THE PRODIGY SYNTH TUTORIAL 

I prefer the more human version ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zcOhrtAFc-Y.html

How the fuck did Liam make so many bangers... One of the best producers of all time

The name Prodigy is still exactly what describes the band perfectly. What they have done in the 90s is incredible. R.I.P. Keith Flint.

To electronic musicians... This is as important as Hendrix 's guitar or Bonham's drums. Bravo Alex!!!

R.I.P. Keith. A true one-of-a-kind artist, who helped move mountains in popular music, and a good man.

I was at a huge music festival in Australia called the Big Day OUt. I was 14 years old, on acid and had lost all my friends. I was hustling to get to where Slayer was playing completely lost. All of a sudden this sound came into my brain that was insanely amazing and unfamiliar and mind blowingly intoxicating. It was soooo loud and commanding. It was the synth line from Voodoo People i later found out and it was The Prodigy and the beat dropped and a whole field of people just went insanely ballistic and i completely forgot about slayer and joined in. One of the greatest moments of my young life!!!!!! MY life took a big turn at that point. Thankyou Liam Howlett for blowing my brain into another dimension and giving me the loving gift of dirty, twisted synth madness derangement syndrome. xoxoxox

It’s like watching a RU-vid video unlocking the secrets of the universe. Amazing.

My mate did some tech servicing for Liam at his room in Tileyard. As a long time 2600 owner, my mate asked me to visit to help setup his 2600 as he was having issues getting the gate / trigger working over midi. In the corner was a W30. It was the same one Liam used on What Evil Lurks EP. My inner child raver was very happy.

The Fat of the Land is an absolute masterpiece of an album. One of my all-time favorites in the electronic genre!

Boy, I sure remember my introduction to The Prodigy. I'd been doing a bit of LSD with my school friends and older girlfriend on the weekends and listening to a lot of music by The Orb and back in the day one of the only ways to find new music by a band was to swing by the record store and see what was in stock. I stopped by a store that was not my usual haunt but it was close to where I lived and I believe, it's the only time I bought music there but immediately, I beelined to the "Electronica" section and flipped through the CDs until I found the section for "The Orb." What seemed like bad luck at the time turned out to be good luck as there wasn't any CDs by them at all, however, just back from that was this stark white CD that just said "The Prodigy Experience." I didn't know if it was the name of the band or the name of the album but I liked the cover, and I wanted something new to listen to so I bought it. The way it was laid out, I thought it might have even been saying, "Experience The Prodigy" Friends, let me tell you, as someone who was looking for something similar to Little Fluffy Clouds or Outlands or better still The Fountains of Elisha mix of Outlands ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ATZxJJn8xaM.html ) by The Orb, I was *not* ready for The Prodigy. On the first play, I hated the CD. I felt like I got totally screwed. Back then though, you boughts it? you keeps it. So, there I was, stuck with this CD. So I listened to it. I listened over and over trying to find my way in and, as it was for many, Out of Space is what finally broke me and I realized I liked at least one song on the CD. The Jericho started to make sense to me then Wind it Up. Eventually Weather Experience with its spooky, uncomfortable vibe mixed with the soaring hopeful synths worked its way under my skin. Before I knew it, this unusual CD with it's challenging music worked its way completely into my life and is the soundtrack to so many of the ridiculous things I did in my youth. When Music for the Jilted Generation hit it was all over, I was a dyed in the wool fan. Shortly after I got my hands on the Poison CD single (I still have it) and that 95EQ mix of Poison became one of my most played songs of all time. All of this is just a long way to say how much I love The Prodigy and how cool it is to see how they made some of the sounds that were my constant companions for many, many years. What a band.

The reverse engineering of the Poison Lead patch at 8:06 is phenomenal..

I never even thought the poison riff would have been done on a JD. Nice one Alex you got the remedy!

I make sample hunting videos, and I've covered The Prodigy at length, it's always fascinated me, been a fan of them since seeing Out Of Space on MTV in about 1992. having familiarized myself with most of their samples, it's been amazing to see the other side of their music production. I've literally been waiting for a video like this for god knows how long. Thank you so much.

Oh my word, I do love the Prodigy.

Liam is a pure genius and The Prodigy is a unique band. Thank you Alex for this video and all the nostalgic vibes you share.

