The Prodigy - Liam Howlett's Roland W30 Keyboard And Samples

Liam Howlett's old W30 and disks containing samples and full track of Everybody In The Place XL mix.

[@TimiTamminen]

A big piece of music history in a small disk like that… Love this video, really inspiring!

[@vois]

Ahh man that floppy sound will forever be engrained in my brain.

[@duzirealz9469]

back when making music was fun.... i love gear with limits

[@defoperator7993]

The sound was fatter too

[@187onasimp]

Is it not fun now?

[@doon4178]

damn so making music is not fun anymore? ://

[@DARRENC910]

Of course music making is still fun. But with the limits creators had back then it makes what they created seem so much more impressive.

[@21stCenturyDub]

Ironically the sounds seem to have stagnated since equipment and software have proliferated

[@wezix]

You better smack that .... I mean back that shit up.

[@jiltedgenerator]

wezix already done😁

[@darrynkeyboardguy8860]

Coz romeos here!

[@antonisatwork]

​@@jiltedgenerator what method have you used for backing up floppy disks on newer operating systems like the ones we currently have that dont natively support floppy drives? It seems it doesnt work the same with USB floppy drives apparently. Did you use some kind of conversion software as well to be able to access the Roland formatted disks? Thank you. Looking forward to your response

[@jiltedgenerator]

@@antonisatwork I backed them up onto the same disk format, I've not looking into transfering onto any other format yet

[@AngelArtists]

Damn. Those floppy disks man 😂😂

[@1mm375]

Seriously can you imagine how many people danced ther assess of to that w30 and 303

[@RoomAtTheTopStudio]

Liam would probably smile if he saw that old Roland W30 again.

[@RoomAtTheTopStudio]

@@100turley I know he ain't dead but I'm still sure he would smile to see one of his old instruments again. If someone showed me my old Chopper bike I'd offer them money or demand it with menaces lol.

[@dukeofpearl]

Experience is one hell of a dance record!!! In a field, early 90's...buzzing my tits off...great days!! ✌🏻🎶

[@jamesjules1303]

look after this piece of history. High quality memorabilia right there

[@CarinaPrimaBallerina]

Ah, the nostalgic sound of a floppy being read

[@raygrooves2666]

I had a Roland W30 I could never have done what Liam did with it , that is an artifact right there

[@jiltedgenerator]

Ray In the House I'm absolutely clueless with this most of time, so I can agree 100% with you

[@raygrooves2666]

DId you get the disc with the Your Love samples on it , loved seeing him do that on the W30 :)

[@jiltedgenerator]

@@raygrooves2666 sorry for late reply, sometimes the alerts don't show on KZbin. No I never got the samples for your love. I wish I had

[@Tekmatic]

Excellent to see that your'e still releasing house music!

[@raygrooves2666]

@@Tekmatic Yeah still at it :), I have loads to release but sorting out the best ways to get them out there atm.

[@microwah]

I Cant believe Liam would have let any of his gear go including samples!? If this is real. Keep it locked away and in good condition. It's irreplaceable!

[@jiltedgenerator]

Oh it's real, I wouldn't buy something like this without carrying out the necessary checks

[@jonbeanz37]

Liam always sells or gives away his gear. Just recently he gave away an old 303

[@justinium77]

@@jiltedgenerator if it is, I'm fucking envious you lucky bastad!

[@mano123456]

Original disks... it’s really amazing

[@187onasimp]

@@jonbeanz37 He probably has a ton of equipment he collected over the years.

[@Edouard16]

Hopefully you didn’t back them up only to similar floppy disks but also with low-level disk images saved on hard drives. However you know as well as me that it will never truly be protected until you share it online.

[@OutWithMyGear]

1:50 to hear samples

[@killahkay2112]

need to find that original sample too .

[@garypeake4469]

You are one lucky man!

[@spinracing]

Gawd... make dupes of the data!!! Thats pretty damn priceless info.

[@jiltedgenerator]

spinracing already done😉

[@jiltedgenerator]

I mentioned this before, that out of respect for the sellers wishes, I cannot. Sorry

[@Alfiepowers]

Everybodys in the place… Lets go!

[@kennyfenny4754]

That 2nd sample has been burned into my mind since the early nineties?

