Guitar Lab crashing on macOS Big Sur

Hey folks,

Been having this problem for a number of weeks with both my new Zoom G3n and B3n units. Seems Guitar Lab wants to crash while editing patches. Amps and cabinets appear to be the easiest ones to make it crash. Happens more frequently on my B3n. This is on a 2019 MacBook Pro. I've tried a number of different things including different USB cables...no go. Still crashes. Anyone else having this problem? Already contacted Zoom about it and currently working with support.

 

Permissions? What permissions? Not sure I follow. I'll try doing a full uninstall, clean any preferences and settings files, and reinstall. Could very well be some sort of cache file that Zoom uses to temporarily store settings before pushing them to the unit.

One thing that's different between Guitar Lab and ToneLib is that Guitar Lab sets the unit in "PC Mode". Could be that the method used to communicate with the G3n/B3n is what is causing the fault. Probably requires some sort of update to Guitar Lab to stabilize it.

 

Ah, right. I'll check to see if there's a particular security setting that might be causing issues. It's weird because it's intermittent. It doesn't crash immediately. It works for a while and then just crashes. Some sessions, I might be able to go for a good 5 to 10 minutes without crashing. Might be a security issues...might not.

 

Yeah, totally get it. But it's also part of the landscape. Updating cross-platform apps is a big part of being a tech company like Zoom. Best thing they can do is to rebuild it using the latest versions of Xcode so that they use modern API's and whatnot. My guess is that they're using older API's that might be causing all sorts of problems with newer systems.

 

Well, I do have a fallback. I use Parallels Desktop so I can run Windows 10 for web design testing purposes. Could just run in Windows or load up Catalina. It's an inconvenience for sure but might be worth it.

Even better would be if ToneLib updated their app to include all the latest effects updates. Then I wouldn't have to load up Guitar Lab hardly at all.

 

Which is odd considering Zoom themselves say otherwise:

macOS Big Sur compatibility

 

Strangely enough, that's one of the reasons I returned the BOSS effects processor I got originally before getting the Zoom B3n and G3n. Roland relies heavily on actual software drivers. While I had no problems loading them on Big Sur, they are not compatible with M1 processors as of yet. That bothered me, especially since Zoom doesn't require drivers at all.

Looks like everyone is pretty much dragging their feet getting software updated so it's pretty much a "wait and see" kind of thing.

 

And...I'm returning all my Zoom stuff. I submitted a support request about this weeks ago and just seems like Zoom can't wrap their head around it.

I did try a few things including loading up a copy of Catalina to see if it helps. Still crashes. So there's something definitely weird about Guitar Lab.

On top of that, I ran into issues building patches, especially with some of the different amp models. Noise and digital artifacts are a pretty big issue, especially if you're using other pedals in the chain. As such, I decided to just not fool with it and just go with a better solution (ie. Line 6).