I'm most amazed by how many of Liam's famous synth sounds are presets

What a way to turn my "I don't feel good" day into a Wow Alex Ball grooves to the Prodigy like I do!? :D This is the coolest tutorial I have ever seen for music Also for SMBU you are right he used a Chorus (more like Doubling Echo, where two different takes of Korg Prophecy both slightly alternate versions of the same patch. If you hear the album version, in headphones the left side is the Original Prophecy patch Liam did in 1996. Whereas the right side is the Doubled Prophecy patch for the 1997 album. Been listening to The Prodigy since I was three in '97. So The Fat of The Land has always been one of my favourite albums of all-time. :D

Prodigy, synths AND Alex Ball! This is overkill :-D

The Prodigy is what got me into synthesizers. I came across a W30 on Craigslist in an unrelated search. Thought it looked interesting and came across the VSE article mentioning Liam Howlett. Blew my mind how large of a role the W30 played in their first couple of albums.

The Claustrophobic Sting bassline is genius in its simplicity. Liam's work on Experience and Jilted is some of the best in modern music history, up there with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones. He should be given a Polar Prize for those two alone.

Prodigy paved the way how synths should sound like. Raw and gritty; back to the basics, in fact.

1 year ago this week I was in London visiting from Denver at their show at Brixton Academy. One of the craziest shows I've ever been to and one of my favorite bands of all time. And as a fellow synth nerd, this video is poetry. By the way, I would absolutely die a happy man if you did an Orbital synth tutorial.

I bought "Experience" back in 1993 as a 13 year old. It was one of the first CDs I owned. "No Good" came out a year later. Liam was making the rawest rave sounds ever heard. It's great to hear these synth patches deconstructed so faithfully.

I like how your 303 has all the silver rubbed off around the top knobs. Very well used instruments make me happy.

Superb Tutorial! Grew up in Springfield Essex. Went to Boswells, same school as Keith. He was a year below me. Had the pleasure to play along side them in a few gigs back in the early 90's. R.I.P Keith! Essex Finest!

My mind is glowing 💭

I see Prodigy in the title, I immediately click like.

Growing up, my friends and I were all very into rock and metal, except Prodigy. Fat of the Land got as many plays as any abum by Metallica or Dream Theater when we hang out. Later I managed to get those guys into stuff like Boards of Canada and Tangerine Dream, but Prodigy still gets played on road trips and at parties and such all the time. Truly classic music!

Damn, I almost forgot how pure and powerful these are.

The vocal sample for Out of Space is from a Max Romeo (Production by Lee "Scratch" Perry) song called, "Chase the Devil." Great track, both his and Prodigy's.

Prodigy is what got me into electronic music as a 12 year old kid, it sounded so different than the rap and punk all my schoolmates we're listening to, I was instantly hooked.

The Prodigy and their sounds inspired me so much! It’s unbelievable how less their impact on pop music has been discussed. They actually laid the path for a whole new generation of electronic music where genres blended and merged altogether. I do know that they didn’t invented all of their style, but of cause they brought it to the mainstream.

That 'Poison' intro was completely unexpected and also rather good. Some might say hilarious, but as a responsible person I limited myself to a 'sensible chuckle'.

'No Good' is so good.

as a long time Prodigy fan, and more recently Alex fan, this video was brilliant. Liams ability to produce what he did using gear like this sequenced by Roland w-30's (you should do one on those) boggles my mind. Having dabbled in midid back in the day it astonishes me what he produced, the amount of painstaking work to get even 1 track done and saved to floppies must've taken hours and hours and hours.. Experience especially has a place in my heart forever as that door opening music/album everyone has. Particularly like the claustrophobic sting tb 303 bit as it is still one of my favs. French kiss!

Love the Korg Prophecy. I love how it uses physical modeling technology.

Experience (Prodigy album) is one of my favourite start to finish albums, they do so much with less sonic ingredients than later albums, thanks for doing a video on them Im a big fan of your 'how to' videos. 80s chords and the prophet 5 ones very useful (Everything in its Place sound made on Pro800 🥰)

Great video. Had the chance to play a lot of the same lineups back in the day, as another live act, and loved the whole Prodigy crew (in their various configs). Liam will go down in history is an important creative, and endured no shortage of cheap seat criticisms and pushed through multiple eras of electronic music. Was always in awe of the hard work and determination he had, from the early days of pushing records to lugging the live/playback rig to all the major label era. Amazing. Great to see his studio talent getting such recognition.

Voodoo People is such a perfect tune. Love it to bits.