[@SkylineTechnology]

A piece of history

[@thehistoryofchingfordwater8933]

Love the w30. Nice playing!

[@braddrummonds7389]

I love the sound of loading a good floppy disk

[@eross21]

so is that how liam writes and perfoms? he samples loops to keys and plays back songs that way? if so , amazing they did that even before abelton live

[@iteamy]

Yeah back then you had samples ripped off of records and probably

[@waynesilverman3048]

We do it the other way round but I'd like to to that on my minilogue through ableton

[@TrueFilter]

? This is basic sampling which has been long established before prodigy.

[@andreweasygale]

Yep, loads of American hip hop producers have done the same thing, only mostly with an EMU systems SP1200. Cypress hill, Gang Starr..... Those producers (DJ Muggs & DJ Premier) were sampling hooks of obscure jazz/funk vinyl or anything that sounded good for a beat and made a new beat. SP1200 had that particular sound that made it good for punchy crunchy gritty drums.

[@brokenscart7989]

A floppy drive, ohh my days. So cool.

[@Kadenite]

Sequencer, sampler and synthesizer in one piece of gear. Even now, there are few devices that do what the Roland W-30 could.

[@zeitgeist909]

I'm sorry dude - what you said sounds lovely and I appreciate your rose tinted view, but - there are literally thousands of devices that do exactly that. Nice sentiment tho.

[@suspiciouswatermelon7639]

Get yourself an MPC Key 61.

[@dvamateur]

Beautiful instrument.

[@dvamateur]

@ARE WHO LEE? It is special. The aesthetics are perfect, the feel of the keyboard is good, and the playability is excellent.

[@bradenwilson]

I wonder how many people have taken samples from this video

[@BostonDeadHead]

Not great quality but I'm sampling it.

[@dayuhanspace]

I cant imagine a disk so small can contain many samples for that keyboard

[@welshman100]

Would have thought Liam would want this.

[@larr9095]

The last sample also used on N-Joi techno gangsters

[@MYEVILTWIIN]

Lmcd 909 Nigel from NJoi’s brother was the Prodigy’s manager who sadly past away a month or so back

[@djs909]

The W30 was a bad ass machine

[@eluberimabib4070]

@ARE WHO LEE? yeah, very hard to grasp for complete idiots.

[@Elly-iu3qk]

Amazing. chills dude

[@wakeupscreaming9883]

I still have my Roland W-30. In hindsight, I spent too much on it ($3k+ in 1990), especially for being my first keyboard. I should have bought a DX7 or Korg M1 or something like that.

[@jamesfield1674]

I bet he used reading of the disk as a sample lol, great stuff

[@jdlives8992]

Amazing!! I still have all my floppy’s for my equinox.

[@manelbueno2205]

I need this floppy! 😍

[@SuperEssenceOfficial]

everybody is in the place

[@chevyatkins558]

Wow havent seen a floppy disk in like a lifetime

[@paulhunter123]

bascially the 90s all there at his fingers

[@CHodgy]

Wow, really great video. Thanks so much...

[@jiltedgenerator]

Thank you

[@tuapse08]

Где бы найти теперь эти чудо звуки в 2022м...

[@1mm375]

Your either Liam or very close to him.. If you are Liam thanks sooo much for music to my teen years ❤️

[@jiltedgenerator]

No, I'm not Liam and not close to him either🤣

[@1mm375]

@@jiltedgenerator mate howd did u manage to get hold of that equipment

[@jiltedgenerator]

@@1mm375 liams mate bought it from him in the 90's. Liam's mate's brother then sold it to myself in 200 ..

[@1mm375]

@@jiltedgenerator seriously what a lucky man you are

[@1mm375]

@@jiltedgenerator lol youv basically bought the crown jewels of the rave the British rave scene

[@epexlinux]

Price of history

[@blap200]

Surprised that Liam sold a lot of his gear. Thought he would have kept them even though he probably won't use them.

[@Kholaslittlespot1]

Think he did a lot of it for charity though

[@eriksand9262]

Does Liam come up with any beats, or sounds on his own for songs? Or is everything from samples? Or does he do a combo of samples and original music? 🤔

[@187onasimp]

3:55 haha he sampled Mothra. I have to wonder did he ditch this and move on to the ASR-10 when it came out?

