Inside Hans Zimmer’s £15k Modular - 50 Years of History in One Case

video upload by Starsky Carr

CHAPTERS
00:00 Demo#1 Complex Arps
03:30 The history of the Radiophonic
08:16 Demo#2 Depp and Devastating Arp
11:00 Oscillators - seven transistor core VCOs
12:19 Filters
15:12 Sound manipulation
18:15 Demo#3 2 Notes is Enough...
22:51 Modulation & control
27:41 The STARSKYPHONIC!!!
27:58 Demo#4 Trance(ish) Arps and Beats

"History, passion, provenance and love. That's the AJH Synth Radiophonic in four words.

This isn't a performance video and it isn't a patch demo - it's the story of what's actually inside this thing, where every circuit came from, and why a cabinet of 48 modules ends up feeling like one complete instrument rather than a collection of parts.

The Radiophonic was commissioned by Hans Zimmer as the centrepiece for the resurrected BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and the lineage runs a lot deeper than the wooden case and the vintage lettering. The oscillators are built around the first-version Minimoog transistor core - the ones everybody says sound the sweetest - with the thermal drift finally sorted, and Alan went back to Jim Scott, one of the original version one designers, to get them right. The filters take in the Moog transistor ladder, the diode ladder that Gene Zumchak designed for the Musonics Sonic V to sidestep Moog's patents, a dual *SEM*, and the 914 fixed filter bank from the big Moog modular systems. The ring modulator is discrete transistor EMS Synthi circuitry sitting on top of a Moog CP3 style mixer. And none of it is a straight copy - there's a wave folder here, resonance compensation there, extra CV inputs everywhere.

So: seven transistor core VCOs, two transistor ladder filters, two diode ladder filters with wave shaping, a double SEM, the 914, the Ring SM, three noise sources, a 12-stage phaser, wave shaping, Tone Science collaborations with Ian Boddy, and more envelopes, LFOs and random voltage than you'll know what to do with.

A whistle-stop tour, and still an hour's worth of talking squeezed into twenty minutes. Stay to the end for the full track - everything you hear came out of this one instrument, with drums from the AJH Bullfrog."

The Genius Behind Look Mum No Computer - Eurovision 2026

video upload by Britclip

"Electronic artist & YouTuber: Sam posts videos about building unique audio gear and synthesizers, alongside original music and performances. He launched his channel in 2016 after previously fronting the indie band ZIBRA.

⚙️ DIY synth wizard: He’s known for creating unusual and inventive electronic musical devices using vintage technology — including a Furby-based organ, synthesizer bicycles, Game Boy oscillators, and more — that have gained millions of views online.

🏛️ Museum founder: Sam also runs This Museum Is Not Obsolete, a space in Ramsgate, Kent (England) that showcases quirky analog tech repurposed in playful and musical ways.

🎤 Eurovision entrant: In 2026, he was selected to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest under his Look Mum No Computer name — a high-profile recognition of his creativity and performance style.

In short, Sam Battle is a creative, experimental electronic musician whose blend of DIY tech, performance, and humour has built a strong global following.

#eurovision #music #synthpop #eurovisionsongcontest"

LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER - Eins, Zwei, Drei | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 | Official Music Video | #Eurovision2026

video upload by Eurovision Song Contest

LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER will represent United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Eins, Zwei, Drei 🇬🇧

Credits:

Look Mum No Computer: Sam Battle
Director: Johnny Goddard (Youth Hymns)
Production Company: A Running Commentary

CLICK FOR MORE »

Walkabout at the Synthesized event, Cambridge

video upload by MIDI IN

"I wasn't able to do the usual musical Sunday video this week, I was at the Synthesized event at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge.
Tony the organiser had caught everyone for interviews which will be on the museum's own channel here: (link when available)
So I just picked a quiet moment for a walkabout to show the variety of musical technology on display."

Also see Synthesized Festival 2023 - Cambridge Centre For Computing History & Making Drums For Modular Synth

1969: What Is ELECTRONIC MUSIC? | Workshop | Radiophonic Workshop | BBC Archive

video upload by BBC Archive

Be sure to check out 3:59 on. I won't give it away, but it's interesting they had the same views back then. Note 7:33 for a glimpse of what would come. Finally also see this post for Daphne Oram's Oramics and her Bird of Parallax. See the Oramics label for more.

"What is electronic music? How is it produced?

Desmond Briscoe - the head of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop - enlists the help of Daphne Oram, David Cain and John Baker to explain the fundamentals of synthesised sound.

