Good news for audiophiles and public domain scourers – the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is making its archive available to everyone for the first time ever. In collaboration with music production platform Spitfire Audio, the department’s work particularly over the BBC’s major productions in the 1950s and 1960s is being made available to the public for music producers to use. Don’t be surprised to see an increase in 1950s British radio in your favourite house songs in the coming years.
Opening the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s archives
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop started up in the 1950s as a laboratory for concocting original music and sound effects for BBC radio, and later, television shows. Over the next few decades, the BBC saw dozens of innovative musicians and composers creating new sounds for shows like Doctor Who and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Through this workshop for “purely making bonkers noises” according to archivist Mark Ayres, a hotbed of experimentation flourished, laying the groundwork for then-nascent audio technologies and practises, such as synthesisers and sampling.
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop library is available to modern creators and producers to sample thanks to a collaboration with Spitfire Audio. Spitfire is an audio company that produces tools for electronic music production, mainly specialising in making virtual instruments or plugins (mini-apps within music production apps) that emulate real-life sounds and instruments.
The library collection includes sounds from the BBC’s original tapes, as well as additional content from its members and associates. The list of selections is extensive, ranging from subtypes like synths and tape loops to more eclectic selections like junk percussion and warps.
The collection is available for purchase on Spitfire Audio’s website, starting at $160 (R2,949) for early buyers, and will jump to its standard $200 (R3,686) price after 6 March 2025.
