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.
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 2020 Chromatica album. 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.
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 from Logic 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.
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“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 on Apple 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.
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 users can download the new Producer 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 to three months if you buy a new Apple device and six months if you sign up via the PlayStation 5.