from garage band. I've googled the problem and other people seem to have had it, I've checked my setting is for 41khz on both the apogee and the garage band. People have said they've selected this in Logic to fix the problem

'Go to Preferences –> Midi (tab) –> Sync (sub-tab) –> Midi Sync Project Settings(bottom right corner button) –> Synchronization (tab) –> General (sub-tab) and over there enable "AUTO ENABLE EXTERNAL SYNC'

But those options aren't available in garage band!


Any ideas? I'd really appreciate your help I'm going mad!

Thanks

Rich.
 
Last edited:
:( I'm so confused. I've been trying to fix this for hours now! I've tried resetting PRAM, anything I could possibly do - played with the settings in apples own midi driver folder in applications. What a bummer!
 
problem solved!

But now I have another problem :( this is really annoying.

If i plug my guitar into the apogee one, sound comes out of my unit no matter what. So if I'm not in garageband, sound will come out of the speakers! That means the amp models are not unusable! because i get the pure sound of the guitar and amp sound!

Does anyone know what this could be? I'm worried it might have been me changing a setting, but I've uninstalled the software and checked everything i can think of :(
 
ChrisA said:
What did you do? Something to do with buffers I'd guess?

As for why the amp model is being bypassed, you've given us zero to go on. It's possible to switch these in and out. There could be nothing wrong.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply!

I think I've just solved it now ... I'm so stupid it's not true! I think it was just an issue with the me not having the outputs high enough on the amp models, for some reason they where all really low!

Just to check - and then I'm sure I'm good ... If I plug my guitar into my apogee one, should the guitar sound come out of the speakers? I mean it does, no matter what, a clean unprocessed guitar sound will play if its plugged in and the instrument input has volume ... is that how it should work?

Thanks, and sorry for wasting everyones time!
 
Last edited:
rchip said:
problem solved!
:(
Click to expand...

Hello Rich,
I need your help badly.
I am exactly having the same issue: Apogee one into garageband, having more than 5-6 tracks starts crackling sounds. You said you solved it, but didn't mention how... How did you fixed it?
Many thanks.
 
It's really embarrassing how I solved it, I just needed to click the icon on each track that stops it acting as a live input. It looks like a sound wave. Only have them clicked orange when using the track to record! I don't know if that will solve your problem!
 
rchip said:
It's really embarrassing how I solved it, I just needed to click the icon on each track that stops it acting as a live input. It looks like a sound wave. Only have them clicked orange when using the track to record! I don't know if that will solve your problem!
Click to expand...

Hey Rich,
Thanks a lot man.
I think it worked!

Actually I had little time to check what you suggested before I have to leave home. But in that limited time, I checked off all the monitoring input buttons, then played the project that makes the most crackling noise 3-4 times over. No clicking and popping sounds now. That's really weird and funny. Googled it. I think it's only us two now for that problem.

Anyway, really, really appreciate the help...
 
Hah excellent, glad i could help! It's reassuring to know I'm not the only person who had the problem!
 
Thank You

Bless you both. I've been having insane crackling problems with Garageband. Thought it was just a bug in the latest Mavericks update - was getting really frustrated and bummed out.

I deactivated all the monitoring on tracks not in use, and it seems to have saved the day. Thanks!

-Ryan
 
audio crackling

Rich,
Can't thank you enough for your posts! Noticed you posted the original back in 2013. I've been having the exact same problem with audio the last two nights. Had 29 tracks on a project, and it started crackling. Was on the phone with Apple Support for 2 1/2 hours last night. Figured out some other problems with my Mac Book Pro, but not the audio crackling. What a simple solution. I ran down the same rabbit trail you did - going to Preferences and finding nothing. What a nightmare when you're working on a project. Can't believe it was such a simple solution. So, hats off to you, Rich!
BTW: did you see Logic Pro X is down to $199. I paid $400 for Logic 9. I'm going for it. I hear it's pretty intuitive and user friendly, esp. for guys that have been using GB.
Paul Nye
 
Last edited:
I have the same problem!

Hi guys, I'm having the same problem. Garageband has gone all crackly. And on top of that, the volume control knob on one of my tracks has gone nuts, moving on its own, shuddering.

First thing I did was shut down the monitoring on the vocal tracks. It hasn't helped.

Another strange thing... I trashed several movies (and emptied the trash) in an attempt to gain some extra memory, thinking perhaps that's Garageband's problem. My Macbook Pro only has, like, 3 gb of spare memory. So yeah, I trashed all these movies and some large Garageband files, and recovered absolutely no memory. It doesn't make any sense. The app "Free Memory Pro"says right now I have 3.61gb free.... How can this be, when I just trashed like 10 movies?
 
This is the fix that worked for me!!!! Thanks!!!!

rchip said:
thanks for the reply!

I think i've just solved it now ... I'm so stupid it's not true! I think it was just an issue with the me not having the outputs high enough on the amp models, for some reason they where all really low!

Just to check - and then i'm sure i'm good ... If i plug my guitar into my apogee one, should the guitar sound come out of the speakers? I mean it does, no matter what, a clean unprocessed guitar sound will play if its plugged in and the instrument input has volume ... Is that how it should work?

Thanks, and sorry for wasting everyones time!
Click to expand...

this is the fix that worked for me!!!! Thanks!!!!
 
Hi! I am also having a similar problem whereupon Garageband seems to crackle when I lay down 'too many' tracks. I never had this problem with the old Garageband and when I phoned Apple, they simply told me to update my software and that would fix the problem. Has it? No, it has not!

The message I get is:

"Error while trying to synchronise audio and MIDI. Sample rate 38,613 recognised. Check conflict between Garageband and external device."

Can somebody tell me what this actually means and how I can fix it?

Thanks so much in advance! :)
 
19AT5 said:
Hi! I am also having a similar problem whereupon Garageband seems to crackle when I lay down 'too many' tracks. I never had this problem with the old Garageband and when I phoned Apple, they simply told me to update my software and that would fix the problem. Has it? No, it has not!

The message I get is:

"Error while trying to synchronise audio and MIDI. Sample rate 38,613 recognised. Check conflict between Garageband and external device."

Can somebody tell me what this actually means and how I can fix it?

Thanks so much in advance! :)
Click to expand...

That is basically lag. The synth (or whatever) cannot keep up with the midi it's receiving.

Sometimes this can be a hardware issue, especially if your mac is older than 3 or 4 years old. Other than that, it's a synth issue, which probably won't really improve much with a hardware upgrade.

If you are using the built-in synths in garageband, and you are getting sample rate issues, it's probably time for a hardware upgrade.
 
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