via Steve Marshall:
"I wrote a 12 page article about the history of the Radiophonic Workshop for the April 08 Sound On Sound and it's now free to read on-line.
As a result of that article being printed, Graham Wrench got in touch - he's the engineer who'd built the prototype Oramic synth for Daphne Oram in the 60's. The current Feb 09 SOS has my new article about Graham and his story. Here's a link, but only to a preview.
Ray White has just put up a new gallery of Radiophonic Workshop pics - some not seen before; http://whitefiles.org/rwg/"
Also see Steve Marshall's SURROUNDHEAD for scans from 70's Studio Sound magazines.
Above: "Daphne Oram with the wobbulator (centre of shot), 1958."
Left: "The unique Oramics synthesizer was controlled by drawing onto 35mm photographic film."
Best thing posted all week!
ReplyDeleteThank you- this is wonderful.
the eq in pic 71 is an audio baton. possibly by blonder tongue. they are cool.
ReplyDeleteThe part that really gets me:
ReplyDelete" The controversial appointment of John Birt as the BBC's Director-General in 1992 was the writing on the Workshop wall — for Birt brought 'producer choice' to the BBC. The asylum would be run by lunatics no longer: the accountants were taking over.
With 'producer choice', staff producers at the BBC could now either use the BBC's carefully costed in-house facilities, or they could choose to go outside — all that mattered was the cost............
Despite this approach being the most obviously competitive, it was not permitted under BBC rules, and so in 1998 the Radiophonic Workshop finally closed its doors. John Birt was awarded a Life Peerage, by the way, and now sits in the House of Lords."