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Author Topic: Sound bank request  (Read 607 times)

t_fein

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Sound bank request
« on: December 25, 2022, 11:55:59 am »
I would really like there to be a sound bank based on and inspired by synth sounds and various sound effects from across the history of Doctor Who, especially the different versions of the main theme used throughout the 80s - Almost all the synths used for those are either present in the V-Collection right now (CS-80, Juno-6, Prophet-5) or have a very close approximations among the existing instruments (Synthi for Synthi-100 and VCS3; ARP-2600 for ARP Odyssey; Jupiter-8 for Jupiter-4; Moog Vocoder for EMS Vocoder; DX7 for DX21; Korg MS-20 for Korg 770, and surely Pigments, Modular and one of the samplers could be used to accurately enough recreate everything else). This show's music and sound design mightn't have a following as big as that of Kate Bush or Kraftwerk or Depeche Mode but it undoubtedly does exist, and I think the history and the craft behind those sounds is very interesting and could definitely pique many users' interests.

Edit for clarification: All those synths were used in different versions of the theme by different people.
Peter Howell's version, from 1980, used the Yamaha CS-80, ARP Odyssey, Roland Jupiter-4 and EMS Vocoder. The CS-80 was used for the bassline and the brass chords, the Odyssey for the opening phrases of the theme, the vocoder modulated with some mouth sounds to create the rest of the A theme, as well as alter some of the chordal sections by using some white noise as the modulator, and the JP-4 for the B theme and (together with the CS) some of the brass parts. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop's modified EMS Synthi-100, the "Delaware", was possibly also used, but I'm not sure what for. Sources and more info can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BgHdUOOfqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZuf0LIU-2A https://www.peterhowell-media.co.uk/doctor-who-theme https://web.archive.org/web/20100107054505/http://markayres.rwsprojects.co.uk/DWTheme.htm#Howell
Dominic Glynn used a Roland Juno-6, Korg 770 and Yamaha DX21 for his version from 1986, and [sic] "may had a bit of Prophet Five on there too" for the full 3-minute version that was released on records (done after the fact, originally just opening and closing versions were made separately for the show itself, rather than edited down from the full edit like some of the others). I can't really find any definite info on which synths were used for what, but I think it's likely the Juno was used for the bassline, the DX was used for several melodic parts as well as maybe the Korg, and both of the latter were used for sound effects. Sources and more: https://forums.dannystewart.com/showthread.php?t=8292
Keff McCulloch apparently just exclusively used a Prophet-5 for his version (1987) but I can't find any confirmation on that atm, other than this excerpt from a behind the scenes interview from the late 80s, though I'm not really sure how much you can rely on this as reliable information as opposed to just entertainment, and this page which just lists all the instruments he used on Doctor Who without any further detail, one of which does happen to be a Prophet-5 (with a rather funny unintentional anachronism where he incorrectly refers to it as a "Prophet V". Or perhaps a meddlesome time lord brought to him from the future a modern PC with Arturia software installed on it?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QknXq7ZHVr4 http://keff.biz/dr.who.htm
And several EMS synths were used on the show from the early 70s to the late 80s, mostly the VCS3 and/or Synthi-AKS, for sound design. The "Delaware" Synthi-100 I mentioned earlier was also used for some soundtrack work on the show throughout the 70s, and maybe also some of the smaller EMS synths. The former was also used in an infamous early attempt to remake the main theme in 1972 known as the Delaware theme, which was scrapped shortly after, and in most countries you didn't even get to hear it on any actual episode of Doctor Who because all the episodes that had it were re-dubbed before broadcast with the one that was already in use at the time (a remix of the original musique concrète version of the theme, "performed" and recorded as well as co-composed by the late Delia Derbyshire, which I think could inspire some presets but I'm not sure how respectful or authentic it'd be considering the methods she has used, back in 1963, as well as the revisions in 1967 and 1970, and her negative general opinion on working with synths)
« Last Edit: January 26, 2023, 12:58:24 pm by t_fein »

 

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