[@crostofor]

cool stuff 🏵🎹

[@ThePhobos100]

I haven't seen those floppy disks for over 20 years

[@abohsukampret]

You mean the save icon?

[@The_Angry_BeEconomist]

It's a stiffy, the floppy is the bigger one

[@ChristopherWoods]

For the sake of musical history, I hope you've made full backups of those floppy disks! Many of my old floppy disks from the 90s are already unreadable or partly corrupt and I lost some of my first MIDI compositions. Lovely retro instrument and looks like you've kept it in good condition. Why not invite synth4ever over to have a play? ;)

[@jiltedgenerator]

I've backed them up 3 times...but now I think another 10 backups are on the way🤣

[@ChristopherWoods]

@@jiltedgenerator I ended up cloning some of the good ones to my PC as images with dd, thanks to their weird non-PC filesystem (ADFS!). Eventually figured out how to use the Linux ADFS driver to read them, happy days. And I'm glad I did because more of them somehow made themselves unreadable in the last house move 😭 so yeah, backup in at least three different ways ;) Could do a fun remix competition with those samples if Howlett agreed to it. Was very fun to hear some of the elements isolated after all this time, something quite special about being able to deconstruct a well known tune and see just how well it was put together.

[@Joe-kt7zp]

How did he load up songs live. Takes a minute per song...

[@Tekmatic]

They might've had 2 of them on stage.

[@rrrnigth8030]

Fantástic muito original 👏👍🤘🤟😎🇧🇷👊🎹💿📀💽

[@dalegrimshaw4256]

Wow That's cool. I used to have a W30 - they were pretty damn basic... a testament to Liam's innovation. So is that Liam's handwriting on the discs?

[@jiltedgenerator]

Yes the disks belonged to liam

[@djtyros]

Waw, someone 3d printed the save icon!

[@turn1210]

It’s funny how a new generation knows that it’s the save button without ever having used a floppy disk

[@nikobellic2086]

thats pretty fackin cool mate

[@ndrinks5550]

"It belongs in a museum!"

[@modularmountain3910]

Are you creating a prodigy museum? You have the 303 and now some pretty priceless samples. Your either a millionaire with great taste or someone with an insane obsession.

[@jiltedgenerator]

😂😂 no, not a millionaire, if only...and no, not insane either. Just a fan of the beats and how they are created

[@modularmountain3910]

jiltedgenerator they definitely have an ear for sampling and are masters of implementing them. If you don’t mind me asking how much was that 303? I know that the regular 303s are going for an extreme price so I can only imagine what yours was bought at. Probably more than my studio.

[@jiltedgenerator]

@@modularmountain3910 had it about 15 years so didn't pay what you probably imagine. I cannot comment on price out of respect for the seller

[@kernelpaniiic]

1:07 Pretty minimalist remix of the song.

[@andyr4941]

Here's Liam's W-30 live on stage: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZO7enyBaKegfLc

[@jiltedgenerator]

One of many W30's the band needed for live shows. I have one of the live W30's too, bought from leeroy Thornhill a few years ago.

[@whitelabelproduction]

...ah the floppy tray too!

[@koncreteto2758]

You got cnm floppy discs not prodigy, if they were they would have authenticity certificate liam always inclues it in any of his sales, cheers

[@jiltedgenerator]

@@koncreteto2758 no worries, it was authenticated before I bought it, and it wasn't sold to me by Liam. Liam has donated many synths over the years to great causes

[@emilylopez5659]

AMAZING....... 🥰🥰🥰

[@outsidemayor2098]

Wow ! Tell us more ? 🙏

[@martinloopchick]

what samples are this? have you a list?

[@BillehBobJoe]

hey Mr generator, mind explaining to me how this pile of samples is turned into the original studio mix of 'everbody in the place' for a simpleton like me? like how does a young Liam Howlett play this on stage at a gig? i read once from a interview with the prodigy's dancer Leeroy Thornhill that they needed "two W30's to play the set" Is that true here? would you need two W30s to do a 1:1 recreation of the original?

[@jiltedgenerator]

With the samples I think they are put into order using the w30. As for live I will have to give it a try using 2 w30's. I was lucky enough to get another w30 from Leeroy which they used in the early live sets. I will try and post a video if it works out.

