Moogs pretty, little baby... cheap synth... but nice sounding. The Prodigy is often considered as "Minimoog for the poor man". Poor Prodigy! Maybe it's true, who knows. Its features are really rude, no extras at all. I even wasn't sure if this small monster was worth a review...

The Prodigy has lovely bass- and sync-sounds. End of the story.

Well, there are a few things more to say. This instruments has an interesting history, absolutely:

First - Prodigys were sold for nothing! 800 DeutschMark in 1981, something like that. Really cheap. Todays street prices are above the original asking price. Only few synths show up this tendency...

Second - following the legendary Minimoog it was selling in respective quantities. Moog produces 11 000 instruments, during a period of only two years (so in fact the Prodigy was even a lot more successful than the Mini).

Pic: earlier models usually are finished in bright wood...

Third - despite selling at low prices, the instrument's sound is perfect. And there is one feature brother Minimoog is missing: OSC synchronization.... source of some all-time-classic sounds...

Features - pure asceticism
If Prodigy's designers would have omitted some more features, only the wooden frame and wheels would have been left.

The instruments has two VCOs, the typical 24dB-Moogfilter, two reduced ENVs and a simple LFO... Keyboard length is only 2 1/2 octaves, and connections on early Prodigys are really poor. It definitely sounds like a terrible boring instrument...

Connections - early versus later models
Early models only had somewhat like audio-out. No interface-possibilities, that's for sure.

The later version offers more options: CV/Gate(S-Trig) IN/OUT, VCF-IN, SYNC-IN and OSC-IN, audio-out...

Such a Prodigy seems very interesting to me. The interface-possibilities allow external modules (such as a nice high-end-lfo e.g.) to be implemented. Therefore the Prodigy's range of sounds can be extended quite a lot.

Sound - Bass and Sync
Moog and bass is the same, we first hear about that in elementary school. So there's no exciting facial expression when listening to these beautiful bass-sounds. It's a Moog, what did you expect?

But when using osc-synchronization, facial expression of an ordinary human being such as me starts changing dramatically. You get the hell out of a Prodigy! Its sync-sounds are tremendously colourful, sometimes powerful, sometimes truely weak. Although the Oberheim OB-1 offers "nice" sync, and Sequentials classic Pro-One offers "nice" sync, there's still the Odyssey with it's "nice" sync... (and many others) - but these are just peanuts compared to the overwhelming and extremely musical sounding sync-colours pearling out of a Prodigy.

(Maybe it's the same with lillte brother Moog Rogue. To be honest I'm no Moog-expert at all. I even hated Moog-synths for a long time. Not because of any musical reason, but people compared all synths of the last decades only with Moog... "this is NO Minimoog"... "the Waldorf Pulse offers 3 OSC similar to a Minimoog"... "Korg's Prophecy is the Minimoog of the 90ies"... and so on and so on... it was just awful, as if there was no other nice sonical character than the one of a Moog-synth. In the meantime some people realized there are other truely serious classic instruments...).

However, the beautiful Prodigy-sync-sound is simply unique and can be changed very sensitive via the pitch wheel. Further the sync-in-port allows sync-modulation via an external source. Let the analog sequencer control sync, and connect a high-speed lfo to filter-in... you get a Prodigy with genious sound!

Modifications
Quite a lot of Prodigys have been modified. Smaller upgrades include 32''-scale for VCO2 (definitely a good point) or pulse width modulation. Extended modifications sometimes end up with complete patch panels. Sadly cosmetic results are not always the best, so either patch options are made by a skilled technician, or better leave the Prodigy original, as it is.

Pic: heaviliy modified Prodigy

Conclusion
Looking for Moog-sound? If there's no Minimoog at a realistic prices available, and if the wonderful Voyager is beyond your financial ressources, have a look at the Prodigy. It's an extemely nice sounding synth. Certainly its keyboard length is far too short, but CV/Gate allows connecting a sort of master-keyboard. Certainly a boring and ordinary LFO only is valuable for some vibrati and sweeps, but then you have filter-cv-in and other connections for creative sound extensions. Certainly, Minimoog-knobs are nicer to twiggle...

But still hardware is good enough (compared to the equally low-priced Pro-One hardware it's even far better!). So... next time your friend offers you his Prodigy (later version with interface-options), don't hesitate... play it and see if you fall in love with its genious nice bass and osc-synchronization...