Liam Howlett is a Pioneer, RIP Keith and big respect to all involved ❤️🏆

Well, this was fucking brilliant! Makes me want to clear my schedule this evening and just jam out to some Prodigy!

Damn-it.. Why can I only give this just one thumbs up.. I have two thumbs!!!! One is just not enough .. Great upload!

Excellent vid as always. Bit of my Prodigy trivia if your interested. Sometime in 1990 the band I was in got a gig in ‘The Bit On The Side’ which was a bar on the side of Golddiggers nightclub in Chippenham, should have had a few people there but it was quiet, loads of people around and a bit of a buzz going on. Turns out a new band ‘The Prodigy’ were playing in the main club and word on the street was they going to be the next big thing. Guess the rest is history. 😊

I hope this video will elicit more love for Roland’s work in the digital domain. From the D50, right through to Zenology, they created an incredibly powerful synth engine and huge library of iconic sounds It also shows what can be achieved with whatever tools are available to you

Every time someone mentions the Prodigy I always think back to Keith and his big coat up to no good in the 'beer garden' of Flacks. From toytown techno to stadium giants - Liam always seemed ahead of the curve and the bands' continued success demonstrates this.

Dude I love how you're hitting on the older songs. Classics for me. Giving me chills... Particularly out of space

Liam is the keyboardist's keyboardist, always fascinating seeing (and hearing) how we got those iconic sounds!

Jesus, I had no idea they used so much JD!!! Been a prodigy fan since the very beginning and I thank you so much for doing this!!!!

Cracking video, Alex. Your T2 score video was so far my favourite but this is a very strong contender. Such iconic sounds from a bygone era.

I bought one of these on eBay recently (Prophecy) ! Then I ALSO bought a Z1 !

Alex Ball you absolute legend 🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥. Much thansk for bringing this video to the table finally 👌🏾👌🏾

Well done Alex! It's funny how many of The Prodigy's sounds are presets. Which isn't necessarily bad. There are many artists who relied on presets. I mean by now a 303 or the infamous Amen-break are pretty much presets. It's what you do with it that sets you apart. And Liam Howlett & The Prodigy are a prime example of that. The individual building blocks they used may have existed before. But what they built with it was new & refreshing.

Fascinating! Those patches are not that complicated after all and can be reproduced easily on most modern software synths.

Hot damn!!! Spot on!!!

Hi! I literally almost never ever comment under RU-vid videos, and I don’t think I’ve even seen you before, but I’m so so excited to watch this holy moly I’m almost shaking

"This sound was developed by Eric Persing" Of COURSE! It's an amazing sound! :)

I’ve been trying to figure out how the opening sound for poison was made for over 2 decades, THANK YOU for covering it, I can FINALLY scratch that itch!

I've wanted to WATCH this video for a very long time, so thank you for FINALLY making it!

My favourite quote about Liam is that "it's easy to make electronic music, but it's hard to make it well" and Liam makes it very well. All these variables blow my mind and he's there tweaking the shit out of everything. (Post script: it also caused him to burn out and he didn't produce anything after Fat of the Land until he discovered Reason.)

I've never really been a fan of the Prodigy, but my god did they get some great sounds, and watching this amazing tutorial made me appreciate it even more!

Excellent, crazy detailed. I knew that Boutique JD-08 patch sounded familiar! Would be cool to have a video on famous JD-800/990 presets

Amazing to see a breakdown of the sounds, but it is the guys coming up with the sounds in the first place and creating the songs that really blows my mind .

The JD990 is no joke and has been Liams weapon of choice for quite some time. I had one myself with some of the better boards in it, truly epic and fat sounding.

A love of the prodigy is part of why I got into making music, so as a sound designer I feel very targeted by this lesson. Great work!

I found this interesting also because I have a Prophecy and a JD800. The JD Wailing guitar is great - I use an edited version of that in my music. As a side note, when my JD caught the red glue virus a few years ago I bought an XV5080 and was able to program some of my JD sounds into it. That Space Adventure sound on the Prophecy is cool too. I've used it slightly tweaked. Another great vid Alex!

So cool! Loved the lil' tidbit about Eric Persing. As a proud owner of a JX-8P his fingerprints are all over the presets for that one, and many of them still sound wonderful and useable today (others are dated, but hey it was the 80s!). If I'm not mistaken that was his first major sound design role at Roland. Then of course he took over the sound design for the D-50 and the rest is digital native dance history.

