Spitfire Audio have once again collaborated with the BBC, this time capturing a collection of samples from the archives of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The resulting library provides users with access to the sounds behind classic shows such as Doctor Who, The Goon Show, Blake’s 7, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Living Planet and many more.
The company were given exclusive access to the Workshop's archives, tools and hardware — which is housed at the legendary Maida Vale Studios — and were guided by Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres and other Workshop members. The library includes sounds captured from the original tapes, along with new recordings and experiments carried out by Workshop members and associates, including Mark Ayres, Kieron Pepper, Bob Earland, Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Glynis Jones and Peter Howell.
The library was created under the guidance of BBC Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres, along with a team of Workshop members.
“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. I hope we've made an instrument that will inspire future generations. This instrument is all formed from the work, processes and equipment that the Workshop created and used. You know, sampling now really looks like sampling then, but with a few more twiddles. I've been saying for years that Workshop composers such as Delia Derbyshire and John Baker were really samplists.” - Mark Ayres, Composer, Sound Designer and Radiophonic Workshop archivist
The resulting samples have been loaded into Spitfire Audio’s Solar engine, allowing users to employ modern techniques such as bending, stretching and morphing to create new and innovative sounds from the classic source material. The library features a whole host of vintage gear: the EMT turntable and Rogers loudspeakers that were made especially for the BBC, Maida Vale’s plate and spring reverb units, modular synthesizers, tape machines, an EMS Vocoder, a Roland Vocoder SVC-350 and an Eventide H-3000. The collection is divided into six categories: Archive Content, Found Sounds, Junk Percussion, Tape Loops, Synths and Miscellany.
Take a look at Spitfire’s walkthrough video to hear the library in action.
Compatibility
BBC Radiophonic Workshop runs in Spitfire Audio’s Solar plug-in, which is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or above, and Macs running macOS 11 and higher. VST, VST3, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available.
Pricing & Availability
BBC Radiophonic Workshop is available now, and is currently (20 February 2025) being offered at an introductory price of $159£119 / €143, reduced from its full cost of $199£149 / €179. GBP prices include VAT.
