GarageBand Crashing Constantly

[Jarick]

Both times now that I've started getting into recording, I run into issues with GarageBand (or Logic) crashing. This happens when I'm tracking, playing back, or even if it's just sitting open in the background.

The only error messages I ever get say something to the effect of, a plugin has become unstable and caused GarageBand to crash. There's no detail on which plugin. I'm guessing this is related to plugins not being compatible with M1 Macs, as this is an M1 MacBook Air.

I've tried running in Rosetta mode as well, but still seeing a lot of crashes.

Has anyone else encountered this and got everything up and running?

 

[Bruce]

When this started what was the plugin(s) you installed?

 

[ptb1]

Bad/unstable USB cable/connection?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Which interface are you using?

 

[TJontheRoad]

Check plug-in manager in Logic for errors. Review the M1 compatibility statements from companies and disable any not up to speed.

 

[Jarick]

When this started what was the plugin(s) you installed?

I don’t think there was a plug-in installed that started the issue. Seemed like an update rolled out.

I spent most of yesterday backing up files and I’m going to try manually uninstalling all plugins then install one at a time to see if that changes anything.

Otherwise I’m going to just completely wipe the computer and start over.

The issue was with both GarageBand and the Logic Pro trial I was using. Unfortunately that expired and GB doesn’t have the good plugin manager.

 

[Sascha Franck]

and I’m going to try manually uninstalling all plugins then install one at a time

Just drag them out of the components folder, that should be sufficient.

 

[Jarick]

Just drag them out of the components folder, that should be sufficient.

I decided to just buy Logic Pro this morning...was going to at some point in the next couple weeks. Hopefully that will help with troubleshooting.

 

[Jarick]

Update:

Logic Pro was not crashing per se, but audio unit plugins were constantly unresponsive and required a recovery. I disabled everything and it was okay, but anytime I'd add a plugin (didn't really matter what), it would cause issues.

After Googling, I found the advice to run in Rosetta mode, and so far that's been fine. I also disabled all plugins I likely wouldn't use (trials and such). I had previously tried running Garageband in Rosetta and that helped a bit but not completely.

Going to keep an eye on it, but hopefully this works going forward.

I do think I need to find a new IR loader plugin, as the one I'm using is from 2017 and seems unlikely to get updates. Helix Native unfortunately also seems to have issues but hopefully running in Rosetta helps that as well.

 

[fretworn]

That’s kind of funny because I was running logic on Rosetta to work with the native instruments controller… Last night I finally turned it off because I was having some instability problems. I’m on a M2 chip, and I know there are some issues with the Apple Silicon but I’m gonna see how it runs out of Rosetta now.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I do think I need to find a new IR loader plugin

Use Logics Space Designer.
And if you have tons of IRs to check, I cannot recommend Space Designer Manager highly enough.
What's it doing? It's creating Space Designer presets out of IRs. Once done you can use Logics libary browser to access all of your IRs just by navigating through the SD presets, using your arrow keys, no mouse-surfing through menus required anymore. Best way to deal with plenty of IRs ever. Turned the entire RedWirez Big Box (more than 21k IRs) into SD presets in a few seconds.
Unfortunately it has gotten more expensive ever since I bought it, still worth those 30 bucks, IMO (obviously also works great with reverb IRs).

Space Designer Manager

Space Designer Manager for Apple Logic

spacedesignermanagerapp.com

Also, if I were you, I'd check if you really needed some non-silicon-ready plugins. It's a really good idea to get rid of them asap, so perhaps better to do that now than waiting - only to find out they'll not get ported while you got used to them already.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And fwiw, you can still easily drag'n'drop IRs to Space Designer. Defenitely not as fast as other IR loaders, yet working (as long as you haven't made a choice).
Also, have you tried NadIR? Freeware IR loader from Ignite Amps:

IGNITE AMPS - Engineering for the moshpit

Italian tube and solid state amplifiers, stomp-boxes and audio plug-ins

www.igniteamps.com

 

[Iron1]

You may already know this, but Apple recommends you un/re-install GarageBand every so often - it fixes all sorts of weird issues. If you haven't tried it, I'd recommend starting there.

 

[Jarick]

And fwiw, you can still easily drag'n'drop IRs to Space Designer. Defenitely not as fast as other IR loaders, yet working (as long as you haven't made a choice).
Also, have you tried NadIR? Freeware IR loader from Ignite Amps:

IGNITE AMPS - Engineering for the moshpit

Italian tube and solid state amplifiers, stomp-boxes and audio plug-ins

www.igniteamps.com

I think the one I'm using now is based on NadIR, it's got a couple bells and whistles but I may try that as well.

FYI, running Logic Pro in Rosetta mode has been really stable now, no crashes or issues yet.

 

[hemmelight]

Can plus-one on using Space Designer for speaker cabinet IRs! I just put SD as the first effect on the guitar track and it works really well.
Make sure you set the 'wet mix' to 100% and the dry to zero, unless you want some dry guitar blended in for some reason.