The bendy riff in Charly IS the sound of rave. Variations of the bendy Juno sound also appeared on other seminal tracks including Human Resource’s Dominator and Mentasm.

The Charly sound is actually a combination of synthesis and re-sampling. The original sample was a combination of detuned Juno saw waves on one octave, layered with a noise/piano style stab at the beginning of the riff. Part of the character is that bending a sampled note sounds different to bending a synth sound.

Listen: The Prodigy - Charly

How to get the sound

Once you have made the single sustained note sample of the detuned saw waves - which we’re doing in Rob Papen’s Predator - stick a pair of them into a sampler and do a little more detuning. It should be starting to sound quite fat. Add a bit of overdrive and a very tight flanger (with low intensity) to get that nasty metallic shine. Finally, use a slap back 16th-note echo with all the bass taken out of it.