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Making of "The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up" in Ableton by Jim Pavloff

Jim Pavloff · 4.1M views · 2009-12-15 · 10:00

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Overview

Jim Pavloff rebuilds the Prodigy track Smack My Bitch Up in Ableton, identifying the samples used and recreating the track by hand.

On Hacker News

Recommended as a fun, in-depth look at how sampling and music production work, and as proof that skilled humans can reconstruct tracks from scratch.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2014–2025

Topics

Music theory, synthesis & production
Search by tags
abletonsamplingthe prodigyremakeelectronic music

What people said

guruz · 2017-05 · Strong recommendation

I think I've watched this video a ton of times: [VIDEO] That guy is using Ableton Live to re-create a popular song of The Prodigy.

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dash2 · 2025-04 · Recommendation

Related: this recreation of Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up. I'm amazed at the level of musical knowledge needed to do this. [VIDEO]

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xpl · 2024-08 · Recommendation

There are legendary Prodigy tracks reconstructions by Jim Pavloff, see: 1. "Smack my bitch up" [VIDEO] 2. "Voodoo people" [LINK] Those pieces sound exactly the same as the original, but it does not violate copyright because they've been produced by hand. Mind blowing!

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Sources

Video by Jim Pavloff, played through YouTube.

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