As Peter Griffin, the impulsive and brash dad from the TV show Family Guy once said –
“You know what really grinds my gears?”
For me, it’s the humongous innovations and bonus content that comes with Logic that few seem to ever talk about.
Even Apple itself barely mentions the gifts they deliver with each Logic update!
(If anyone from Apple is reading this: for the love of God, put some marketing money behind your pro apps. These treasures deserve the love of its parent company to show the world why they rule!)
So what exactly am I talking about today?
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that we have a major label production living on our hard drives! A production we can solo, sample, pick apart, and learn from!
Ever since the release of 10.4, Apple includes a full-on production by the major label artist Beck.
Produced by longtime Logic Pro user (and major music producer) Greg Kurstin. We have access to a huge Project file of Beck’s single Colors.
135 tracks of awesome production and arrangement to glean and learn from. Using only the plugins and instruments included in Logic.
Even if you were aware that this Project existed, perhaps you haven’t taken the time to truly pick it apart. Maybe you yourself don’t produce crazy, 100+ track count, pop tracks? Or even like Beck?
But like any great producer, artist or engineer will tell you – listening to all sorts of music is the key to creating great music.
And it just boggles my mind to think we have a major label production at our fingertips. Not in some digitally protected format that we can’t solo and sample.
Every single instrument and plugin is right there for us to learn and have fun with.
So in today’s video let’s take a moment to celebrate and poke through the Project file for Colors.
I don’t remember ever looking at this! Even though there aren’t any side notes it’s still a treasure to discover especially with the questions that it raises.
It really is difficult to imagine the complexity of thought that went into this project. It literally boggles the mind!! And it’s free? Awesome!
Hi Chris. I took the mixing class and it was awesome. I’ve been using logic since the emagic days and you showed me some new stuff. Is there an easy way to break out the drummer files to audio? I’m converting to midi then separating by note pitch. But still don’t get all the tracks. Thanks Joe
Hi,
Having just bought and downloaded Logic 10.5 with the Billie Eilish and Foster the People demoes, is there a way to get the Beck demo?
I have the same question
I have the same problem. The only solution appears to be for someone to send me/is the file; it is impossible to re-download. Any generous souls willing?
I too am amazed that there is little discussion about these projects. I’ve shared their existence on a few groups but got little reply. I heard “Helena Beat” on the radio one day and became interested in the synth sounds and was elated to find the project in the Library > Application Support > Logic > Logic Pro X Demosongs folder along with “Colors”! Check there if you haven’t already.
Chris, a million thanks for your video on the Beck Colors demo–I had totally missed it. It improved my knowledge more in 10 minutes by studying this project, than I have in watching 1-2 years of online Logic tutorials.
Nothing can beat the benefit of a real, commercial project to analyze. I am a wanna be bedroom producer–I am stuck in a bedroom. Can’t look over anyone’s shoulder, have not attended music college and have not learned much from mock/sample projects I see in tutorials online, from people that may or may not have commercial success.
Being able to analyze/study a best in class kind of project, is invaluable to me. I don’t understand why Apple is so stingy with demo projects like this. NI Maschine includes dozens of demo project with the hardware/software (albeit not hit songs I guess . . .). But I’ll take anything deemed “good” by the experts.
An example of what I learned: My scratch pad has been Maschine MIDI tracks which I have brought into Logic to finish/polish. I’ve had a lot of tracks to bring over, easily 24 or more. So I started reading online about how many tracks a pop song project should be. And read all sorts of remarks like “we used 24-track mixers or 48-track mixers” in the old days and got great results. With the implication, that someone that sings and plays folk guitar, can perhaps record with a couple tracks. So I started feeling really guilty about having a big project that could exceed hit or exceed 48 tracks.
After studying Beck Colors–a real, commercial project, I totally understand how he hit 135 tracks and why. The song has creative wings and power. Heck, for the lead vocal “Verse” (1) they had 8-tracks alone. But this created an exciting, danceable, pop song that sizzles with ear candy (even with lyrics that I found pretty abstract/nonsensical?). The song still grabs your attention. Imagine what you can do when you have both the ear candy/sound sizzle and impactful lyrics? Wait–think we’ve seen that: David Bowie.
If anyone has any influence on Apple, please encourage them to publish more commercial hits using Logic. And Logic instructors, please use these real, commercial projects as learning platforms–they are super impactful and appreciated.