Creating the lead sound from Talking Heads Burning Down The House on Prophet-5

video upload by Paul Schilling

"I only mention this at the end of the video, but the way I hear it in the original, the filter in this sound is wide open. The character comes mainly from the combination of pulse waves, detuned unison, and oscillator sync. I focus mainly on the oscillator, unison and glide settings but the envelope settings are also quite simple...fast attack and release, sustain all the way up.

Some tips on creating this on a Prophet-6:
- to get a fresh "init patch": While holding down the PRESET button, press the WRITE button
- to set the number of Unison voices: Hold down UNISON button, use the BANK/DECREMENT and TENS/INCREMENT buttons to set the number of voices
- to set Unison detune amount, use the SLOP knob
- to get Osc A to have both saw and square/pulse waves, set the SHAPE knob to 2 o'clock (halfway between saw and square shapes)"