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Talking Heads Keys - Help Please


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Burning down the House - it's in G - chords are not so much a problem or those melody lines, but what the heck is going on when vamping the G - sounds like maybe a patch with a 4th or 5th on it?

 

Take me to the River - what the heck is that - sounds like an organ with "percussion" on? Again, chords are not an issue, but how to play the darn thing is!

 

It sounds like some "bells" in there every once in a while - which I think is maybe another overdubbed organ with really short notes (this is also how I believe Pink Floyd made some bell hits in "Echoes").

 

It's really hard to hear what's going on in either of those songs, and if you don't have the exact right sound it's hard to reproduce. I could work on the sound, but it would really help to have an idea of what the person was actually playing (what keys they were striking!).

 

If you can help out, please do.

 

Thanks

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For the studio version Jerry Harrison told me he played a Yamaha YC-30 on TMTTR. Those had a bunch of unique sounds and the pitch bend strip so famously used on "Do It Again" solo by Steely Dan. My assumption is a lot of those little sounds are unique to that instrument. Also, Brian Eno produced, so he also could have added little weird sounds and textures.

 

I think most of the sounds on BDTH are from a Prophet 5, but no idea how they got them....

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For the studio version Jerry Harrison told me he played a Yamaha YC-30 on TMTTR. Those had a bunch of unique sounds and the pitch bend strip so famously used on "Do It Again" solo by Steely Dan. My assumption is a lot of those little sounds are unique to that instrument. Also, Brian Eno produced, so he also could have added little weird sounds and textures.

 

I think most of the sounds on BDTH are from a Prophet 5, but no idea how they got them....

 

Ahh - so THAT's what is on Do it Again - I've always wondered. That's been in my backlog of "what was used on this" set of questions!

 

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The burbling sort of quacking riff is Prophet 5 using oscillator sync. It was kind of a staple P5 sound but plenty of other synths could do it also.

 

Thanks. I felt it has some "sync-ness" to it, so suspicions confirmed on that one aspect of it.

 

Still, how to actually play it....

 

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I think YC-30 or 45D is likely. It has those bells on it. Steve Winwood played a YC-45D in the 70"s too.

For the bells, I"d use an analog vibraphone style bell patch. The BDTH sound has a filter envelope on it controlling the filter, so maybe a sync sound with medium resonance and a filter envelope.

Yamaha MX49, Casio SK1/WK-7600, Korg Minilogue, Alesis SR-16, Casio CT-X3000, FL Studio, many VSTs, percussion, woodwinds, strings, and sound effects.
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I think YC-30 or 45D is likely. It has those bells on it. Steve Winwood played a YC-45D in the 70"s too.

For the bells, I"d use an analog vibraphone style bell patch. The BDTH sound has a filter envelope on it controlling the filter, so maybe a sync sound with medium resonance and a filter envelope.

 

The portamento strip is actually different on the two organs, believe it or not:

 

http://www.combo-organ.com/Yamaha/yamaha.htm

 

The one on the YC-30 was way better...

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I think YC-30 or 45D is likely. It has those bells on it. Steve Winwood played a YC-45D in the 70"s too.

For the bells, I"d use an analog vibraphone style bell patch. The BDTH sound has a filter envelope on it controlling the filter, so maybe a sync sound with medium resonance and a filter envelope.

 

The portamento strip is actually different on the two organs, believe it or not:

 

http://www.combo-organ.com/Yamaha/yamaha.htm

 

The one on the YC-30 was way better...

From the description (and having played only a YC-45D so far â last week, in fact), the only difference seems to be that on the 45D, it is dedicated to only the specific voices at the far right, while on the 30, it apparently plays the regular upper manual sounds, as well. That's a considerable difference, I agree.

 

Side note: somebody at one point started describing the "astro" sound as "ring modulator", and that has propagated through virtually all sources I've found on the net.

It's not, AFAICT. It's just simple FM.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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It sounds like some "bells" in there every once in a while - which I think is maybe another overdubbed organ with really short notes (this is also how I believe Pink Floyd made some bell hits in "Echoes").

 

The bells on "Echoes" are just the Hammond percussion, without any drawbars pulled.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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Burning down the House - it's in G - chords are not so much a problem or those melody lines, but what the heck is going on when vamping the G - sounds like maybe a patch with a 4th or 5th on it?

 

I play this one every night. You gotta specify whether you're doing the studio or live version. Studio was jerry, I never really looked into what he did. Because the iconic Live version is Bernie Worrell on a P5 as everyone has mentioned. He's got 3 different patches: a standard saw brass poly lead for the main song, a mono sync lead for the solos, and a curious square-based lead that serves as both the intro melody and warbly splats.

 

Verse comping: poly brass patch, standard sawtooth, bit of filter resonance but not much. No 5th or harmonizing as you suggested, he's just playing triads.