[@lynnegill6357]

Yes one on top of each other

[@EarlOfMaladyCrescent]

It never knew they used two W-30s for going live, but it doesn't surprise me. I'm a proud owner of a W-30 & am very familiar with it. One of it's limitations is it takes about a minute to load up a disk of sounds. (In fact, the start of this video shows that). This kind of pause wouldn't be ideal between every song at a gig. The W-30 has a built in Sequencer, as well as it being a Sampler, so you can record songs on it. The Prodigy probably had one W-30 playing a song on stage, while the other one was loading the sounds & stuff ready for the next song. A bit like how a DJ alternates between two decks.

[@BillehBobJoe]

Did you ever follow up on that? i'm still interested in seeing that demonstrated, and given the sad events this week, i bet some other people would be interested in seeing it too

[@planetweed]

Search on youtube for ´´The Prodigy 18-10-1991 Energy, Eclipse Club, Coventry´´ to see the Liam use the two W30s live on stage , and there´s probably a few other vids of early Prodigy gigs around

[@1mm375]

Wow how did u get your hands on that and the 303... What a piece of history youv got

[@darrynkeyboardguy8860]

im pretty sure you could layer few of these samples together by opening this video in a few browser tabs. 😁

[@opticalman6417]

i believe he had more than one w30 i remember reading somewhere that he had one of them stolen at a festival

[@jiltedgenerator]

@opticalman6417 yeah he has had many. I was lucky enough to get one from leeroy that they used live

[@opticalman6417]

@@jiltedgenerator why would leeroy give you a w30 when they were liams

[@jiltedgenerator]

@@opticalman6417 Leeroy used to take one home with him and I bought it from Leeroy a few years ago. So I have 2 of the prodigy's w30s in my collection

[@dazburnside7340]

Back when this was new, where did you get the samples from that’s on the floppys?

[@jiltedgenerator]

Liam howlett put the samples and track on the disk

[@thiswillprobhrt]

They were often sampled from records\vinyl from an analog input. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sITOhJVnjbisnZY

[@goednieuwskrantje-nl]

I hope you've made some backups of those diskettes ;)

[@jiltedgenerator]

Backed them up several times🤣

[@StepSev7en]

Damn its such a nice set up. Please man just make a beat!

[@Zhr1710]

3:30-This sounds like Korg M1 Organ Bass with distortion effect😂

[@rockstopsthetraffic]

Like Alan Wilder's sampler and disks, legendary.

[@RenevolutionAccount]

my favorite is at 2m56s (the drumloop) ❤🔥

[@jonathanvolle]

Love this

[@DaveS-Ace]

This is ace

[@comaproductions3288]

Holy shit, a 3 1/2 floppy.

[@diggzshitloud1693]

Why so many dislikes??

[@jiltedgenerator]

No idea, nice that they took the time to do so🤣

[@RetroJay1974]

Those disks, are they imaged/backed up?

[@oldskooldancemusic1]

Awesome

[@jiltedgenerator]

Thanks

[@AvizuraDnB]

If I ever had to sell all my gear, I'd at least keep my w30

[@davegrg123]

Surely they are not stock sounds? Did he sample and load them up himself?

[@jiltedgenerator]

Yeah, Liam loaded the samples and track to the disk.

[@djboogiedownuk]

HOW MUCH?

[@billB101]

How did you get hold of Liams Disks, and is there song on there too?

[@jiltedgenerator]

The w30 was his originally too. Liam gave it to his friends brother and later gave him the disk to test the drive. Years later I purchased it from the guy.

[@RaveyStabs]

2:54 homes under the hammer auction room!

[@jiltedgenerator]

🤣🤣🤣

[@RaveyStabs]

I did a video making that FM bass recently, but may have got the notes wrong now that I see it here

[@AndyVonal]

I've owned a W30 for 20 years. It's in need of a bit of attention - no backlight on the display (like in this video) and a 2 dead keys (the low D key was always dead for note data but I used it for transmitting after touch to the filter without note data being generated, a great performance feature from a fault!). It still sounds great. There's a lovely indefinable "quality" to the sound. I had an S550 for a while to expand the capabilities (used to load my W30 samples onto it...) but it didn't quite have the same sound. I always wondered why that was the case. I love my W30 and would never sell it. I still use it on almost every track I do.

