Vintage Radiophonic Workshop Influence on Modern MacBeth

via Ken MacBeth on Facebook

"I was just looking at two old BBC Radiophonic Workshop LPs that I have here....this type of music was introduced to me in 1st year Secondary- I think that I was 12 or 13 at the time...my new synths have embelishments to them that are a tribute to this time in my life!"

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/"

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."

Radiophonica - Dr. Who BBC Radiophonic Workshop Inspired Sample Set

via Hollow Sun
"Inspired by the old-school sound design antics of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Ian Boddy's Radiophonica takes us back to a time when Dr Who still had some semblance of geek chic and the ring modulator ruled the sci-fi roost.

Radiophonica is the first title in Ian Boddy's 'Waveforms' series of sample libraries. All the sounds were produced and recorded directly from analogue hardware synthesisers such as the venerable EMS VCS3 and MiniMoog and also the Roland 100M, Doepfer, Analogue Solutions and Analogue Systems modular synths."

Online Wobbulator - 1960s BBC Oscillator Emulation

"In the early 1960s, synthesizers did not exist. Instead the Radiophonic Workshop begged and borrowed as many test oscillators as possible from other BBC departments.

The versatile "wobbulator" was a sine-wave oscillator that could be frequency modulated. It consisted of a metal box with a few switches and one very large knob that could sweep the entire frequency range..."

Check it out here.

"The "Wobbulator" was one example of a recycled or salvaged piece of equipment put to creative use in the Radiophonic Workshop. The Wobbulator was in fact a oscillator (looking at archive pictures quite likely a Brüel & Kjær Beat Frequency Oscillator 1022 used by sound engineers to measure the acoustic properties of studios or by electrical engineers to test equipment.

The large centre knob sets the frequency of a primary oscillator. This frequency is then modulated (or "wobbled") a small amount by a secondary oscillator. The depth of the wobble is controlled by the amplitude of the secondary oscillator, and the frequency of the wobble by its frequency.

When the frequencies are in the audible range, the wobbulator can produce a wide variety of space-y sounds.

To simulate the wobbulator we use the OscillatorNode from the Web Audio API. We've taken a historical liberty by including a switch to control the waveshape of the primary oscillator. While probably not true to the original device, the OscillatorNode makes this too easy to resist!"

Four sound effects that made TV history

You can find the full article from the BBC with video here. Remember to watch the video in full screen mode when you get there by clicking on the box in the bottom right of the player.

"The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, a pioneering force in sound effects, would have been 50 this month. Ten years after it was disbanded, what remains of its former glory?

Deep in the bowels of BBC Maida Vale studios, behind a door marked B11, is all that's left of an institution in British television history.

A green lampshade, an immersion tank and half a guitar lie forlornly on a shelf, above a couple of old synthesisers in a room full of electrical bric-a-brac.

These are the sad remnants of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, set up 50 years ago to create innovative sound effects and incidental music for radio and television."
via metrosonus and Alex.

Electro Magnetic Sonic Sequencer Thingy - Crystal Palace & HAINBACH's Radiophonic Plugin

video by LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER

"A Weird Electromagnetic sequencer that i tried to build!!! based on the Crystal Palace where @HAINBACH​ and @AudioThing​ made an inspired plugin!
25 minutes of unedited audio and footage from this machine of making that audio is available here to cut up or just listen to! it supports these ventures :)
https://www.patreon.com/lookmumnocomp...

Check @HAINBACH​ video here!":

My radiophonic plugin: AudioThing Things Motor feat. @LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER​
video by HAINBACH

"In which I tell the tale of the new VST/AU/AAX plugin I developed with @AudioThing​: Things Motor. Based on the Crystal Palace made by Dave Young for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Motor takes two signals and alternates them in musically beautiful ways. At the same time that we worked on it, @LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER​ built his amazing real-life version, which you can also see here.

GET MOTOR at intro offer for 9 $/EUR: https://www.audiothing.net/effects/th...​"

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…"

DELIA DERBYSHIRE- "The Wizards Laboratory" (1972)

YouTube via funknroll

"The Women of ELECTRONIC MUSIC! From the 30's to the 70's!

Before synthesizers, electronic music was honed the hard way in universities, by splicing tape loops, distorting sounds, endless dubbing, and blind instinct. Here are the timeless women of future music who created our present...

