diff --git a/hfgl/model.py b/hfgl/model.py
index fce5845..846bf9d 100644
--- a/hfgl/model.py
+++ b/hfgl/model.py
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
     dynamic_range_compression_torch,
     get_spectral_transform,
 )
+from loguru import logger
+from pydantic import ValidationError
 from torch.nn import AvgPool1d, Conv1d, Conv2d, ConvTranspose1d
 from torch.nn.utils import spectral_norm
 from torch.nn.utils.parametrizations import weight_norm
@@ -454,8 +456,16 @@ class HiFiGANGenerator(pl.LightningModule):
 
     def __init__(self, config: dict | VocoderConfig):
         super().__init__()
+
         if not isinstance(config, VocoderConfig):
-            config = VocoderConfig(**config)
+            try:
+                config = VocoderConfig(**config)
+            except ValidationError as e:
+                logger.error(f"{e}")
+                raise TypeError(
+                    "Unable to load config.  Possible causes: is it really a VocoderConfig? or the correct version?"
+                )
+
         self.config = config
         self.generator = Generator(self.config)
 
@@ -464,7 +474,14 @@ def on_load_checkpoint(self, checkpoint):
         Note, this shouldn't fail on different versions of pydantic anymore,
         but it will fail on breaking changes to the config. We should catch those exceptions
         and handle them appropriately."""
-        self.config = VocoderConfig(**checkpoint["hyper_parameters"]["config"])
+        try:
+            config = VocoderConfig(**checkpoint["hyper_parameters"]["config"])
+        except ValidationError as e:
+            logger.error(f"{e}")
+            raise TypeError(
+                "Unable to load config.  Possible causes: is it really a VocoderConfig? or the correct version?"
+            )
+        self.config = config
 
     def on_save_checkpoint(self, checkpoint):
         """Serialize the checkpoint hyperparameters"""
@@ -479,7 +496,13 @@ def __init__(self, config: dict | VocoderConfig):
         # Because we serialize the configurations when saving checkpoints,
         # sometimes what is passed is actually just a dict.
         if not isinstance(config, VocoderConfig):
-            config = VocoderConfig(**config)
+            try:
+                config = VocoderConfig(**config)
+            except ValidationError as e:
+                logger.error(f"{e}")
+                raise TypeError(
+                    "Unable to load config.  Possible causes: is it really a VocoderConfig? or the correct version?"
+                )
         self.config = config
         self.mpd = MultiPeriodDiscriminator(config)
         self.msd = MultiScaleDiscriminator(config)