Spitfire Audio have joined forces with the BBC Studios to release BBC Radiophonic Workshop, available at the intro price of £119.00 / $159.00, increasing to £149.00 / $199.00 after the promotion. The offer ends March 17th.
The archive of the groundbreaking BBC Radiophonic Workshop will be made available for the first time for use by musical artists and producers, passing on legacy that helped invent electronic music and sampling.
an unprecedented package of samples will be released from the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which created sounds and music for shows from Doctor Who to Tomorrow’s World – giving the TARDIS an engine and the Daleks a voice.
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, Blake’s 7, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Living Planet and countless other productions from the BBC. It was a place of other worlds, and of other sounds. From scraping pianos and hitting lampshades to manipulating tape loops with milk bottles, the Workshop’s unconventional methods produced a distinctive sonic signature that continues to inspire artists.
Its work paved the way for much of the popular music of the 21st century and has been cited as an influence by everyone from Brian Eno to Orbital to Hans Zimmer. The sample library will now be available to musicians and producers, preserving an important musical heritage for generations to come.
Composer, sound designer and Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres said: “As a kid born in the 1960s, I realised there was a department at the BBC that was purely for making bonkers noises. It blew my mind!”
With exclusive access to the Workshop’s archives, tools, and hardware at the legendary Maida Vale Studios, and guidance from Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres and other Workshop members, Spitfire Audio has captured the essence of this sonic playground. The library features sounds from the original tapes, as well as new recordings and experiments by Workshop members and associates, including Mark Ayres, Kieron Pepper, Bob Earland, Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Glynis Jones and Peter Howell.
While the Workshop was a physical place where the artists got their hands and ears dirty, the archive materials will be available in Spitfire Audio’’s Solar engine. Musicians will be able to use modern techniques of bending, stretching and morphing to create something new, as well as having access to a variety of microphones, the EMT turntable and Rogers loudspeakers made especially for the BBC, including the Maida Vale plate and spring reverbs, modular synthesizers, tape machines, EMS Vocoder, Echo chamber, Roland Vocoder SVC-350 and Eventide H-3000. The package is divided into Archive Content, Found Sounds, Junk Percussion, Tape Loops, Synths and a Miscellany.
Spitfire Audio BBC Radiophonic Workshop VST gives musicians and producers a collection of samples that they can use when making their own music. It includes vintage synthesisers, tape loops, found sounds, iconic archives and new performances from Workshop members.
Features include:
- Authentic sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop archives.
- Deeply sampled one-shots, loops, and multi-samples.
- New recordings and experiments by Workshop members and associates.
- Spitfire Audio’s powerful SOLAR engine with gate sequencer and vast effects suite.
- Wide range of sounds, including archival content, found sounds, junk percussion, tape loops, and vintage synthesisers.
- 13 different signal chains used for sound capture.
BBC Radiophonic Workshop is available to PC and Mac users.
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