Running out of processing power, what does it sound like?

bluesfordan

Member
I have a mid-2012 mac mini running Sierra's latest version (but not High Sierra) with 16 GB RAM and 2.something GHz processing and gobs of storage space.

recently I put down 3 tracks of guitar using amp patches in GarageBand. Most of these patches have 5-7 plugins (native to GB, they are part of the patch). All was well and good. Decided that I'd like to dub in some leads in a verse of rhythm. However when I add another track with an amp patch, upon start of either playback or record, the existing tracks are all slowed down and mega distorted and I start getting an error message about midi and audio not being in sync, frequency such and such recognized and to check hardware connections.

If I shut most of the plugins off, I can get it to work but of course it no longer sounds like I want it to. To me I think I've run out of horsepower and am expecting the mini to carry too large a load. I'm a little disappointed because I don't think 4 tracks is a lot do ask but I admit to not knowing a lot about the hows and whys and gozintas and goesouttas of DAWs. I'm probably asking a four cylinder to do the work of a nitro burning dual super charged fire belching 8 cylinder big block. It's ok, you can tell me that I'm being stupid, I didn't stay at a Holiday Express any time in the last couple of years.

I see videos all the time of people with 24, 32 + tracks open at once. What kind of computer power do you need to do that?
 
Hi there,
I doubt it's a resources issue although I can't really offer an other explanation.
Generally if you're running out of resources, of any kind, you'll either experience clicks and pops during playback, or playback will halt with an error message.

I don't really understand how but it sounds like maybe you're experiencing a sample rate conflict.

I'm not sure how much it will help but please post the specific error message, if you can. :)
 
It’s most likely the disk that’s slowing you down. Slightly possible it’s the interface if it’s USB 1.0.

Get a fast external drive with a USB3.0 connection and plug that into the Mini. Shut down GB and create a GarageBand directory on that drive and copy all your projects there. Rename the original directory something else and create a GarageBand alias in the Music drive to point to the external drive.

That’s the way my Mini is set up. Same model and config. My interface is FireWire but the main thing is getting the project off the system disk. Fairly common practice though those new m.2 SSDs are probably going to make that unnecessary for all but reallly big projects.

P.S. (Edit) [MENTION=193247]bluesfordan[/MENTION], if you’re just using GB plugins upload the project to Dropbox and I’ll test it on my 2012 Mini and even my 2010 MBP with 8GB. PM me if you want.
 
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what would be your definition of a fast external drive? I have a Seagate 1TB available and I can find out it's speed (I'm assuming you mean access time?).

I've never done anything like you described with creating a directory et al. Brand new territory for me but I'm willing to learn. I really rather learn something to make what I have work than buying more expensive gear at this point. *although I'm drooling over the new UA Arrow but I have to have a Mac Book or iMac to make that happen* In other words, it ain't happening ;)
 
Is this the error?
"Error while trying to synchronize audio and midi. Sample rate 42690 recognized. Check conflict between garageband and external device."

Go to Utilities->Audio Midi Setup, and make sure that all of your devices (whether you're using them or not) have their in and out sample rates set to whatever GarageBand is operating at.
What audio interface are you using? If it has its own settings app, do the same in there.
 
Is this the error?
"Error while trying to synchronize audio and midi. Sample rate 42690 recognized. Check conflict between garageband and external device."

Go to Utilities->Audio Midi Setup, and make sure that all of your devices (whether you're using them or not) have their in and out sample rates set to whatever GarageBand is operating at.
What audio interface are you using? If it has its own settings app, do the same in there.
yeah, if the device and project have become out of sync it's going to definitely choke. I was assuming this was a static setup, but that's not going to work.