Since the 1930's, CLARA ROCKMORE was the master of the notoriously difficult Theremin, and later championed by synthesizer-creator Bob Moog; LOUIS & BEBE BARRON created the first all-electronic score for the film "FORBIDDEN PLANET" (1957), using oscillated sounds and tape loops; //STUDIO d'ASSAI (Paris): Danish ELSE MARIE PADE studied under musique concrete founder Pierre Schaeffer, becoming a noted composer; ELAINE RADIGUE used the Buchla and Arp synthesizers in her work, heavily influenced by Buddhist meditation, and records now with laptop improv group The Lappetites; MICHELE BOKANOWSKI has composed for film, televison, and theatre; //BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP (London): ...was created and directed by DAPHNE ORAM, inventor and sonic pioneer; she was followed by DELIA DERBYSHIRE, who brought Ron Grainer's "DR. WHO" theme to brilliant, eerie life with her studio wizardry; MADDALENA FAGANDINI co-created the proto-Techno single "Time Beat/ Waltz In Space" (1962) with young producer George Martin under the alias 'Ray Cathode'; GLYNIS JONES produced some of the Workshop's classic albums like "Out Of This World" (1976); ELIZABETH PARKER scored many BBC shows including "BLAKE'S 7", and was the person to see the Workshop out in its 1998 finale; //Fluxus performance artist YOKO ONO expanded John Lennon's mind and range with electronic music, musique concrete, and 'happening' experiments; //COLUMBIA-PRINCETON ELECTRONIC MUSIC CENTER (New York): A premiere focal point for international composers since the 50's, including composer and Associate Director PRIL SMILEY; ALICE SHIELDS combined her operatic voice and poetry with the revolutionary synthesizers of the late 60's and early 70's; teacher DARIA SEMEGEN wrote traditional classical music as well as electronic; WENDY CARLOS had massive mainstream success with the all-synth "Switched On Bach", before writing groundbreaking film scores for "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE," "THE SHINING" and 'TRON"; nearby at Bell Labs, LAURIE SPIEGEL spearheaded computer graphics and software design as well as new music; maverick ANNETTE PEACOCK went from Free Jazz piano to the first synthesizers, threading her early 70's raps and rock with freeform electronics; //Argentinian BEATRIZ FERREYRA, who also studied with Schaeffer, is an esteemed composer and teacher; //SAN FRANCISCO TAPE MUSIC CENTER: The crucial West Coast electronic center, including Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and PAULINE OLIVEROS in 1962; it moved across the Bay to become the... //CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (Mills College, Oakland, CA): Oliveros was the first Director, perfecting her signal processing system for live performance; student and now Co-Director MAGGI PAYNE trailblazed video imagery and record engineering along with her music; alum CYNTHIA WEBSTER played in the early synth band Triode, founded electro mag SYNAPSE, and now runs Cyndustries designing software for electronic music, such as the Zeroscillator.

Their innovations led to Progressiv Rock, Krautrock, New Wave, Coldwave, Darkwave, Electro Funk, Industrial, Techno, and Electroclash. Their fringe future music is now the soundtrack of today.

DELIA DERBYSHIRE: This song is from a 1972 LP called "Ultrasonic", collecting music library pieces Delia scored for use in TV shows. It was recently issued on CD, as was "Oramics" by Daphne Oram:
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=89395
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=35793

See also:
ALICE SHIELDS -"STUDY FOR VOICE AND TAPE" (1968)


"Sound, the infinite frontier! Science had chopped the world into atoms, components from which to build. Modern art deconstructed reality, reconstructing our perceptions of it. And the first Electronic Music likewise took apart sound and turned it inside out for new compositions. Vladimir Ussachevsky founded the first Electronic Music Center jointly with Columbian and Princeton universities in 1952. He brought in avant composers from countries worldwide with new perspectives and radical expirementation. This included women like Daria Semegen, Pril Smiley, Wendy Carlos, and Alice Shields. In the 50's, Electronic Music was distortions of recordings. Sounds on a tape recorder would be manipulated by feedback, repeated spliced loops, overlapping tracks with multiple recorders, and using oscillators and reverb to sculpt the tempo, tone, or texture. This prevailed in continually advancing ways well through the 1960s. Alice used these techniques in creating this composition. A gifted mezzesoprano, she first sang a poem she'd written. She accompanied this with the first analog Buchla synthesizer, a rare and recent device only beginning to draw the attention of the hippest pop musicians. She then manipulated pitch and speed in textural patterns to supplement the freeform song. This was the cutting edge music of the future, usually heard only in academic circles. But it made its way into film soundtracks (from FORBIDDEN PLANET to Wendy Carlos' A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), Fusion Jazz (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), Progressive Rock (from George Harrison's 1969 ELECTRONIC SOUND to Krautrock and Kraftwerk), Funk (Stevie Wonder's T.O.N.T.O., Bernie Worrell), on to the synthesizer explosion of New Wave, then Hip Hop (from Bambaataa's ElectroFunk to Public Enemy's radical sculptures of noise), Industrial (synthetic abrasion), and the Electronica music of today; as such, Alice Shields is a godmother of Le Tigre, Peaches, Chicks On Speed, Lesbians On Ecstasy, and Ladytron, to name a few."

