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Apple Adds Remix 'Producer Packs' to GarageBand

Apple’s entry-level digital audio workstation for iOS now bundles sounds from some of today’s top music producers, plus new remix sessions from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga.

ByJamie Lendino

My Experience

我已经编写和审查的PCM技术ag and other Ziff Davis publications since 2005, and I’ve been full-time on staff since 2011. I've been the editor-in-chief ofExtremeTech自2015年初以来,除了最近担任executive editor of features for PCMag, and I write for both sites. I’ve been on CNBC and NPR'sAll Things Consideredtalking tech,plus dozens of radio stations around the country. I’ve also written for two dozen other publications, includingPopular Science,Consumer Reports,Computer Power User,PC Today,Electronic Musician,Sound and Vision, and CNET. Plus, I've writtenfive books about retro gaming and computing:

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Budding music producers looking to be the next Mark Ronson may well have their salvation in GarageBand with the addition of so-called Producer Packs.

Each pack features hundreds of royalty-free beats, loops, instruments, samples, synth patches, and drum kits created by some of the world’s most famous producers, including Oak Felder, TRAKGIRL, Soulection, Boys Noize, and Take a Daytrip, plus in-app videos from each of the producers giving encouragement and insight to those just getting started in music production.

Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa

The app also now includes two Remix Sessions for Dua Lipa’s 2020 smash hit “Break My Heart” and Lady Gaga’s “Free Woman” from her 2020Chromaticaalbum. These include Live Loops versions of each song, so you can break down and rearrange all the pieces and add new instrumentation and loops underneath, as well as make use of GarageBand’s eminently usable Filter and Repeater effects across the submix in real-time. The sessions also include videos from both artists explaining the story behind the songs. You can essentially remix these two tracks in any style you want by using the pieces the same way a remixer would.

Take A Daytrip
Take A Daytrip

An Apple representative demonstrated this by isolating the vocals from the chorus of “Break My Heart,” retaining the existing delay effect, and spinning up a faster House remix of her own with new instrumentation inside of a few minutes, thanks also in part to Apple’s excellent Flex Time algorithms pulled fromLogic Pro.

Oak Felder and Take a Daytrip were both on hand at the virtual press event, where all three producers explained their rationale for creating something to help them give back to the next generation of music producers. Responding to a reporter’s question asking what single tip or piece of advice he would give to new music producers, Felder said he would urge new users, when they pick up their device, to take the time and explore all the new sounds.

Two new Remix Sessions in GarageBand teach users how to put their own spin on Dua Lipa’s “Break My Heart” and Lady Gaga’s “Free Woman.”
Remix Session for Lady Gaga’s “Free Woman”

“Go through all of them and listen to the loops, the drums, and make sure you get a full listen of what's actually there because you never know what it might inspire for you as a new creator,” Felder said. He added that one of the best things about making his Producer Pack for entry-level users is that it sounds “high-level” in quality.

“It's such an amazing thing for a person who has never produced anything or created a beat to be able to pick this up and tap out ideas,” Felder said, “and the end result is something you could actually listen to and could end up being part of something bigger one day.” He called GarageBand “the great equalizer,” in that it gives new users the opportunity to compete with pro-level users at a similar level in sound quality.

In an amazing piece of corporate synergy that’s sure to end up in marketing 101 textbooks, one Producer Pack contains sounds from music featured in Apple’s upcoming six-part docuseries,Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson, which premieres Friday, July 30 onApple TV+. Presented by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville and hosted by Ronson, the docuseries will cover many of the latest breakthroughs in music production technology. It will feature interviews with Ad-Rock and Mike D from the Beastie Boys, Paul McCartney, Questlove, King Princess, Dave Grohl, and Charli XCX, among other artists.

GarageBand includes the music technology featured in “Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson,” from drum machines to sampling and synths to reverb.
Music technology featured in Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson

So after you watch each episode, you can bring up sounds from that episode’s music on your own iPhone or iPad using that Producer Pack and make your own tracks.

GarageBand 2.3.11用户可以下载新的连续cer Packs and the two Remix Sessions for free within the app’s Sound Library. Apple TV+ is currently available for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial; that expands tothree monthsif you buy a new Apple device and six months if yousign up via the PlayStation 5.

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About Jamie Lendino

Editor-In-Chief, ExtremeTech

我已经编写和审查的PCM技术ag and other Ziff Davis publications since 2005, and I’ve been full-time on staff since 2011. I've been the editor-in-chief ofExtremeTech自2015年初以来,除了最近担任executive editor of features for PCMag, and I write for both sites. I’ve been on CNBC and NPR'sAll Things Consideredtalking tech,plus dozens of radio stations around the country. I’ve also written for two dozen other publications, includingPopular Science,Consumer Reports,Computer Power User,PC Today,Electronic Musician,Sound and Vision, and CNET. Plus, I've writtenfive books about retro gaming and computing:

Adventure: The Atari 2600 at the Dawn of Console Gaming
Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games

Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation

Faster Than Light: The Atari ST and the 16-Bit Revolution

Starflight: How the PC and DOS Exploded Computer Gaming 1987-1994

Before all this, I was in IT supporting Windows NT on Wall Street in the late 1990s. I realized I’d much rather play with technology and write about it, than support it 24/7 and be blamed for everything that went wrong. I grew up playing and recording music on keyboards and the Atari ST, and I never really stopped. For a while, I produced sound effects and music for video games (mostly mobile games in the 2000s). I still mix and master music for various independent artists, many of whom are friends.

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