MATRIXSYNTH: The Alchemists of Sound


Wednesday, May 10, 2006

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.

13 comments:

  1. That is required viewing for recurring visitors to the STG Fidelity Sound Lab.

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  2. Nice one ;)

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  3. synthbaron should spruce-up his site a bit more. I know he's got tons of interesting gear to make music with.

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  4. this was asked before but anyone care to guess who the dude who keeps popping up in the background in every interview portion, is? i'd really like to know!

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  5. Just watched it- http://www.forum.watmm.com/index.php?showtopic=1716 really cool and inspiring. The background guy pissed me off, I'd like to punch him in the head for being distracting.

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  6. dont miss the brief appeareance of W. Carlos.

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  7. Oh, my god...
    The link on the forum watmm.com is very, very great. you can download a video of 175Mo (59 minutes of video) on how the composers with the BBC in the fifty worked. Thank you thousand times on this link which I will relay on my blog.
    C'est grandiose !!!
    Thansk Matrix
    PS : Now, I record my tapes with my works in 1981 with Ems Synthi Aks and Aplle II with cards of Mountain Hardware, there are the great sounds... Soon on my site.

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  8. You can download the video's at my shitty site:

    http://fatbaron.com

    Matrix didn't want to post the links directly or somehow imply that the video's were on my site because he feels that the BBC (the thugs who steal people's money in the UK, see http://www.tvlicensing.biz/)might come after him legally. Oh well.

    I suggested to Matrix that he remove the link to some other potentially copyright infringing material on my site (http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2006/01/everything-you-always-wanted-to-hear.html) if he's really worried about a lawsuit. Because honestly, I'd worry more about Sony USA coming after my ass on an album that's been out of print for 30 years.

    That's all I have to say about that.

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  9. I think they were why I got into synth music in the first place.

    Their sounds made my childhood memorable.

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  10. Synthbaron, I think you misunderstood my intention. I was trying to protect YOU, not me. The BBC wouldn't do anything to me because I'm not the one hosting the video. I have nothing to do with it. So... I didn't do that to protect me, I did it to protect you. I can't control what's on your site. Thanks for the good faith Synthbaron.

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  11. My theory is the dude in the background was some sort of bet or contest that someone could hide him "Where is Waldo" style in every scene.

    Most people have seen the program in reruns or more likely the net. I'd suspect there would be a bit of interesting info around the time it first aired.

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