MALARIA! -"Your Turn To Run" (1982)

"The Women of 80's ELECTRO! Coldwave, Darkwave, Synthpop, Industrial!

As synthesizers got smaller and cheaper through the 70's, 'future music' went from acedemia to the street. Punk, PostPunk, Funk, and HipHop artists brought attitude and new styles into the pop vocabulary throughout the 80's that forged the music of today. Here are many women from the first Electro rock era..."

http://www.cyndustries.com/woman.cfm
http://www.newyorkwomencomposers.org/...
http://www.aliceshields.com/
http://www.imtheone.net/annettepeacoc...
http://whitefiles.org/rwg/index.htm"

The Alchemists of Sound

"ALCHEMISTS OF SOUND
Saturday 28 May 2005 8.30pm-9.30pm; 3.15am-4.15am

"The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.

There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds."

Title link takes you to more info.

Delia Derbyshire - Love Without Sound (1969)

YouTube via audiolemon
"Delia Derbyshire is well known for her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and her help in creating the Dr.Who theme. Of all the BBC Radiophonic musicians I've heard I always found Delia's music to be more aesthetically mature than that of the others. While many were content to create mathematically structured enharmonic noise she looked for the ghost in the machine, creating haunting, off kilter and often sexually charged music. This track is from the 1969 The White Noise - Electric Storm LP. To me it sounds 30 years ahead of it's time. I hope you like it.

If you want to read more: http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/"

'Radiophonic Randomness' - Using the RANDOM VOLTAGE EVENT GENERATOR to make retro scf-fi sounds

video upload by AJH Synth Official

"Just for fun... Some lo-fi sounds/noises created with the help of the Dual RVG Eurorack module, providing random voltages and clock/gate signals, and demonstrating it's ability to multi-function, here providing 4 control signals. It's just an experiment really, since the author of this video is such a fan of the early adopters of analogue synths and the sounds they created, from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's low-budget TV and radio soundtracks, to the first, less melodic synthesizer experimentations of Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and others.

Many of these involved the instruments and tools created by a small English company called EMS (Synthi, VCS3), and the Dual RVG by AJH Synth is directly based on one of their rarest products - the Random Voltage Generator. These would be incredibly hard to find now, and expensive, so having the same functionality and vintage circuit design in just 14hp of Eurorack space is a great alternative. The Dual RVG is a limited edition, only 500 units were to be made, but there are still some left as of writing this. It is an authentic vintage design, and it's behaviour faithfully recreates this character - organic in it's uncertainty and anomalies, unlike modern digital modulation sources. A very unique, but useful tool for generative music, experimental sound design, but also melodic composition and performance, especially when used with a quantiser and/or sequencer (see here: [posted here])

Check out the AJH Synth playlists for module 'User Guides', and 'Patch of The Week' videos, which will be either performances or 'how to' guides, detailing functions/methods, and a range of sounds, some familiar, some less so, containing a patch sheet at the end to show you how to construct it for yourself: [posted here]

Video by DreamsOfWires"

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop Gallery

This one in via Ununseptium warehouse. You'll find the full gallery with captions here.

The top left in the pic above almost looks like old stoves and dish/sink cabinets.  It's an interesting design choice for tape and audio mangling at the time.  The woman to the left and is Daphne Oram and below is Delyia Derbishire.

Left: "Caption: Daphne Oram demonstrating Radiophonic techniques on television by means of Brenell tape recorders and Jason oscillator."  It almost looks like something from Dewanatron.

Below: "Caption: Delia at the southern end of room 12, where she sits in front of the twelve Jason oscillators, an electromechanical frequency counter and the keying unit, as used to create the 'Doctor Who' theme. The dual gramophone turntable unit to her left is a BBC RP2/1."

After checking out the pics be sure to check out the labels below or use the top left search box to search on Daphne Oram, Oramics, Delia Derbyshire, and/or BBC for more posts featuring them here on MATRIXSYNTH.

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."

Music Arcade - Radiophonic Workshop

Doctor Who / Dr. Who Theme


Fairlight

YouTube via Fynci. Title link takes you to more.

