I have a 2014 11" i7 Macbook Air (8gb RAM, SSD) and a 2012 imac 21.5" (recently upgraded with 16gb RAM and internal SSD - screen off job, hairy!). Both are great machines and have handled everything I've thrown at them so far - garageband wouldn't sweat either of them. I'm not running the latest OS version as it was plagued with problems on release... The laptop cost me 400, the iMac was 300 but seems to be coming down in price now.
when my collabs send me garageband files, they open in logic and i then save them as logic files. works every time, so not sure what's happening for you. all of these projects were done on macs as well (not ios).
Before looking at other more advanced fixes regarding GarageBand not recording, you should consider restarting your Mac from the Apple menu. Rebooting your Mac can fix a lot of bugs with all sorts of programs, including GarageBand, which can potentially fix its issues as well. Before taking a look at other more advanced fixes regarding garageband not recording, you should consider restarting your mac
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