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<  PRODIGY LIVE  ~  What does Liam do live?

PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 11:59 am
User avatarCorporalCorporalPosts: 302Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:36 am
I know he's been criticising DJs for just plugging in USB sticks and whatnot but does anyone know what he's specifically doing at live shows? Always wondered.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:32 pm
CorporalCorporalPosts: 355Location: MoscowJoined: Fri May 23, 2008 6:10 pm

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:36 pm
User avatarGeneralGeneralPosts: 2881Location: ESTJoined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:30 pm
http://theprodigy.info/equipment/

Quote:
In 2005 someone called "mallorca" posted to Prodigy fansite Nekozine and said Liam doesn't do anything live apart from press a button to start each track. Liam angrily replied with a diary entry on the Official Prodigy Website and explained what he is doing live:

"let me explain to the dicks out there who r apparently confused about what i do live. i got two apple mac laptops running ableton bak to bak. with ableton u can trigger audio in any way at any time.the carcuss of the tunes run from the laptops with maybe some of the keyboard parts -samples missing that i play live.most guitars r taken off and rob plays them.ableton is basically about triggering parts of the songs and thats why the set is different everytime. there is no bakup but the chance of both computers goin down is slim.whoever that tit was who said it was a cd with shouting over is a prick and i find that insulting. bye bye"



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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:40 pm
User avatarCorporalCorporalPosts: 302Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:36 am
Cool, cheers guys!


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 1:41 pm
GruntGruntPosts: 23Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 6:22 pm
Hehe,
That'll learn 'em.

So basically, live vocals, live drums, live guitars, live sample control and keyboards, with the underpinnings of the tracks played through/via ableton with some of the sounds triggered on MIDI or what ever.

Ive seen the chap playing between one track and the next as he's lining the next one up, big filtered sweeps and the like, with the drums backing him.

Sounds good to me...


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:32 pm
User avatarPrivatePrivatePosts: 134Location: polandJoined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:35 pm
hyperspeed? are yo on drugs? how long yo interest bout prodigy? silly question



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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:41 pm
User avatarPrivatePrivatePosts: 134Location: polandJoined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:35 pm
and the prodigy live shows they most live from all edm artists, for example chemical brothers? what they do? if video effects are corect exactly with them music, that mean their show is prerecord.



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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:44 pm
CorporalCorporalPosts: 314Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:08 am
Liam Howlett wrote:
http://theprodigy.info/equipment/

Quote:
In 2005 someone called "mallorca" posted to Prodigy fansite Nekozine and said Liam doesn't do anything live apart from press a button to start each track. Liam angrily replied with a diary entry on the Official Prodigy Website and explained what he is doing live:

"let me explain to the dicks out there who r apparently confused about what i do live. i got two apple mac laptops running ableton bak to bak. with ableton u can trigger audio in any way at any time.the carcuss of the tunes run from the laptops with maybe some of the keyboard parts -samples missing that i play live.most guitars r taken off and rob plays them.ableton is basically about triggering parts of the songs and thats why the set is different everytime. there is no bakup but the chance of both computers goin down is slim.whoever that tit was who said it was a cd with shouting over is a prick and i find that insulting. bye bye"


This seems to no longer be the case, as the laptops have apparently vanished from his live rig.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:48 pm
User avatarCorporalCorporalPosts: 353Joined: Tue May 26, 2009 4:26 pm
prodigal wrote:
and the prodigy live shows they most live from all edm artists, for example chemical brothers? what they do? if video effects are corect exactly with them music, that mean their show is prerecord.

Have you ever seen Chemical Brothers live? Or even their concert film Don't Think?

They do a lot of triggering, effects and analogue synth playing, I dare to say more than Liam does. Or Orbital, they played about everything. But both are a group of two and that makes a big difference.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 8:53 pm
User avatarPrivatePrivatePosts: 134Location: polandJoined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:35 pm
yea i watched that, but what do you think video how video behind works together with music? perfectly in the time.



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 9:24 pm
User avatarCorporalCorporalPosts: 353Joined: Tue May 26, 2009 4:26 pm
prodigal wrote:
yea i watched that, but what do you think video how video behind works together with music? perfectly in the time.
You've never been to a show where there's synced video playing in the background? Ever heard of VJ's (visual jockeys)?

