Welcome to the premiere of a new season of "The Synth Sounds Of..." A few months ago, Reverb's William Kurk made our "The Synth Sounds of Phil Collins' 'In The Air Tonight,'" and today he's back again to delve into a Talking Heads classic. In the coming weeks, William will also be breaking down synth parts by Hall & Oates, Tears For Fears, and more.
Originally released in 1983 on the Talking Heads album Speaking In Tongues, "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" is an enduring classic that melds a grooving bass line, a nuanced "Lead 1" melodic line, and a vocal-like "Lead 2"—all played on the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. In the video above, William has employed a new Prophet-6 to achieve the same sounds.
To add an era-appropriate effect to the bassline, William uses the free TAL-CHORUS-LX, for the plugin's Juno-60-like chorus. The first lead also uses the TAL-CHORUS-LX, but matches it with Waves' Renaissance Reverb. Meanwhile, the pivotal second lead line makes great use of the synth's pitch wheel, along with a little aural space from Waves' Renaissance Reverb as well.
But you don't need a Prophet-5 or even a Prophet-6 to achieve the Talking Heads tones. We at Reverb have assembled an Ableton Live Pack and a Logic X Session with all the appropriate presets and audio files needed to play the song. These sessions work very well in combination with the Prophet V3 virtual instrument (available separately or within Arturia’s V Collection 6), but you can use the provided audio files for your synth sounds as well. For an exclusive arrangement and sound set inspired by "This Must Be the Place," listen to the Soundcloud track below.
Be sure to watch our full "The Synth Sounds Of..." video above, and check back next week for this season's next episode.