This clip is from Workshop: The Same Trade As Mozart, originally broadcast 3 August, 1969.

You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of tv to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic tv clips from the BBC vaults."

Lost Radiophonics

video upload by UncertainMusicCorps

"I was given the opportunity to sample audio from a very early example of a domestic radio receiver, built in around 1925, probably designed receive some of the earliest broadcasts by the BBC.

The recordings were made using both a contact mic on the radio headset and Soma Labs Ether 'anti-radio' (which felt kind of poetic).

I curated the recordings into usable samples, converted to SF2 format and imported into Wotja to generate the soundtrack to this short video.

Huge thanks to Lostwithel Museum for indulging me despite their bewilderment.

https://www.lostwithielmuseum.org"

Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast hosted by The Galaxy Electric - E12 Daphne Oram

video upload by The Galaxy Electric

"Thanks for joining us for Episode 12 of the Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast! Join your hosts Jacqueline and Augustus of the experimental pop band The Galaxy Electric as they get cosmic on the topic of Daphne Oram. What a pioneer of sound and vision.

Recommended Listening: Bird of Parallax - [below]

Vimeo video on the Oramics Machine - [below - also posted here]

Her book - https://www.daphneoram.org/anindividu...

Our Daphne-inspired Synth Performance - [below]"

You can find additional posts mentioning Daphne Oram here.

Daphne Oram - Bird of Parallax


"Daphne Oram - Oramics - Bird of Parallax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Oram"

Oramics from Street | Films on Vimeo.

A brief glimpse of Daphne Oram's pioneering and unique Oramics synthesizer, designed in 1957 after she left the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop to pursue the project.

For a look at the Oramics machine now, in the Science Museum's "Oramics to Electronica" exhibition see this new film. http://vimeo.com/29318062 | http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/oramics

This short film features Dr Mick Grierson, Director of The Daphne Oram Collection, acquiring the synthesizer from a collector in 2009.

Contact me (Nick Street) regarding the documentary film
http://twitter.com/street83

Dr Mick Grierson - Director of the Daphne Oram Collection
http://doc.gold.ac.uk/~mus02mg/

For more information on Daphne Oram and her machine
http://daphneoram.org

The Galaxy Electric - Improvised Electroacoustic Music - Daphne Oram Theme

video upload by The Galaxy Electric

"Thanks for listening! Come on a musical voyage with us where we'll send you a new song every day, a cosmic story, and a chance to earn space treasure: https://thegalaxyelectric.lpages.co/5...

Radiophonic Sci-Fi Sonics Inspired by Daphne Oram

Utilizing analog tape delay (unfortunately out of frame of this video) - we set out to improvise in the style of the early work of Daphne Oram, whose first radio program was an extended poem set to eery radiophonic tape experimentation.

In this video, we created an improvised soundtrack to a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.
Join us every Wednesday for a ride on The Galaxy Electric Express 🚀

We perform a LIVE (improvised) Cosmic Tape Music soundtrack for your retro-futuristic travels 💫 You never know what planet you will land on…but you know it’s going to be an unforgettable journey…"

EMS Founder Peter Zinovieff Has Passed Away

Update: Image of Peter Zinovieff (previously in via Brian Kehew).

"Circa 1975: A photo from the Frankfurt Music Fair

Peter Zinovieff in the EMS synthesizer booth.

They are featuring the rare SYNTHI P model, just announced on the left side and stand. Underneath the board listing EMS musical artists is a SYNTHI HI-FLI effects unit is barely seen. Another unusual/prototype model is next to the Hi-Fli."

CLICK FOR MORE »

EMR - Electromusic Research MIDI Synth Original Sales Brochure

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

This appears to be the first post on the site to feature EMR.

"details on home recording products for MIDI instruments. Midi track performer / notator / Editor / Composer etc. Also Midilink and interfaces to Amstrad / Commodore / ZX Spectrum / BBC B computers

Language – English

Number of pages – 4 pages"

CLICK FOR MORE »

2 BBC VALVE/TUBE AUDIO SIGNAL GENERATORS ULTIMATE ANALOG SYNTH PROJECT! 19" RACK

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Extremely rare - TWO very similar looking BBC audio frequency generators.

Contain:

Some valves including ECC81's;

Several transformers;

BBC Audio meters;

Huge knobs;

Unit one numbered: TS/10P/510

Unit two numbered: OS3/1/1

1950s or early 1960s manufacture.

One has cover missing."

Pics of the inside below.

CLICK FOR MORE »

DEPECHE MODE - DAVID GAHAN´s BBC Acorn Master / UMI Sequencer For Auction?

