G3 Optimization For Garageband

Hey everyone. I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me with GarageBand. According to Apple, the system requirements for GarageBand are a 600 mhz G3 processor and 256MB RAM. I have an 800mhz G3 and 640MB RAM, but when I try to play back my composition, I get this error message about 20 seconds into it:

The song exceeds the processing power of your computer, and cannot be rendered in real time. See the Solving Problems section of GarageBand Help for information on reducing the processing load on your computer.

I've ran a utility to clean up my computer (MacJanitor), tried restarting, tried quitting all apps but the Finder, adjusting GarageBand's preferences, and nothing. Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this app to run smoothly? Any help is appreciated.

-godpunk

#106283

Ouch, that's insulting your manhood.

Did you search the preferences for real-time rendering? Turn that off (you should be able to). It takes a little longer, because you don't get to preview things, but you wont get that error.

Remember, "minimum" doesn't mean you get to do everything. G3's aren't great for multimedia.

#106291

Mebbe you should increase the size of your scratch disc (used for rendering in general, dont know about music) It might be in the options or preferences somewhere...I dont know how it works on a mac.

Man, I wish I had a G3!!

#106296

I saw no option to turn off real-time rendering, unfortunately.

-godpunk

#106297

This might sound cheesy, but I dont have a mac.

If the preferences aren't too complex, can you take a shot of the preferences window and post it here? We may be able to help, as many/most of us don't have macs. (poor us)

#106305

I Have a 1.6Ghz G5 with 1 Gig of RAM and I'm afraid to say even I get that problem too, well the only time I have come across it is with a few of the more complex piano loops, but even just them on they're own with no other tracks it can happen, which I don't get, I don't have that problem with load's of tracks (9 so far I think) at the same time, so one track should not use so much CPU no matter what the instrument is. I think GarageBand as it's the first version need's a fair bit of optimizing.

That said I'm having a blast with it, it's a well cool app that makes making pretty good music and maybe even very good music as easy as Apple pie.

#106337

Umm, i had the same problem *just got iLife yesterday woot* and it came up with that same error, i was like cussing everywhere, but i looked on the mac help webpage and what you do is (bcause i dont know how to get there) Goto help, then one of the help links is a link to apple support page, just type your question in top right, i just typed in part of that error message and it came up with a few things, that helped me.

If you look at my post and say wtf?...ill understand

#106430

Just a quick note... Garageband is just a re-tooled version of Soundtrack, which will only run on a G4.

Apple tweaked it a bit and made it (forced more likely) compatible with the G3 CPU.

I have Soundtrack 1.2 and Garageband... don't really care for either.

Back to Pro Tools.

One of the gotchas with realtime rendering is bit rate... keep it low.

Stick with 16 bit or less. 24 bit will kill even the best of CPU's.

Also, anything over 44khz on the sample rate is a waste of time and disk space as most people can't hear the difference anyway.

Unless of course you're a perfectionist.

#106567

I have the same type of computer and everything I've run so far works fine, even on a 7 minute song.

Just be sure to hide the track mixer during playback! It helps a TON. Really.

#111418