This vintage video takes a look at story behind the BBC Radiophonic Workshop‘s arrangement of the classic Ron Grainer Dr. Who theme.
While the original version was created with a setup closer to a classical tape music studio, this version makes use of 70’s era gear, like the Yamaha CS-80, ARP Odyssey and Roland SVC-350.
via House of Angels
and all this time I thought it was the brakes
(doctor’s wife)
He used the ARP Odyssey as a click track for the bass recording. Kinda boss.
For the record, this is the version used from 1980-1985, arranged and synthified by Peter Howell (who performs it in the video). Growing up, I thought a lot of it was guitars, but no, it’s vocoded synths!
There was a slight re-arrangement of this theme in 1986 for Colin Baker’s run as the Sixth Doctor, and then a new synth-based arrangement – arguably the worst one – from 1987 till the original show’s demise in 1989, complete with cheesy computer-graphic intro.
That said, it was never quite as space-opera-drama cheesy as the Blake’s 7 theme…
I’ve seen this before. It’s actually from 1981/82. I remember watching it on tv at my boarding school then.