Get the BBC sounds that made the Doctor Who theme
The wonderful and whacky sounds of the BBC RadioPhonic Workshop are being made available to a new generation for use in music and beats.
The BBC’s famous Radiophonic Workshop was once the home of cutting edge music experimentation. Figures like Delia Derbyshire were manipulating sounds before anyone else, creating productions ahead of their time like the Doctor Who theme music.
Now, the madcap sounds of the workshop are being made available to play with yourself. The BBC’s store of unique equipment is being recreated and recorded into new software. The collection will include new and old sounds from across the equipment in the Radiophonic Workshop.
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop pack includes modular synthesisers, tape machines, vocoders, and much more legacy equipment. The pack also features a library of sounds recorded from the old Workshop tapes as well as newly recorded sounds made just for the pack.
The BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres has made the project to preserve this unique and somewhat forgotten corner of not just the BBC but of sound design. The influential workshop birthed futuristic sounds as far back as the 1950s for hit shows like Doctor Who, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and much more.
Ayers says: “I’m the youngest member of the core Radiophonic Workshop – and I’m 64. We’re not going to be around for ever. It was really important to leave a creative tool, inspired by our work, for other people to use going forward. I hope we’ve made an instrument that will inspire future generations.”
Ayers has brought together BBC Studios and Spifire Audio to bring the sounds to the masses. Spitfire Audio hosts sampled audio for producers to use in their software. The BBC have worked with Spitfire in the past to release the BBC Symphony Orchestra instrument.
Spitfire’s head of recording, Harry Wilson says: “We’re not just looking back at what the members were doing way back when. We’re projecting a strand of their work into the future and saying: if the Workshop was engaged with a similar process now, what would it sound like?”
The influence of the Workshop on modern electronic music cannot be understated, though it is oft forgot. Made to produce unique sounds for the BBC, the workshop became the home to the BBC’s bizarre electronic soundscapes and launched the career of figures in experimental music.
Producers and sound designers can pruchase the software for a discounted price of £119 until 17th March, when it will be available for £149. Listen to it in action, find out more, and purchase it from Spitfire Audio here.