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music #7 w/ Delia Derbyshire Collaborator David Vorhaus

David Vorhaus Analogue Electronic Music 1979 Published on Sep 13, 2009 JeffreyPlaide

Update: Festival info further below. Thought I would start with a couple of videos featuring David Vorhaus.

"In this historical video excerpt, David Vorhaus talks about two of his analogue inventions - the MANIAC analogue sequencer, and the Kaleidophon from 1979.

The MANIAC (Multiphasic Analog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)) was an analogue sequencer having variable step lengths, and the ability to split sequences into several smaller groupings giving considerable sonic potentiality. Addition and subtraction of events was possible, as well as the possibility to chromatically correct the output during performance. David could program his MANIAC sequencer to play a background rhythm or combination of musical events, to then improvise over the top with another instrument or synthesizer.

The Kaleidophon was a double-bass-like instrument using four velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers instead of strings. The instrument is played entirely using the left hand, leaving the right hand free to manipulate the sound via a number of controllers and a joystick.

David speaks about the processes of making electronic music, and the developments that such possibilities can provide for the imaginative electronic musician. This excerpt is taken from the BBC 1979 documentary entitled "The New Sound of Music" hosted by Michael Rodd."

WHITE NOISE Electric Storm in Hell [not quite Full Album]

Published on Mar 9, 2013 musick2138

"The Seventh Wave presents

White Noise - a Fifty Years Celebration of An Electric Storm & Other Sonic Adventures

Voyd - live set / White Noise - live set / White Noise - talk and q&a

Friday 14 June 2019 Doors 6.30 pm.

Curfew 10.00 pm.

The Blue Orange Theatre, 118 Great Hampton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6AD.

White Noise - An Electric Storm - Review

When White Noise's debut album, An Electric Storm, landed on Island Records in 1969, it must have sounded like nothing else. Packaged in a striking black and white sleeve that pictured a spark of lightning streaking across a black sky, this was an album that - quite rightly as it turned out - resembled as much a scientific experiment as any conventional musical document.

White Noise came into being when David Vorhaus, an American electronics student with a passion for experimental sound and classical music attended a lecture by Delia Derbyshire, a sound scientist at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop whose claim to fame was writing the original Doctor Who theme tune. With the help of fellow Radiophonic Workshop composer Brian Hodgeson, Vorhaus and Derbyshire hunkered down at Kaleidophon Studios in Camden to pen an album that reconciled pop music with the experimental avant-garde. The result is a set of eerie, delightful songs that, for all their surface simplicity, shimmer with vestigial synthesiser swells, strange echoes, disembodied voices, and distant music-box trills.

Outside of a few equally adventurous '60s releases - the debut album from US psychedelic pioneers The United States Of America, for instance - this is pretty much uncharted territory, particularly for a major label release. On ''My Game Of Loving'', a dozen multi-tracked voices built to a panting orgasm, while the closing ''Black Mass An Electric Storm In Hell'' ushers the record to a freeform close in a clatter of freeform drums, cavernous echo and chilling, animalistic screams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, An Electric Storm would struggle to find an audience on its release, and in the following years, great leaps in synthesiser technology somewhat diminished White Noise's experimental achievements. One thing that would remain timeless, however, were the songs themselves. An Electric Storm would later become a key inspiration on bands like Add (N) To X and Broadcast, synthesiser explorers who picked through these primitive, vestigial sound experiments, took careful notes, and eventually, set out to craft their own futuristic pop lullabies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pq9x/

The other two dates of the festival feature:

Banco de Gaia (Toby Marks) - he will once again be accompanied by Patrick Dunn on visuals (Patrick produces visual content for Tangerine Dream!!!).

The Black Dog is a British electronic music group, founded by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner. The group are considered pioneers who, along with acts like Autechre, Aphex Twin, LFO et al came to define the UK techno movement in the early 1990's.

For further information email theseventhwave@btinternet.com

Tickets available at https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/"

How to tame a Ring Modulator: the Moog MF-102

Published on Oct 26, 2015 murderousmaths

"Meet the strangest effect in music - the Ring Modulator! What exactly does it do, and what can you do with it? Space sounds, ghostly bells, dalek voices and musical chaos! Featuring the Moog MF-102, the ARP Odyssey, the Korg MS 20 and the old Dewtron RM2 modules"

Check out more tutorial videos by murderousmaths here.

The enduring magic of the Radiophonic Workshop | Resident Advisor

Published on May 17, 2018 Resident Advisor

"We look back on 60 years of the pioneering electronic music and sound effects workshop.

