How do you add third party instruments?

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Level 1

15 points

How do you add third party instruments?

I can't seem to find anything that will do the trick. I followed the steps on http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/Tutorials/SoundFontsGB5Later.html

on (now outdated) GarageBand 6 to no avail. Though I've placed the .sf2 file in the folder iMac/Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks, it does not appear in GarageBand under the DLSMusicDevice section of the sound generator. The only options I see (where the tutorial says "Echo Metal Guitar" should appear) are "QuickTime Music Synthesizer" and "User Define Bank". What am I doing wrong here?

I have attempted this Bullets and Bones tutorial because I was unable to find an updated tutorial for GarageBand 7 or later. Ideally, I'd have found a tutorial for GarageBand 10, since that's the version I use more commonly. Perhaps it isn't possible to add third party instruments to GarageBand 7 or later? Can anyone direct me to such a tutorial or explain how this is done?

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Oct 31, 2017 7:15 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Nov 1, 2017 12:42 AM in response to park618

Not all Hird party instruments are compatible with GarageBand 10. GarageBand 10 can use audio unit plug-ins, but some older audio units are problematic.

GarageBand 10.0 can only use 64bit VST plug-ins or audio units, that conform to the "sandboxing" requirements. Check at the manufacturer's site, if you have the newest versions of your plug-ins, or if there are updates available. If yes, update. (see: GarageBand for Mac (v10.0): Unexpected behavior with Audio Units plug-ins)

If your plug-ins are compatible, but still not working, reset the Audio Unit Cache and force Garageband to rescan the plugin.

Disable Audio Units in Garageband preferences
- a warning is displayed, click "Continue"
Quit Garageband
Delete the following files from your User Library, if they are present:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.audiounits.cache ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache/com.apple.audiounits.cache ~/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache/com.apple.audiounits.sandboxed.cache
Open Garageband
Enable Audio Units in preferences

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