Spitfire Audio Releases BBC Radiophonic Workshop Archive

London, UK (February 19, 2025)—The archive of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, responsible for the sound and music of productions such as Dr. Who and Living Planet, has been made available for the first time in a collaboration with Spitfire Audio.

For 40 years, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was the place to go for the sound of the impossible, and can be heard on countless BBC productions, including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Blake’s 7. From scraping pianos and hitting lampshades to manipulating tape loops with milk bottles, the workshop’s unconventional methods produced a distinctive sonic signature that continues to inspire artists. Artists from Brian Eno to Orbital to Hans Zimmer have cited the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as an influence.

Composer, sound designer and Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres said, “As a kid born in the 1960s, I realized there was a department at the BBC that was purely for making bonkers noises. It blew my mind!”

With exclusive access to the workshop’s archives, tools and hardware at the legendary Maida Vale Studios, and guidance from Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres and other workshop members, Spitfire Audio has captured the essence of this sonic playground. The library features sampled sound from the original tapes, as well as new recordings and experiments by workshop members and associates, including Mark Ayres, Kieron Pepper, Bob Earland, Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Glynis Jones and Peter Howell.

Ayres said, “I’m the youngest member of the core Radiophonic Workshop, and I’m 64! We’re not going to be around forever. It was really important to leave a creative tool, inspired by our work, for other people to use going forward. I hope we’ve made an instrument that will inspire future generations.

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“This instrument is all formed from the work, processes and equipment that the workshop created and used. You know, sampling now really looks like sampling then, but with a few more twiddles. I’ve been saying for years that workshop composers such as Delia Derbyshire and John Baker were really samplists.”

While the workshop was a physical place where the artists got their hands and ears dirty, the archive materials will be available in Spitfire Audio’s Solar engine. Musicians will be able to use modern techniques of bending, stretching and morphing to create something new, as well as have access to a variety of microphones, the EMT turntable and Rogers loudspeakers made especially for the BBC, including the Maida Vale plate and spring reverbs, modular synthesizers, tape machines, EMS Vocoder, Echo chamber, Roland Vocoder SVC-350 and Eventide H-3000. The package is divided into Archive Content, Found Sounds, Junk Percussion, Tape Loops, Synths and a Miscellany.

The Spitfire Audio BBC Radiophonic Workshop VST is available for $199. An introductory price of $159 is available until March 6, 2025.