Remix Lady Gaga Dua Lipa in Apples latest Garageband update

One of the best things about music is that it’s never too early or too late to learn how to make it. As long as you’re not too picky about which kind of instrument you want to play, music doesn’t care about your age or physical limitations, all that matters is how much time and passion you have. But if you don’t have access to good music education, it can be difficult to know exactly how a song is put together. That’s where the latest update to Apple’s free app GarageBand for iPhone and iPad comes in.

For fans of pop who are just getting started with making music, the highlight of the update will be the new Remix Sessions featuring Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa. They’re based on the Today At Apple Sessions from Apple stores and have videos with the artist talking about the inspiration behind the song and the production side. The videos also include a product specialist taking you through how to use the Live Loops.

Garageband lets you break down popular songs to see how they work, or build your own.

What you end up with is a Live Loops board of all the different sounds and loops in the songs Break My Heart and Free Woman, so you can see how they were put together. Then it’s up to you to take them apart and make something new out of them by tapping the different sounds in the order you want to hear them.

What’s great about these Live Loops tiles is that it shows how few elements go into a successful pop song, and also shows you how to move bits around to change the feel and mood. From there you can take that knowledge and jump into the other new thing in GarageBand: Producer Packs.

The Producer Packs contain sounds and samples based on what famous producers use in their work. While you might not know the names Take A Daytrip, Oak Felder and Boys Noize, you do know the songs and artists they’ve worked with, like Lil Nas X, Lizzo and Lady Gaga.

These sounds can be brought into other projects, or you can work on their Live Loops boards to make a loop that you can then put into another project or export to use by itself.

Unlike the Remix Sessions, nothing in the Producer Packs is copyrighted, so if you make a song that you love, or find a sound you want to use in your own music, you can just do that. One of the most famous examples of someone taking a sound from GarageBand and using it in their own song is Umbrella by Rhianna, with that famous drumbeat. This makes them perfect for when you need a backing band for your iso jam sessions, if you’re writing a song, or if you just want a rights-free backing track for a video. Using them requires no prior musical skill or knowledge, and they’re simple and solid enough that anyone can make something that sounds great.

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Alice Clarke is a freelance journalist, producer and presenter.

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