Update via Doktor Future in the comments:
"Dr. Who needs no banjos or Moog ladders. It's not about the East Coast vs. West Coast sound at all -- it's about the UK sound, which, as you know, comes from outer-space.

In fact, EMS in the UK got their start by stealing an Atron energy nebulizer from a type-40 TARDIS. Normally, this would not be cause for concern as the device was genetically keyed, but the average UK citizen is so inbred that by lucky statistical chance, EMS found not only that they could activate the device, but that somehow they could get impressions from the Matrix itself!

After many astral voyages at the EMS laboratories, it became clear that true access to the historical knowledge of the Time Lords would be impossible due to the defenses of the latent psychic energy of all timelords past, so they set to work on a device capable of distracting the Matrix's mental defenders.

This became known as the EMS 100, and became the centerpiece for their own make-shift TARDIS.

About this time the BBC needed some ideas for good shows, so the EMS folks created another EMS 100 unit at the BBC Radiophonic headquarters so their engineers could also be inspired by the hyper-galactic knowledge of the Matrix.

Of course, portable versions of their technologies were placed in select hands over the ages. Each artist was given a goal: design a unique composition that can distract the time-lord defenders so as to access the true Matrix directly.

One of the most introspective works, giving almost total sub-conscious access to the Matrix was the well known album 'Dark side of the moon'. What is not well known however is that the word 'moon' in the title of the Album refers to "Pazithi Gallifreya" (Gallifrey's moon), and the nodum-quazmulcator buried within its surface.

Humanity owes so much to the psycho-quantum-sonic attributes of the the EMS line of 'synthesizers'!

Sadly, once the Presidents Council discovered the breech, they issued an edict to EMS to halt production of their technology to all without Gallifreyan permits.

This has created an underground bidding war for EMS devices. Even though the atron nebulizers have been disabled by the Time Lords, many still collect the devices to reminisce to the 'good ol days' when Matrix security was as porous as the US Government's firewalls.

There are rumors however, that a new type of Atron-nebulizer emulation may soon be available.

If so, and we can only hope, that a new wave of EMS devices will be available for todays generation of psycho-temporal-astral knowledge seekers."

BBC old masters of new sounds

"The BBC Radiophonic Workshop created music and sound effects for everything from Doctor Who to The Goon Show.

To mark its 50th anniversary, two veterans returned to the studios where the Workshop was based to recreate some of the sounds that made the unit famous."
see the video here.
via AnalogSuicide.

Cascading Slopes w/ Llamano, Listening Center, Mark Verbos, SH-101 Nightmare, minim-rip

"Cameo Gallery's first ELECTRICAL NIGHT! An intimate evening of analog synthesizers, education, time travel and love. Also Cascading Slopes record release party. Vinyl and CD copies of "Towards a Quaker View of Synthesizers" by Cascading Slopes will be available for the first time, as well as Plastiq Musiq's New Music Horizons Vol. 1 compilation. Hang around afterwards for an old fashion electronic music dance party: Kraftwerk, early OMD and undancable music from the darkest corners of the Radiophonic Workshop."

Full details on Facebook here.

via Jacob Grape on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Joystick Journeys: The VCS3 Collection

Sample set via The Electronic Garden

"Welcome to the weird, whacky and wonderful world of the EMS VCS3. This unusual instrument was developed by EMS in the late Sixties and intended as a portable electronic music studio. Unlike more famous instruments of the day, the VCS3 was initially released without an accompanying keyboard. As such, it was embraced (often by those under the influence of certain mood enhancers) as a resource for special effects. It became an electronic voice for space rockers, psychedelic bands and sound designers. The VCS3 and its big brother the Synthi 100 were used by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to create effects for many programs, including of course, Doctor Who. With clever marketing ("every nun needs a Synthi"), the VCS3 and its electronically identical suitcased brother the Synthi A became mainstays of the European rock scene. EMS itself was a hot spot, visited by many musical stars of the day.

What made the VCS3 so endearing? Why does it claim ridiculously high secondhand prices to this day? Perhaps because, keyboard-free, it invited atonal experimentation. Or maybe because it looked like the flight deck from a Gallifreyan time machine. It certainly wasn't because it stayed in tune! In fact, when the keyboard was eventually released, many musicians quickly discovered that its oscillators were hopelessly undependable, drifting and wobbling like spec of cosmic dust in a solar storm. Maybe its appeal came courtesy of that crazy push-pin routing matrix (which took the place of patch cords, but traded 'em for some pretty nutty cross-talk). It's an awful lot of fun to blindly stab pins into that thing and see what happens!"

