chas@ihuxe.UUCP (Charles Lambert) (05/24/85)
> ... It apparently was removed to shorten the closing credits...does anyone > know whether this was to give more show time or more commercial time? This is the BBC, old chap, none of your nasty commercials here. > does anyone know what kind of synthesizor was used in the early Baker version? > And what kind of instrumentation was on the sixty-three version? I'm not sure > when the technology was available, The "Who" theme has always been electronic; synthesized without a synthesizer. I think the show was a ground-breaker in this respect. Back in '63 the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (a sort of advanced sound-effects workshop that grew up and is still growing with radio drama) produced the original theme using tone- generators, variable-speed tape and **hours** of editing. Trivia note: The TARDIS "time-belch" is produced by scraping a bass piano- string and playing the recording back at low, variable speed. Charlie @ the Death Star, IL.
acsgjjp@sunybcs.UUCP (Jim Poltrone) (05/28/85)
[vworp, vworp, vworp...] > The "Who" theme has always been electronic; synthesized without a synthesizer. > I think the show was a ground-breaker in this respect. Back in '63 the BBC > Radiophonic Workshop (a sort of advanced sound-effects workshop that grew up > and is still growing with radio drama) produced the original theme using tone- > generators, variable-speed tape and **hours** of editing. I have heard the entire original theme on "The Dr. Demento Show" -- I have an audio-tape copy of it. It has the "bridge", which was hardly used (as other postings have stated). Since the Moog synthesizer wasn't developed until 1964, the only electronic music available at the time were tone generators and tape manipulation -- the technique called 'musique concr`ete'. Natural sounds were recorded and played back in different ways. A good example of musique concr`ete is the following: > Trivia note: The TARDIS "time-belch" is produced by scraping a bass piano- > string and playing the recording back at low, variable speed. If you want the other Doctor (i.e. the Doctor of Dementia) to play the original theme, send (or phone) your request in. He also plays other SF-related songs (Who, Star Trek, and Hitchhikers); one that might be of interest here is Jim Burrill's "The Doctor". Getting back to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, does anyone know what they now have? -- From the House on the Knoll, not far from the Holt... Jim Poltrone (a/k/a Poltr1, the Last of the Raster Blasters) uucp: [decvax,watmath,rocksvax]!sunybcs!acsgjjp ARPAnet, CSnet: acsgjjp%buffalo@CSNET-RELAY BITNET: ACSGJJP@SUNYABVA