Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa Come to GarageBand in New ‘Art of the Remix’ Sessions (Plus Much More)
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Apple is bringing its popular GarageBand app into the spotlight with the addition of several new Sound Packs developed by renowned artists and producers, including two all-new Remix Sessions to school users on the art of remixing.
Although Apple frequently releases new GarageBand Sound Packs, this is one of the most high-profile releases in years, featuring content from Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa, along with seven new “Producer Packs” created by some of the world’s top producers.
There’s also a special Producer Pack designed specifically as a companion experience to the upcoming Apple Original docuseries, Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson, which premiers this Friday on Apple TV+.
‘Art of the Remix’
The headline content from Lady Gaga and Due Lipa is part of Apple’s new Art of the Remix Sessions, designed to help anyone develop their own remixing skills, using actual top hits.
The pack also includes two inspirational videos, where the artists tell the stories behind their hit songs — Dua Lipa’s Break My Heart and Lady Gaga’s Free Woman. Another video provides a step-by-step tutorial on remixing led by an Apple Retail Creative Pro using a GarageBand Live Loops version of each song.
GarageBand users will be able to interact with these hits during the session just like an artist would in the studio, isolating vocals, beats, and individual instruments, and adding their own touch instruments and Apple Loops to let their creativity run wild.
The new Art of the Remix is designed to be a virtual, in-app version of some of Apple’s most popular artist-led Today at Apple Music Lab sessions, which have featured top artists such as Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish, Khalid, Madonna, Pu She, and Taylor Swift.
GarageBand is my idea bank and where I start my songwriting, so I’m excited to make my song ‘Free Woman’ available as a Remix Session. I want musicians and music lovers to be able to see how a song is produced and be able to hear all the individual parts, and then put their own creative color on it, doing whatever they want in GarageBand.
Lady Gaga
The Return of Celebrity Guests
It’s not the first time that Apple has invited celebrity musical talent to lead sessions in GarageBand. In fact, Apple famously introduced pre-recorded music lessons over ten years ago in GarageBand ’09 that featured actual musicians and songwriters teaching guitar and piano based on their own hits. This included such luminaries as Sting, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones, John Legend, CCR’s John Fogerty, and Rush’s Alex Lifeson.
Unfortunately, that initiative seemed to be a one-shot deal. Apple released over a dozen lessons alongside GarageBand ’09, and eventually made those lessons free in 2018. However, it hasn’t offered anything new since that time — until now, of course.
Producer Packs
In addition to the new Art of the Remix sessions, Apple is also offering a slate of new Producer Packs created by leading producers, including Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch, and TRAKGIRL.
These packs are intended to inspire budding musicians, and best of all they include hundreds of completely royalty-free loops, beats, instruments, drum kits, synth patches, and samples that you can use to help create your next big hit song or remix.
Whenever someone asks me how to start producing and making beats, I tell them to grab their iPhone and open up GarageBand. It removes all the technical obstacles and makes it easy to turn a simple musical idea into something great. I still use GarageBand to sketch out ideas, so it’s especially cool to be able to deliver my own selection of royalty-free sounds to help someone else write their own hit song.
Oak Felder, producer (Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, John Legend)
That’s not all, however, as Apple is also including in-app videos from each producer to help you get your creative juices flowing, where they’ll offer insights into their creative process.
‘Watch the Sound’
The timing of this big GarageBand Sound Pack release isn’t exactly coincidental. Apple is also tying it in with a major new Apple Original docuseries that will be premiering this Friday on Apple TV+: Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson.
Featuring Oscar- and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist Mark Ronson, the series explores the intersection of technology and musical innovation, which means it was pretty much made for a new experience in GarageBand.
Our new series, ‘Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson,’ explores and celebrates the intersection of music and technology, and it is exciting to have GarageBand bring the beats and sounds from the show to anyone who is inspired to create their own songs. This Producer Pack delivers the creativity and excitement of the show in a way I never imagined and couldn’t be more excited about.
Mark Ronson, artist and producer (Adele, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga)
A special bonus Producer Pack in GarageBand will allow users to experience and explore the technology featured in every episode, including samplers, drum machines, synths, and vocal, reverb, and distortion effects, and much more. The pack features over 200 Apple Loops, six drum and beat sequencer kits, more than 25 keyboard patches, more than 30 audio recorder patches, and a new Live Loops grid.
How to Get It
The all-new Remix Sessions and Producer Packs are available today as a free download in GarageBand 2.3.11 for the iPhone and iPad. Here’s how to find them:
- Open GarageBand on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the plus (+) button in the top-right corner.
- From the top of the select Live Loops.
- Tap Sound Library.
- Tap on the Sound Pack you want.
- Tap Get to download it.
You can also read a description or preview each Sound Pack before downloading it. The new Remix Session and Producer Packs also feature a “Listen on Apple Music” button below the description that will take you to the artist or producer’s page on Apple Music, while that Watch the Sound Producer Pack features a “Watch on Apple TV” button instead, linking you to the upcoming docuseries.