I've seen some kind of sync error message in the past but it was a long time ago, and it usually was related to just too much activity (plugins, bad/lazy arrangement of project stuff), but honestly since I got the external drive setup I have now I never see hiccups. That's not the only thing that's changed, though, so hard to say for sure it's it. (I used to have USB 2.0 interface with external drive on FW, but the AI croaked so I kind of swapped things around, plus put an SSD in the the old Mini, though I don't think that makes the big difference - my MBP got the same upgrade and will still choke recording a dozen tracks on the SSD but hums along without a glitch when everythings on an external USB 2.0.)
 
Is this the error?
"Error while trying to synchronize audio and midi. Sample rate 42690 recognized. Check conflict between garageband and external device."

Go to Utilities->Audio Midi Setup, and make sure that all of your devices (whether you're using them or not) have their in and out sample rates set to whatever GarageBand is operating at.

yes, that is it.

What audio interface are you using? If it has its own settings app, do the same in there.

I'm using a Behringer UMC404HD, I don't think there's anything to set for it (but what do I know?)
 
Go to Utilities->Audio Midi Setup, and make sure that all of your devices (whether you're using them or not) have their in and out sample rates set to whatever GarageBand is operating at.

hmm, is there any problem with the UMC having 4 channels ins and outs vs the 2 of the built in input and output?

they're all at 24-bit 44.1 kHz
 
If it's slowdowns, and disabling plugins fixes it; the problem might actually be in the CPU. Plugins can get pretty CPU intensive, and that's not an amazing one.

Plugins (especially reverb and VSTis) can be very RAM intensive. 16 GB RAM should be plenty to handle plugins on half a dozen tracks, but if you have mismatched RAM sticks, a slower RAM bus, or a dying RAM stick; it won't perform nearly as well as it should.

A bus somewhere is also a pretty likely culprit. The people who mentioned a "fast" hard drive earlier weren't talking about a big hard drive. (Your 1 TB drive is almost assuredly an HDD and thus kind of slow). They were talking about a drive that loads quickly (such as a solid-state drive) communicating quickly (e.g. over USB3 instead of USB1)
 
I'm not a Mac guy, but the basics of how these things work is pretty much the same, regardless of OS architecture. I build all my own PCs for multiple uses, from studio to home office to media center, so I know a lot about how the various system components work together, and the issue you're having could be caused by a number of things.

It's my guess that the sample rate issue you're having is probably due to either GarageBand or the Mac OS (I'm not familiar with either so I don't know exactly how they use resources) attempting to downgrade the sample rate of the audio in order to handle the extra processing required for all the plug-ins yer running, and then you get a conflict because whichever one ISN'T trying to change the rate says, "NO, you can't do that" and Voila! Conflict.

This lack of resources can be caused by any single one or combination of things: hard disk speed/remaining space; buss speed; lack of memory or failing memory; an issue with the graphics processor; and finally, a CPU that isn't powerful enough to handle what yer asking of it.

Are you using solid-state drives (SSDs)? I assume not, since you said you have "gobs of storage space," and assuming yer like most other musicians I know, you can't afford "gobs" of SSDs. If you are using an SSD (HIGHLY recommended), they must have at least 10% of their capacity completely free at ALL times. Otherwise, they will have read & write errors that aren't necessarily bad for the drive, but it's bad for your tracks. I also heavily agree with the previous comment which stated that yer recording drive (i.e., the drive you are recording yer tracks to) should be entirely separate from yer system drive. That's Rule No. 1. I personally don't like the idea of tracking to an external drive UNLESS it's solid-state AND yer running at least USB 3.0, if not Firewire or Thunderbolt. There are ways around this but it would be wordy. Haha. Personally, I have two SSDs mounted in my tower: one for my system and one for tracking/mix playback. I also have an external on USB 3.0 but I never track to it; I only use it for backing up the recording drive and occasionally for mix playback.