Tara Busch EP Remix Contest to Benefit The Bob Moog Foundation

"Moog Siren Tara Busch Releases EP, Remix Contest to Benefit Bob Moog Foundation

Foundation Celebrates 5th Anniversary with EP, New Logos, Fresh Program Direction, Limited Edition Poster and Archive Inspired Apparel

Asheville, NC - August 24, 2011 – The Bob Moog Foundation (BMF) is honored to announce that synthesizer and vocal sensation Tara Busch has donated a three song EP to support its mission of igniting the innovator inside us all. The ethereal electronica EP, Rocket Wife, created specifically for and donated to the Bob Moog Foundation, is available for download at Bandcamp.com at the following link: [link]

In conjunction with the release of the EP, Busch and the Foundation have issued a remix contest using the 17 stem tracks from the title track of the EP, Rocket Wife. The stem tracks are available for download at: [link]

The remix contest begins today and ends at midnight on October 15, 2011. All submissions should be uploaded to the “Rocket Wife” group on SoundCloud via this link.

The Bob Moog Foundation will announce three winners on November 10, 2011. The winners will have their remix posted on the BMF Bandcamp site where it will be available for sale, with proceeds benefitting the Foundation. The grand prize winner will receive a framed limited-edition archival image of Bob Moog, a selection of BMF merchandise, and the opportunity to collaborate virtually with Busch on a track where she will supply vocals and synth soundscapes. Two other winners will receive runner-up prizes.

Tara Busch is an American producer/musician/remixer and score composer. She is influenced by the rich, complex harmonies of Brian Wilson, BBC Radiophonic Workshop diva Dellia Derbyshire, and the innovations and futurist attitudes of electronic music pioneer Bob Moog. She is known for her richly textured, vocally orchestral electronica, and her psychedelic, ethereal remixes.

Busch reflects, “This is a homage not only to Bob Moog and his legacy, but to the effect the synthesizer had on my music, creativity, and life. What Bob did, most famously with the Minimoog, was to make the groundbreaking world of synthesis available to everybody, not just for the privileged few.

Though grateful for my voice and writing ability, I think having a more embracing attitude towards merging the creative and scientific worlds when I was a child would have been beneficial; not just for my music, but also for my development in general. I think Dr. Bob's SoundSchool will help kids to develop open, bright, embracing and creative minds.

I'm excited and inspired by their quest to educate children and adults alike about ‘the intersection of science & music’ and hopefully this EP will help introduce more people to the Bob Moog Foundation. One hundred percent of the profits from the EP and the remix stems will be donated to the Bob Moog Foundation.”

Sunday, August 21, 2011 marked the sixth anniversary of Bob Moog's passing and the fifth anniversary of the BMF's formal launch. In celebration of that milestone, the foundation is making daily announcements of new projects, branding and fundraising opportunities. Monday, August 22 saw the launch of the Moogstress blog, written by Michelle Moog-Koussa. On Tuesday, the BMF announced their new logo, which features the innovative spirit of “Dr. Bob” and an offer for a limited edition poster designed with materials from Bob Moog's archives. Later in the week the BMF will release a new merchandise line, Dr. Bob's Archive Series, featuring artwork found in Bob Moog's extensive archives. The BMF directs the preservation and interpretation of the archives for future generations of journalists, educators, innovators and fans.

The Bob Moog Foundation ignites the creative and innovative spirit in us all through exposure to interactive educational experiences rooted in the pioneering legacy of Dr. Bob Moog. Our work includes:

· Dr. Bob's Sound School (formerly MoogLab) teaching children and adults science through music in a hands-on environment.
· Dr. Bob's Archive Preservation Initiative. The BMF directs the preservation and interpretation of Bob Moog's extensive and historic archives for future generation.
· The Moogseum, a future interactive facility where music, science, history and innovation will converge. The creation of the Moogseum is pending adequate funding.

www.tarabusch.com
www.analogsuicide.com
www.moogfoundation.org"

June 1981 E&MM Fairlight CMI Review at @noyzelab

via noyzelab where you'll find the full review.

"In depth technical review of the ultra legendary Fairlight CMI sampler + see The Holmes Page for more info. Although mind-numbingly expensive when it came out it ended being used by a wide variety of artists / studios including the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (see more articles on this site relating them here), Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, The Art of Noise, SPK and Skinny Puppy. Review written by Dr David Ellis, based on an interview with Peter Vogel by Mike Beecher. Scanned from my copy of Electronics & Music Maker, June 1981."

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