Doctor Who Synth

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mc1392
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:01 pm

Doctor Who Synth

Post by mc1392 » Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:54 pm

Im trying to find the Doctor who synth from the introduction.

I read in the forum that it's in Kore library, but Kore library doesn't exist for me anymore.

I do have Komplete 9 ultimate.

If anyone knows a preset, let me know.
mwork

Timbeaux
Posts: 754
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:47 am

Re: Doctor Who Synth

Post by Timbeaux » Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:15 pm

isnt that a theremin?

here is the same topic :) :

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=285572

mc1392
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:01 pm

Re: Doctor Who Synth

Post by mc1392 » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:11 pm

mwork

gomi
Posts: 1133
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:29 pm
Location: earth

Re: Doctor Who Synth

Post by gomi » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:43 pm

mc1392 wrote:Im trying to find the Doctor who synth from the introduction.

I read in the forum that it's in Kore library, but Kore library doesn't exist for me anymore.

I do have Komplete 9 ultimate.

If anyone knows a preset, let me know.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA6Fb0nuAYw

ezelkow1
Posts: 366
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:22 pm

Re: Doctor Who Synth

Post by ezelkow1 » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:13 pm

There was no theremin, it was all tape splicing and single oscs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music

Thats the original though, its been redone a few times with various other synths along the way

andydes
Posts: 2917
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:53 pm
Location: Bremen

Re: Doctor Who Synth

Post by andydes » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:52 pm

And people now complain they can't bounce at the touch of button...

The original 1963 recording of the Doctor Who theme music is widely regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, recorded well before the availability of commercial synthesisers. Delia Derbyshire (assisted by Dick Mills) of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop used musique concrète techniques to realise a score written by composer Ron Grainer. Each note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. The main, pulsing bassline rhythm was created from a recording of a single plucked string, played over and over again in different patterns created by splicing copies of the sound, with different pitches and notes achieved by playing the sample in different speeds. The swooping melody and lower bassline layer were created by manually adjusting the pitch of oscillator banks to a carefully timed pattern. The non-swooping parts of the melody were created by playing a keyboard attached to the oscillator banks. The rhythmic hissing sounds, "bubbles" and "clouds", were created by cutting tape recordings of filtered white noise.[1]

Once each sound had been created, it was modified. Some sounds were created at all the required pitches direct from the oscillators, others had to be repitched later by adjusting the tape playback speed and re-recording the sound onto another tape player. This process continued until every sound was available at all the required pitches. To create dynamics, the notes were re-recorded at slightly different levels.

Each individual note was then trimmed to length by cutting the tape, and stuck together in the right order. This was done for each "line" in the music – the main plucked bass, the bass slides (an organ-like tone emphasising the grace notes), the hisses, the swoops, the melody, a second melody line (a high organ-like tone used for emphasis), and the bubbles and clouds. Most of these individual bits of tape making up lines of music, complete with edits every inch, still survive.

This done, the music had to be "mixed". There were no multitrack tape machines, so rudimentary multitrack techniques were invented: each length of tape was placed on a separate tape machine and all the machines were started simultaneously and the outputs mixed together. If the machines didn't stay in sync, they started again, maybe cutting tapes slightly here and there to help. In fact, a number of "submixes" were made to ease the process – a combined bass track, combined melody track, bubble track, and hisses.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Doctor Who Synth

Post by jestermgee » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:56 pm

^^^ Love the effort musicians went to back in the day. That is real dedication to "getting a sound" you have in mind.

Yeah I was gonna ask which decade you are talking because all the latest decades are very much synth driven and if you cannot pick the half dozen notes and slides then just google for the Dr Who MIDI file and use that as a base and build an instrument to suit. Little more streamlined than cutting tapes.

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