Visit the RA feature page: https://www.residentadvisor.net/featu...

'It was a place for experimentation,' says Roger Limb, who's been a member of the Radiophonic Workshop since 1972, "full of weird and wonderful sounds which people were not quite sure what to make of." It is easy to forget how mind-bending something like the Doctor Who theme would have sounded back in in the mid-'60s, at a time when almost all music was acoustically derived. Breakthroughs like this were made possible by the pioneering experimentation at the Workshop, which was set up at the BBC in 1958 to record sound effects for radio programming. Techniques were developed on-the-fly using tape manipulation, oscillators and early synthesisers, laying the groundwork for countless musical movements that would come afterwards. The Workshop closed in 1998, but some of its members have continued to channel its spirit into live performances and recorded music. We followed the group to a recent show at the Science Museum in London to hear about the Workshop's 60-year-long journey.

Director / Producer - Sophie Misrahi
Editor - Sophie Misrahi
Camera - Sophie Misrahi, Guy Clarke
Dubbing Mixer - Guy Clarke

Director / Producer - Sophie Misrahi
Editor - Sophie Misrahi
Camera - Sophie Misrahi, Guy Clarke
Dubbing Mixer - Guy Clarke"

Delia Derbyshire Honored with Posthumous PhD

via theguardian

"The under-appreciated electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme is to be honoured posthumously with a doctorate from her hometown university as the programme gears up for the debut of its first female lead.

Largely ignored in life and barred from working in studios because she was a woman, Delia Derbyshire, will be awarded an honorary PhD from Coventry University on Monday."

---

This one was sent in via MATRIXSYNTH Reader Gareth.

An interesting side note is that I once almost picked up Delia Derbyshire's EMS VCS3/Putney. Peter Kember, aka Sonic Boom of Spectrum and Spacemen 3 fame, was selling it along with a Synton Syrinx years ago, before I started this format of MATRIXSYNTH. I seem to remember he wanted around $7k or so for it at the time, but I might wrong. I didn't have the funds so I passed. Also, a little unknown bit of synth history is that EMS sent the BBC an EMS SYNTHI 100 during the time Delia Derbyshire was there, and she actually did not take to it. It is my understanding that she preferred to work with tape. Curious what she might have thought of a Buchla, as the focus of Buchla was to compliment electronic music composition on tape.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop: Experimentation with MatrixBrute

Published on Jul 4, 2017 Arturia

"The second part of our miniseries on the British electronic music pioneers. Synth guru Mark Ayres reveals why MatrixBrute is a perfect addition to the Radiophonic family, and demonstrates some of the unique sounds it's capable of."

Artists ARTURIA #41 BBC Radiophonic Workshop meets MatrixBrute

Published on Jun 2, 2017 Arturia

Moog Honors International Women's Day with List of Female Electronic Music Pioneers

Update: I thought this post was missing someone, so I took the liberty of adding her myself. The wonderful Emmy Parker of Moog Music. I hope Moog and Emmy don't mind. :) Emmy is Moog Music's Brand Director, and Co-Creative Director of Moogfest, meaning one of THE driving forces behind both, and hence current electronic music. That, and she is pretty awesome.

[image credit: TRAVELISTA]

In case the only site you visit on the internet is MATRIXSYNTH, today is International Women's Day. Moog Music did something really cool for it. They sent out a series of Tweets honoring the female pioneers of electronic music. Here they are:

Opening Tweet: "1/13Honoring the powerful female electronic music pioneers who are the foundation of our diverse sound communities #InternationalWomensDay"

"2/13 #BebeBarron 1925-2008: Composed 1st electronic music score for a commercial film, ‘Forbidden Planet’ in ’55"

"3/13 #DaphneOram 1925-2003: Early tape manipulator, cofounded BBC Radiophonic Workshop, created Oramics graphical sound synthesis technique"

"4/13 #PaulineOliveros 1932-2016: Early experimenter w/ tape music & synthesis, directed SF Tape Music Center, founded 'Deep Listening’"

"5/13 #DeliaDerbyshire 1937-2001: Crafted synthesized sounds for films, art & TV, including the iconic arrangement for the 'Doctor Who' theme"

"6/13 #AliceShields 1943-Present: Technical instructor & assoc. dir. of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center from 1965-’82"

"7/13 #ElianeRadigue 1932-Present: Master of Arp 2500, complex tape editing techniques, minimalism and 'infinitely discreet' music"