There are guys running the whole visual aspect of the show. Different parts of video have been assigned beforehand to different parts of the track. When the parts change, the background changes.

And no matter what the band is, there is a light show. "The lights move on time with music, they are doing playback!" No, there are light guys who operate the lights to the music. Same with video.

I'm not an expert of this sort of things but still managed to figure out how things work. Hate explaining to simple-minded people sometimes but someone's gotta do it.... :?


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:11 pm
User avatarPrivatePrivatePosts: 134Location: polandJoined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:35 pm
ofcourse yo right and i agree, the same with prodigy they have own crew they work about lights and set every each track mode, for example omen green lights poison red and bla bl bla, people working on that , yes!
but i watched chemical video and is so perfect and i think is already set with the main line of each track, doesnt mean they do not make nothing on stage, ofcourse they do something like add extra beats and samples. cant belive they play live tracks from beginning to end. no one does,



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:38 pm
User avatarGeneralGeneralPosts: 3847Location: USAJoined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:56 pm
most modern lighting rigs can receive midi data to stay in time with the music
you set up what you want to be the main controller for things like BPM as the "master" and what you want to control as "slave"
plus there's a whole lighting crew who's job into the control lights/visuals to go with the music
back during the AONO/Their Law era tours, Liam was really messing with Ableton Live during performances and switching stuff up
Ableton is amazing for completely restructuring a track and adding in new bits on the fly
you could write a whole new section to a song and just add it in whenever you want
there's been plenty of moments where Liam has extended moments depending on the reaction of the crowd
more to do with interludes and jams like Breathe Dubstep
but the main jist of the tracks come from Ableton with him adding over it, especially with the Virus TI2 Polar he has
there's A LOT of additional parts that you can hear in the World's On Fire DVD
when you're live, everything is so loud and mixed correctly, that you don't really notice he is playing parts
that Virus TI2 is all over the World's On Fire DVD



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:45 pm
User avatarPrivatePrivatePosts: 134Location: polandJoined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:35 pm
thanks NEOREV



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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:38 am
User avatarGeneralGeneralPosts: 3847Location: USAJoined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:56 pm
i remember one of the AONO era shows Liam messed up during Back 2 Skool, he triggered Spitfire by accident.
it was either Pinkpop or Lowlands in 2005... forget which one.
but during the quiet breakdown/rumbling beat moment Liam triggered the opening hit/female vocal oh-oooh-oh-oh part my accident. then he tried to play it off like he did it on purpose by try to rhythmically starting and stopping it.
that's because he had sections of the song broken down in Ableton so he can trigger them when he wanted to.
that way if a section feels like it's going too long or too short live, you can mess with it and keep it going or move along to the next part of the song seamlessly.
there was a lot more experimentation in the set back during the AONO era.
i think it was because it was the first time Liam used something like Ableton Live than his usual way of performing from the whole Experience/Jilted/FotL years.
but i don't know if anyone else hear with the current live vids, but Liam edited up The Day Is My Enemy live. he brought the old skool synth part in quicker than keeping the same riff going again.
it helped take the energy of the track up a notch by moving the song along.

the real problem with Liam not being able to go wild and just jam is because of Rob and Leo. they just don't have the on the fly connection the band had with Keiron and Jim Davies or Gizz Butt. that was definitely the best live band The Prodigy had because Liam could just go off at points and Keiron would follow. like that Climbatize jam they did back in the day. don't get me wrong, Leo and Rob can still bring it live. they just don't have that spontaneity Keiron and Gizz Butt or Jim Davies had with the band. and i think that's the main reason why we don't get as many jams like we use to before.

but more recently, you can hear when Liam kept things going longer with that Breathe Dubstep jam they did during the IMD. most time times he wouldn't only go for like a minute. but at the Roseland Ballroom NYC show they rocked it for a couple of minutes and even added this cool little hand drum kinda loop over it. it was really wicked. there's a couple of shows where Liam kept it going and adding those pieces over it.

plus the Virus TI2 has a VST version of the synth that let's you open it up within a DAW like Ableton. so you can use it like a fully editable VST, but it runs off the Virus' synth engine instead of the computer's CPU. i have a Virus TI2 Polar... it's a fucking mental synth.



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