Ableton Forum

is "girls" worth the wait of seven years of absence from the prodigy ?
i think not.
he abused the "scream" distortion unit from reason and made a thin sound
compared to the energy and substance of "music from the jilted generation" for example.
very digital.
very thin.
empty.
flat,
form but not substance.
dispite of the screaming and roaring basslines-no pure energy

he could choose live instead of reason.
i hope he didn't sold his hardware samplers because he will return to them soon...

heh.

i stopped listening to them after "Experience"

they turned into a rock group after that.

I dunno, styles change, tastes change (interest rates change...)

For me, its like the difference between the sound of my all-time favourite album, Leftfield's Left-ism compared to their Rhythm and Stealth. The sound of R&S leaves me cold - you can really hear it was made with plugins on a DAW...

Hear you there Paddy, although there were a few very nice remixes to come out of R&S...including a FILTHY white-label-only breaks version of Phat Planet..if you run into my 2 Kiwi buddies (u know the ones) I think they might be able to facilitate a listen!

yes, pitch black i think exactly the same about leftfield.
it's my favourite band
r&s was made on protools with heavy use of d-fi,lo-fi plug-ins

you can extend this to orbital,underworld....many big names fell into the computer trap and left outside the door what they could do best-tweaking knobs

the new prodigy album tracks all seem to go round and round in circles withour ever taking off.

extremely dissapointing.

liam either needs his w30 back or he needs keith and maxim in the studio jamming with him. if they all nod together then it's probably a decent track.

Personally I think the new prodigy album rocks, its is a bit weak in places, but the new single is one of the best songs I have heard in years. Lets face it guys it's only you and me that actually notice that he has used the scream distrotion and that it sounds slightly thin, 99.9% of the other people in the world couldnt notice if you payed them. I think it is a prime example of what you can do with reason. and it little bit of pro tools.

Girls is ok, but Spitfire is awesome! I previewed the entire album and I like most everything accept Memphis Bells and Girls.

Liam Howlett did not use any of Reason's sound modules exclusively except for Redrum. Most everything is Korg MS-20 and Oberheim 4-Voice sampled, Rex'd in Recycle, dropped in Reason's Dr. Rex, arranged, dumped into Pro Tools, brought to another level, then mastered.

Don't forget that before the synths were sampled they ran through a Mackie 32/8 mixer with Thermionic Culture Vulture compression/distortion and Phoenix valve compression. It's not really Scream4 that you're hearing as much as the analog gear.

I think it is kind of interesting as producers now are so involved with sound rather than content and theme...

In the old days , sound was better or warmer lets say.. and so was content, but technology was not as high tech as today.

claudek wrote:I think it is kind of interesting as producers now are so involved with sound rather than content and theme...

agreed.

on a similar note.... i have many friends with well over $10,000 invested in equipment, who never finish a damn piece of music! They are so enamered with the technology of it all, they forgot that the machines are actually there for a purpose - to make music!

The lack of content and theme today definitely has technology to blame on one level, but i also think that the way song writing has evolved can be an attribute as well. The definitions of content and theme are being re-written, music is evolving (once you weed out all the crap), and Technology is certainly the influence in that respect. Its a double edged sword you could say.

Technology is wicked.

In both senses of the word

-Paws

BTW most of Music for the... and all of Fat Of The Land was made with Cubase and Akais and a shed load of synths and tings.

-Paws

I think Basement Jaxx have moved the goal posts as far as the mix between experimentation and commercialism is concerned. They're not my favourite band but they could certainly teach Liam a thing or two about funky wayout beats. And then there's the French lot...times change, sound moves on...

Not bothered what the artist uses to make the track as long as it sounds innovative and gets me dancing.

technology is wicked..I love it...but we must always remeber to use our brains and not get too lazy and rely too mcuh on our gear.
I can do things now much quicker and easier then I could 8 years ago and I think my music has evolved with help of knowing technology and these tools. Also saves me a allot of $$.