KVR Audio

LoopisLucas · Post by **LoopisLucas** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:35 pm

Hey everybody,
I'm looking for an lead synth that sounds like that lead in Dr. Who's theme song. I read somewhere it was made from serious tape manipulation, but I'm sure some of you out there know how to get that sound with a VSTi. I think the thing I like the most about it, other than the spacy reverb, is the squelch of the note right before it changes. I've heard some similarities in some of Arturia's miniMoog presets. Any suggestions?

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:39 pm

I used the old JunoX2 in my version, so i guess you have to try the Vanguard as its called now, from reFX.

http://www.groovecell.com/music/kovers/drwho-theme.mp3

Barf · Post by **Barf** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:11 pm

..its all tape manipulation, synths didnt exist back then.

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:13 pm

Barf wrote:..its all tape manipulation, synths didnt exist back then.

Borogove · Post by **Borogove** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:31 pm

Barf wrote:..its all tape manipulation, synths didnt exist back then.

Depending on which version of the theme you mean, and on whether you count gangs of individual tone generators as "synths". Here's the scoop.

Mark Ayres wrote:There being no "synthesisers", the Workshop needed a source of electronic sound. They found this in a bank of twelve high-quality test tone generators, the usual function of which was to output various tones (square waves, sine waves) for passing through electronic circuits for testing gain, distortion and so on. They also had a couple of high-quality equalisers (again, test equipment - equalisers, or "tone controls", were not that easy to come by at the time) and a few other gadgets including a "wobbulator" (a low frequency oscillator) and a white noise generator.

Each sound in the Doctor Who theme was individually created using these instruments, and recorded to magnetic tape. By "each individual sound" I mean just that - each note was individually hand-crafted. The swooping sounds were created by manually adjusting the pitch of the oscillator to a carefully-timed pattern. The rhythmic hissing sounds were created by filtering white noise to "colour" it, as were the "bubbles" and "clouds". Examination of the original makeup tapes suggests that one of the two bass lines alone is a "concrete" sound, a plucked string sample.

LoopisLucas · Post by **LoopisLucas** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:35 pm

Thanks for the suggestion Kriminal. I really liked your version of the Dr. Who theme...much more rock than the Orbital remake.

Anyone know of any free VSTis (more specifically which patch) to get the Dr. Who sound?

detfella · Post by **detfella** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:45 pm

Here's the scoop.

Mark Ayres wrote:There being no "synthesisers", the Workshop needed a source of electronic sound. They found this in a bank of twelve high-quality test tone generators, the usual function of which was to output various tones (square waves, sine waves) for passing through electronic circuits for testing gain, distortion and so on. They also had a couple of high-quality equalisers (again, test equipment - equalisers, or "tone controls", were not that easy to come by at the time) and a few other gadgets including a "wobbulator" (a low frequency oscillator) and a white noise generator.

Each sound in the Doctor Who theme was individually created using these instruments, and recorded to magnetic tape. By "each individual sound" I mean just that - each note was individually hand-crafted. The swooping sounds were created by manually adjusting the pitch of the oscillator to a carefully-timed pattern. The rhythmic hissing sounds were created by filtering white noise to "colour" it, as were the "bubbles" and "clouds". Examination of the original makeup tapes suggests that one of the two bass lines alone is a "concrete" sound, a plucked string sample.

exellent! we watched the process the theme was made at uni. delia is a great pioneer in fact i love pretty much all the radiophonic stuff. shame the bbc still doesnt fund such projects. i remember the program we watched saying how badly funded it was.

fxe · Post by **fxe** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:58 pm

rpc9943 · Post by **rpc9943** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:05 pm

yeah what can we use for free vsti that could sound like the lead

RONC

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:07 pm

rgc:audio Triange 2

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:15 pm

OneDalekOnly

omissis · Post by **omissis** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:18 pm

BTW what Dr.WHo theme are you looking for?
For example , the 1980 version was made with the heavy help of a Yamaha CS-80....

Max,Italy

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:19 pm

in the original first series it was my great grandad who was hired to go "ooeeoo oooo ooeeooeeoo oooooooooooooooo oooo"
he got 2 n 6 for that gig apparently

clueless · Post by **clueless** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:00 pm

did anyone else hear the Delia Darbyshire

thing on Radio 4 last week btw?

ianweb123 · Post by **ianweb123** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:23 pm

This cropped up a year or so ago and I turned out this.. s'free, you might have fun trying to play it with your mod wheel..

http://www.krakli.co.uk/zips/Whooo.zip

Dr. Who Theme Song