"8/13 #MichelineCoulombeSaintMarcoux 1938-1985: Canadian electroacoustic pioneer, 1st woman awarded the Prix d’Europe in composition (1967)"

"9/13 #RuthWhite 1925-Present: Early electroacoustic experimentalist, owner of Moog #38, released standout 1969 synth album Flowers of Evil"

"10/13 #WendyCarlos 1939-Present: Early collaborator of Dr. Moog, award winning film scorer, released ground-breaking album Switched-On Bach"

"11/13 #SuzanneCiani 1946-Present: 1st woman to work in Buchla factory, Buchla modular master, 1st solo female composer of major H'wood film"

"12/13 #LaurieSpiegel 1945-Present: Developed algorithmic music composition software, 1 of her recordings was put on the Voyager spacecraft"

"13/13 Explore the sounds of these foundational composers & honor their spirit by charting a new musical course: http://ubu.com..."
[click through to listen]

New Aphex Twin Cheetah EP a Nod to the Cheetah MS800

How's that for pretty cool. The wording follows and matches the Cheetah MS800 manual. You can see an image of one here (there are only a handful of references to the MS800 on the site). This is one rare synth.

"The Aphex Twin Cheetah EP uses digital sound generation techniques combined with wave sequencing technology to bring you sounds with movement and depth rarely found on records today.

To assure you that your Cheetah EP will give you many years of enjoyment, please be sure to read the owners manual carefully before attempting to operate the Cheetah EP.

If you wish to experiment and create some sounds of your own, first try editing some sounds we’ve already made for you, before attempting to create a patch from scratch.

We sincerely hope that having battled through the programming of the Cheetah EP, you have not become familiar with the exceptional potential of this record.

Have fun programming, and if you create any superb patches and tones which you feel deserve to be appreciated by other Cheetah EP buyers, send a MIDI System Dump of them, on a disc to us at WARP and if we also think they are superb, you could be rewarded for your efforts. Try us!”

Features:

Digital Wave Sequencing Synthesizer
Sounds programmed to sequence through changing waveforms as the note plays, giving exceptional movement and character to the music
15 note polyphonic
Velocity Sensitive
Multi-Timbral
Stereo Output
Fully programmable from the front panel
LED display"

Update: Cheetah Sweet Talker cassette pic in via Luan Correa.

What the?...

See video below. Curious if he has one and if it will be featured...


Note this is the first post out of currently 139,421 to feature the Cheetah Sweet Talker, and thus gets the illusive exclusive label. You think you've seen it all and then this. Thanks to Luan for sharing!


BBC Micro Speech Synthesis Published on Nov 24, 2012

"I found a speech synthesis chip for the BBC Micro, so I had to try it out! :L This is just running the demo program. The chip was a Cheetah 'Sweet Talker' extension pack. Sorry about the poor visuals; I would have re-recorded it but the power supply blew up shortly after this video.

For any of my subscribers wondering about the lack of Tiny Tim updates, an awful lot has been happening on the design side of things, and I'm doing regular updates on the website (http://www.northdownfarm.co.uk/rory/tim/). However as not much more has been done on the hardware side, there hasn't been anything to film yet. I will hopefully get a new vid up about memory in the next to weeks."

Previously Unreleased Video of BBC Radiophonic Workshop Founder Daphne Oram

Sound Of The Future | The Archivist Presents # 22

Published on Dec 1, 2015 British Movietone

Great find via @AtomicShadow

"This week's Archivist Presents slot features a genius of electronic music, Daphne Oram.

This converted oast-house in Kent is really a kind of studio where Miss Daphne Oram is engaged in scientific research into electronic music. Thanks to a Gulbenkian Foundation grant, she's surrounded by very expensive equipment. With it, she can compose the sound and music of the future.

GV house. GV building (converted oast house). LAS top of house. MCU (sign) "Tower Folly". Zoom through one door out of another. MCU woman. CU ditto. MS woman at controls. MS tape recorder. MS controls. MS bell (2 shots) woman mends tape. MS tape recorder. CU woman. MS tape recorder. MCU woman. MS woman at controls. MS tape recorder. Pan to woman. MS trees. LAS top of house. MS tape recorder. CU woman. MS trees (at night). MS tape recorder. LAS top of house. MS trees.

You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
Find out more about AP Archive: http://tinyurl.com/qjfu7wx"

Click here for all posts on Daphne Oram

Radiophonic Workshop on the ARP Odyssey with Matt Berry

Published on Apr 14, 2015 Korg

"Introduced by Matt Berry, this is the legendary Radiophonic workshop live at the UK launch of the ARP Odyssey."