I have the little JD-08, which has the same wailing guitar preset from the JD-800. Very cool sound, especially for the era. Eric Persing is a genius... so many amazing sounds from the JD/JV/XP/XV series considering the tiny sample size. I have a Fantom X8 (because it was cheaper than any rack) loaded with the 4 SRX cards which each contain the waveforms from 4-5 SR-JV80 expansion boards. So that gives me the vintage synth board waves, and all the other main ones, for a lot less $ with a larger display to edit on.

Incredible video. Thank you to you, and Liam, of course for crafting the soundtrack to my teens.

That's the video I wasnt expecting, but really enjoyed watching. Thank you! Quite interesting and inspiring.

prodigy , chemical brothers, underworld and metalheadz... just about anything out of the UK at that time ... was my soundtrack in last part of college (96-99) great time for dance music....memories! thanks Alex!

Amazing work decoding these iconic sounds, really appreciated :)

Just absolutely brilliant and I’ve wanted to see something like this for ages and you’re the best guy to deliver it! Liam howlett’s synth riffs are iconic

Wow, such iconic sounds. Brilliant breakdown 👌👍

As always, incredible amount of research and work behind those videos! Thank you so much Alex for putting this out there!!

Absolutely brilliant video!!! So great to see how these sounds were put together. ICONIC!

Absolutely glorious. Thanks for this wonderful walkthrough of these vintage gems. ❤

i have the Korg Trinity with the Prophesy sounds...and ive always thought how theres something amazingly penetrating about some of these sounds, it has a beautiful moog replication.

I love the format of this video! Really interesting and fun to explore classic sounds like this. Very nicely done Alex!!

LOVED this video Alex. Top quality as usual. Thanks!

Absolute synth scientist you are,excellent work mate

I got very excited when this popped up in my feed 😝 Love Liam's sounds...

Thanks for sharing the process for each of these, especially Poison!

Great video. Them out of space chords still get me every time. Goosebumps

I'm a guitar player, keyboard tinkerer and from the very first note of that, the first thing I thought of was Prodigy haha!

Awesome video! I discovered electronic music and The Prodigy in 1993 when I was 9 years old. I was listening to rock music like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins and playing on my dad's drum set. The Prodigy inspired me to want to make electronic music. Thank you so much for this vid.

You’ve made a lot of people happy sharing your knowledge 👏🏽. Great stuff

intro...... Already fucking rocking :D Might comment more later :p

These artist breakdowns are chocked full of so much gold for us budding producers. Even better when one actually has a few pieces of gear in the collection. Just reminds me to dig in and play around with the synths I have rather than hunting down the next synth that will make us a "legit" artist. I love going back to a synth/machine I've neglected for a bit and finding inspiration in it. Cheers from Texas.

These guys are my role models in music

I know nothing of synths, but you’ve just taken me right back. Many thanks.

Mind expanding stuff, here. Definitely appreciate the effort that went into the research, prep, and production of this. Guacamolly. Thank you.

Oh man! This is soooo satisfying to watch and learn from. Your explanations and the logical flow of ideas are just a delight… what a gift to us all. Thank you 🙏 thank you 🙏 thank you 🙏

Great video, some real quality insights❤

You are the coolest synthi guy on RU-vid. Pure gold.

Your videos are always thoughtful, smart, funny, and informative, but I especially like when you do deep dives like this one. You’re a real synthesist’s synthesist, and I really appreciate the hard work and time you put into making these

I love the sound from Voodoo People, well done! Great video.

I caught an early Prodigy PA in Ayrshire in 1991. My memory's a bit hazy, ahem, but I think it was either at the Hippodrome in Kilmarnock or the Metro in Saltcoats. It must've been about a month or so after Charly was released? All I remember is breaks, bleeps, and a bunch of hyperactive guys dancing on stage in what resembled psychedelic pajamas. Caught them a few years later around the Jilted Generation era, at the breakdown, Liam's main trick was to use the pitch wheel to drop a detuned sine bass down an octave in order to make everyone's eyes go skelly and throw up. Good times!😂

Alex I always enjoy your breakdown videos of these vintage sounds and how they came to be. Very informative and gives us a better perspective on how to use our synths in our own music. Thank you for your time and dedication and to your friends also who assist and facilitate these tutorials.

Didn't know how much I've missed "Music for a jilted generation" until now. Have to put it on.

Loved this one 🙏❤️