BBC Radiophonic Workshop

₹ 12,437.00
₹ 17,274.00 ₹ 12,437.00
Sale Sold out
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Electronic music history, reimagined

For 40 years, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was the place to go for the sound of the impossible – the unruly engine behind the music and effects of Doctor Who, the Goon Show, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and countless other BBC productions. It was a place of other worlds, and of other sounds. Reanimating this abundant legacy, the essence of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is now available for the first time – with unprecedented access to its home: London’s Maida Vale studios.

Dive into an immaculately sampled collection of vintage synthesisers, tape loops, iconic archives and brand new performances from Workshop members. Revitalised with Spitfire’s SOLAR engine, this library passes the torch from the most forward-thinking minds of early electronic music on to the next generation of producers. 

₹ 12,437.00
₹ 17,274.00 ₹ 12,437.00
Sale Sold out
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What's Included

Tech Specs

Mac system requirements

Mac OS 11 to OS 14

Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 minimum (quad-core), 8GB RAM

Recommended: 2.8GHz I7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

Both Intel and Apple Silicon/ARM are supported

32-bit systems are not supported.

PC system requirements

Windows 10 or Windows 11 - (Latest Service Pack, 64-bit) Minimum: Intel 2.8 GHz i5 (quad-core) or AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM

Recommended: Intel Core i7 6th gen and later or AMD Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM

32-bit systems are not supported.

File size

Download size size 27.8 GB

Trailer

Walkthrough

Interview

While there are instruments in this library that are created from sampling the archival tapes of the Workshop, the human connection has been maintained. The found sounds and early synths that were deployed by the Workshop are realised here with new performances and patches from remaining members of the Workshop such as Dick Mills, Mark Ayres, Glynis Jones and new collaborators including Kieron Pepper (once live drummer for The Prodigy).

Preserving a unique period in the history of British electronic music (1958-1968), but offering an instrument for the future, BBC Radiophonic Workshop takes the early form of sampling pioneered by composers such as Delia Derbyshire, Desmond Briscoe, John Baker and Daphne Oram and brings it up to date with the cutting edge techniques of library creation Spitfire Audio is known for. Vintage synthesisers, treasure-trove tape archives, found objects and performances from Workshop members are now available under the hood of Spitfire Audio’s state-of-the-art Solar engine. 

The Workshop was a place where tape loops ran around the block and solos were played on lampshades; a laboratory with a forest of wires, tape machines … and unique inspirations. Producers came for the sounds of “A halo of bees”, “An unbearable alien shriek”, “A machine singing to itself” or “The voice of a living planet” and left with some of the most original electronic sounds of the era. The Workshop gave Doctor Who’s TARDIS its engine, and terrified a gleeful generation of children who would hide behind the sofa while the voices of Daleks filled their living rooms. ”In another 20, 50 years, music that people have made with this collection might itself become a new onward tool,” says Mark.

We were guided through the labyrinthine archives of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by composer, sound designer and Workshop archivist Mark Ayres – who has worked on Doctor Who and many other productions. Along with other members of the Workshop who are alive today and still gigging under the Workshop’s name, Mark has overseen a deeply sampled exploration of this other-worldy collection. New patches and performances on precious EMS VCS 3 synths, choirs of the lampshades Delia Derbyshire famously sampled and composed with, Skeleton Guitars, tape loops …

And more. 

The Workshop was a physical place, a space where you could get your hands – and your ears – dirty. The archive materials available in this new instrument, stored in Spitfire’s Solar engine, are your invitation to do the same. Solar allows these historic audio ingredients to find new expression through a variety of signal chains – some old, some new – and the modern techniques of bending, stretching and morphing provided for by the on-board effects.

Along with a variety of microphones, the EMT turntable and Rogers loudspeakers made especially for the BBC, there are the Maida Vale plate and spring reverbs, plus processing through modular synthesizers, tape machines, EMS Vocoder, Echo chamber, Roland Vocoder SVC-350 and Eventide H-3000. Choose from Archive Content, Found Sounds, Junk Percussion, Tape Loops, Synths and a Miscellany of other gems … And your time travel begins. 

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