[@C20XEMini]

I repair W-30's and can fit a new OLED type screen so no horrid backlight issues

[@AndyVonal]

Hi Mike Moorfield. Can you let me know where you are and what the rates would be?

[@C20XEMini]

Andy, email me [e-mail]

[@jakesullivan5861]

Where is the sound coming from rave in peace Keith 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

[@plainlazy2097]

Have you made a back-up/bump of the disk image for preservation?

[@jiltedgenerator]

Yes

[@CastToVoid]

Ah! The "Save" icon!

[@jonog4207]

always wondered how they did it before ableton

[@daemonelectricity]

Before Ableton there were MPCs, SP-303, Electribes, etc. Before that were rack mounted samplers and super expensive outboard computers like the Fairlight and Synclavier. Before that was spliced tape loops wrapped around a microphone stand.

[@thiswillprobhrt]

Not sure if howlett used them, but drum machines were used as well. Sampling from vinyl into the drum machine and sequencing it.

[@jonog4207]

@Philip Wood wow 2 years since my comments only only see this now. Thanks guys.

[@jonog4207]

@@daemonelectricity wow 1 years since my comments only only see this now. Thanks guys.

[@Tekmatic]

@Philip Wood Didn't the C64 also have Cubase? Lots of sequencing was done on both the Atari ST and Commodore 64/128. Kind of wish I would've held onto the C64 and C126 I once had. But, at the time, it wasn't easy to find much information about them or get my hands on the software.

[@phuturemusic]

Hi everybody!

[@krutev]

Awesome! Did Liam sell it to you?

[@jiltedgenerator]

Alex Krutëv The original owner 'Wayne Burchett" was the brother of one of Liam's old school friends. Liam either sold it or gave it him in the mid 90's. That's who I purchased it from

[@krutev]

Nice) Small world.

[@mano123456]

jiltedgenerator that's incredible...

[@stud105]

Pension money right there.... I bet you bought it cheap through an old mate! Good on you.

[@GrahamThomas-ft7wz]

It put me off the prodigy when I found out every track they made were glued together using samples, like some spastics collarge.

[@djaugust7774]

E💥clusive

[@evildiesel1709]

pardon the stupid comment but did he make these sounds (other than the samples) on another synth and then save them onto disk for this? so at a live gig he would have to carry a load of disks with him?

[@ArtisticAutisticandAiling]

Do you ever plan making groovie music like Liam? I debate about getting either a Roland W-30 or an EMU SP12 or SP1200 to try and make my own grooves to cassette tape. :)

[@chrisoseland4643]

I would love to have his kits

[@markorendas1790]

SO ODD SEEING A SAMPLER EAT A FLOPPY DISK. BURP!!!

[@jiltedgenerator]

🤣

[@annother3350]

Chug chug chug...

[@simontunnicliffe2107]

Where would Liam Howlett have gotten these samples, especially that bass (the one also used in Passion - Gat Decor) at 2m06s?

[@skatechatham]

Zero-G sample packs more than likely, i have a few of the original ones that came out before prodigy and they have many of the sounds you hear on old rave tunes

[@simontunnicliffe2107]

@@skatechatham Oh yeah Zero-G. Had a look through today (about 200 bass sounds) and not one was that one. Unless it's one that sounds different when sampled and pitched down maybe.

[@launamg]

"wiggin" by Mayday (derrick may) is the source of that bass note, which was from a DX 100.

[@simontunnicliffe2107]

@@launamg A patch he made was it or a preset? it's the shizzle.

[@ndrinks5550]

Was it me who didn't believe this was real a while ago? I'm pretty certain I remember saying to someone that the disks could be fake or something then they gave me a link showing it was legit. I would make a total copy of them disks and keep the originals away safe, although I dunno what kind of crazy disk formatting Roland may have been using at the time .They're a proper physical piece of 1990's history along with the W30.

[@jiltedgenerator]

back up copies were the first thing I made

[@ndrinks5550]

Nice one. Did you get the Crazy Man disk that was shown in that really old video of Liam in his house demonstrating the W30? Really underrated track in my opinion.

[@jiltedgenerator]

+NDrinks no unfortunately, wish I did have it

[@cromulence]

@@jiltedgenerator Any chance of sharing the disk images?

[@sigma5054]

awesome