Do you have all the plug-in windows open when this problem occurs? Graphic processing is a HUGE suck on a system, sometimes even if you have a dedicated graphics processing unit (GPU). For example, I like to build my recordings in Reason, and if I've tracked a lot of audio (24+ tracks) and have a bunch of samples and/or loops running and have effects on both the recorded tracks and my samples, I'll sometimes get a clicking/grinding sound during playback when I do something like scroll across 48 active channels on the SSL clone built into Reason; this happens for two main reasons: either the GPU is having trouble processing that movement simultaneously with all the little green meter graphics and is now relying on the system CPU to handle the overflow, OR the buss speed on the motherboard isn't fast enough for the GPU to be able to send the data in a timely fashion.

There is one thing I'm surprised no one else recommended (or maybe I just missed the post) that would help with this issue without buying any new gear: print the effects to disk, track by track. Then save each chain or individual settings on the plug-ins to presets and remove them from the mix, using the printed effect track for playback and mix. This way, yer not taxing yer system as much, which is important all-around but extremely so during tracking. And, yer still getting the effects and sound you want. AND, since you saved the settings, you can go back and adjust them as needed and re-print them to disk.

There are other technical things I could go into in terms of the CPU and memory and stuff, but for my dollar, I'd just print the effects and save yerself some cash. But, if you have the money and want to spend it, invest in SSDs, one for system and one for recording. That would help a lot, methinks. FYI, expanding on what I said above, I should make clear that you should pretty much NEVER track to an external drive if it is a traditional spinning drive, UNLESS you can verify the access time is 10ms or faster AND yer connected via USB 3.0, Firewire, or Thunderbolt.
 
I'm definitely in violation of your no.1 rule, I'm using same drive for recording as I am for system. My excuse was I was going to use this machine just for recording but I see your point. I'm investigating SSD now and had something strange happen while I was trying to follow links so I had to shut down for a while.
 
140 for 500 GB, 260 for 1TB SSD

I'd probably be inclined to go for the latter. think that will handle hopefully 4 tracks (GarageBand has 8 max)?
 
SSDs are nice but I wouldn't upgrade equipment without evidence that the problem lies there.

Google your error message :
"Error while trying to synchronize audio and midi. Sample rate 42690 recognized. Check conflict between garageband and external device."

You'll find no shortage of people with strange remedies, often relating to USB devices, but none performance/resource related.


Edit:
Found a statement on the subject.
Apple said:
"Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI"
Resolution

The basic issue when this happens is that Logic is either not getting audio data at the sample rate it expects, or the sample rate is fluctuating. Depending on the specific cause, here are some tips for resolving this:

In most cases, Logic can set the sample rate for the audio interface, but sometimes this is not possible.
Check the sample rate for your audio audio interface and make sure it matches Logic's setting.
If the settings match, try changing Logic's sample rate to a different setting and then back again.

If you have any devices digitally connected to the audio interface, make sure that only one device is set to be the master clock.

If you have combined multiple audio interfaces by configuring an Aggregate Device in Audio/MIDI Setup, make sure that the devices are digitally connected, and that only one device is configured as master clock.

If you are using Word Clock to sync multiple devices, be sure that all Word Clock connections are properly terminated.

Choose Audio > Audio Hardware & Drivers and try increasing the I/O Buffer size.

Try freezing tracks that use plug-ins that put significant load on the processor.

If you are running other software or hardware that can send MTC or MIDI clock, but intend for Logic to be the sync master,
turn off Auto Sync In for Logic, to prevent Logic from receiving sync externally.

The Auto Sync In setting can be accessed by click-holding the sync button on Logic's Transport.

If you are syncing Logic to another application or device via MTC, make sure that both Logic and the sync master are set to the same format.

Make sure that Logic is not receiving both MIDI Clock and MTC.

Also, configure the Audio Sync setting to "External or Free" in case the system is resolved to external Word Clock.

If you using a Reactor ensemble that syncs its LFO to the song tempo, try bypassing or removing the plug-in.

If none of the above helps, try switching to Built-in Audio. If this resolves the problem, check for updated drivers for your audio and MIDI interfaces."
 
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