 

Solo: Hard Sync lead. I got very close with Arturia ProphetV software. Many modern Prophets come with this patch or something close to it, but as usual, none ever feel perfect. Interesting to hear that there was a Wah involved. I don't see/hear it being actively used, but I can imagine it being set to provide a static resonance. I didn't use anything like that in my setup, and people have told me it sounds spot on. Use an envelope to modulate the pitch of OSC-A in a downward sweep, and then sync that to OSC-B, which is your carrier signal. Adjust to taste to get that iconic quack. I did add some tube distortion, as it feels very raw and harmonically "damaged" to my ears, above and beyond the sync. He's obviously using some delay too. It's mono because he's milking the glide, set to "Legato" (it only glides if he holds down both notes).

 

Intro/breakdown patch: this was the hardest for me to nail, and I cheated with two patches for a long time. He starts off with a simple 3-note melody on a 50% square, some LPF to sound "pure" and subdued. It then gives way to a "warble" sound. This is the same patch, but with a very fast pitch LFO controlled by the mod wheel. In the intro, it's difficult to tell that these are the same patch, he throws up the mod wheel and he's in completely different territory. During the breakdown, you can hear him creep up the modulation towards the end of the melody, giving way to the warble. It's about a full octave pitch LFO, but not quite as it's never in tune with itself.

 

I have a lot of fun with this one. I play the second half of it on keytar (wirelessly mirroring my rig), and "breakdance" during the ending vamp. If there's an "Eric Barker signature song", this is probably it. We've recorded it for our album, I'll post it here in a few months when it's done.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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For the studio version Jerry Harrison told me he played a Yamaha YC-30 on TMTTR. Those had a bunch of unique sounds and the pitch bend strip so famously used on "Do It Again" solo by Steely Dan. My assumption is a lot of those little sounds are unique to that instrument. Also, Brian Eno produced, so he also could have added little weird sounds and textures.

 

I think most of the sounds on BDTH are from a Prophet 5, but no idea how they got them....

 

Ahh - so THAT's what is on Do it Again - I've always wondered. That's been in my backlog of "what was used on this" set of questions!

 

Do It Again is some sort of cheap "plastic organ" (per Donald Fagen), not sure what. But I do know from experience that the pitch bend is done with tape echo. It's a slap-back with the mix pretty wet and you move the speed back and forth in the spots where you hear the pitch-shift.

 

As for "Echoes", that's a piano put through a Leslie speaker on fast.

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We've recorded it for our album, I'll post it here in a few months when it's done.

 

 

 

Not to hijack the thread, but Eric - how did you secure the rights to Burnin' Down the House to Record it? How expensive was it?

 

Muzikteechur is Lonnie, in Kittery, Maine.

 

HS music teacher: Concert Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Chorus, Music Theory, AP Music Theory, History of Rock, Musical Theatre, Piano, Guitar, Drama.

 

 

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Not to hijack the thread, but Eric - how did you secure the rights to Burnin' Down the House to Record it? How expensive was it?

Not my problem, actually, band leader is working that out. I'm sure he'll be very thorough since he's a grammy nominated studio engineer who refuses to cut any corners when it comes to rights. Jesus... for the "hidden track" we're doing the intro to Muse's "Uprising" with me playing the Doctor Who theme, and even though it features no melodic content from Uprising he insists on paying the Muse licensing fees, and we'll have to pay BBCs licensing fees as well! I want to talk to him about that one.

 

Thankfully a couple of wealthy fans are funding the project.

 

I did cover a few tunes on an album with a previous band, but it was a few independent folk artists that one of my mates knew personally. I believe we worked out a deal for $0.50 per CD for each song. Times have changed since though, I don't know much about digital rights.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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I recall the Keyboard interview with Jerry Harrison where he was asked what he thought the next trend would be. He said "Competence."

I'm not sure I feel equipped to answer that even sanely, much less fairly. :puff::saber:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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For the studio version Jerry Harrison told me he played a Yamaha YC-30 on TMTTR. Those had a bunch of unique sounds and the pitch bend strip so famously used on "Do It Again" solo by Steely Dan. My assumption is a lot of those little sounds are unique to that instrument. Also, Brian Eno produced, so he also could have added little weird sounds and textures.

 

I think most of the sounds on BDTH are from a Prophet 5, but no idea how they got them....

 

Ahh - so THAT's what is on Do it Again - I've always wondered. That's been in my backlog of "what was used on this" set of questions!

 

Do It Again is some sort of cheap "plastic organ" (per Donald Fagen), not sure what. But I do know from experience that the pitch bend is done with tape echo. It's a slap-back with the mix pretty wet and you move the speed back and forth in the spots where you hear the pitch-shift.

 

As for "Echoes", that's a piano put through a Leslie speaker on fast.

 

It was a YC-30. See the reference here: http://www.combo-organ.com/discography.htm. It was also confirmed to me by Elliot Scheiner, their longtime producer and engineer when I spoke with him about it.

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