BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive will be made available for the first time for use by musical artists and producersPreviously labelled the “unsung heroes of British electronica”, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop had a pivotal impact on electronic music. Their legacy is everywhere, from the grandiose, whirring sci-fi soundtracks of Hans Zimmer to the pulsing dance tunes of Brian Eno. Now, the BBC has compiled the sound effects unit’s rich archive of experimental sounds and samples into one bundle.
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive contains a wealth of samples, ranging from vintage synthesisers, tape loops, as well as iconic sounds crafted by the unit. The 98 presets and 1,087 unique sounds allows you to play with the sounds that helped breathe life into shows like Doctor Who – from crafting the theme song, giving the Daleks a voice and even allowing the TARDIS to take flight.

READ MORE: Qrion: “My process is to first sit down in a chair and think about a specific moment – a memory, sound, or smell”

The gang helped soundtrack The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Quatermass and the Pit, and plenty of samples tap into the unit’s love of eerie, unnerving sci-fi. Mark Ayres’ The Top of the Stairs captures a dark, creeping tension, while James Malpas’ Secret Tunnel sample emits a sense of discovery, brighter synths pulsing with curiosity.
The library will also contain recordings from a variety of microphones, as well as the EMT turntable and Rogers loudspeakers made especially for the BBC. There’s also the Maida Vale plate and spring reverbs, modular synthesizers, tape machines, EMS Vocoder, Echo chamber, Roland Vocoder SVC-350 and Eventide H-3000.

While the bundle boasts ample archival offerings, there’s also a slew of newer performances and samples to patch-up older recordings; remaining members of the Workshop such as Dick Mills, Mark Ayres, Glynis Jones have all stepped into the studio yet again to clean up old recordings. There’s also some new collaborators involved, such as ex-The Prodigy drummer Kieron Pepper.
While the original recordings were hand-crafted, Spitfire Audio’s Solar engine will allow even more ways to tweak and manipulate the original samples. Speaking about the new, digital potential of the bundle, composer, sound designer and Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres hopes that the bundle will inspire the next generation of electronic musicians.
“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!” he says. “I’m the youngest member of the core Radiophonic Workshop – and I’m 64! We’re not going to be around forever.”
“It was really important to leave a creative tool, inspired by our work, for other people to use going forward,” he continues. “I hope we’ve made an instrument that will inspire future generations.”

Spitfire Audio’s Head of Recording, Harry Wilson has also said that he hopes the bundle will inspire future generations. Just like the forward-thinking unit, the new digital bundle should be perfect for creating even more unique, innovative sounds.
“We’re not just looking back at what the members were doing way back when,” he explains. “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 BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive is currently available at an introductory offer of £119.00 until 17th March.
The post BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive will be made available for the first time for use by musical artists and producers appeared first on MusicTech.