10.6. Enlarge Your Buffer

In GarageBand Preferences, click the Audio/MIDI button to see the controls shown at top in Figure 10-4. Setting it to "Maximum number of simultaneous tracks devotes more of the Mac's energies to playing back your piece.

The disadvantage of this setting is that when you record from a MIDI keyboard, you may experience latency ”a frustrating, fraction-of-a-second delay between each keypress and the playing of its sound.

The trick, then, is knowing when to switch this setting. Leave it on "Minimum delay when playing instruments live" when you're recording, and compensate by turning off some tracks if the Mac begins gasping. After the recording, change the setting to "Maximum."

Figure 10-4. Top: Two settings in GarageBand's Preferences exist exclusively for helping you manage the Mac's processing burden . On this tab, the "Maximum number of simultaneous tracks" option is designed for stutter-free playback, although it's less helpful for recording live.
Bottom: You can also assist by limiting the number of simultaneous notes (voices) each instrument plays.