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Started by Rosa Delacroix (@synthwitch) ·

the Doctor Who theme was made with oscillators, tape and scissors

Ron Grainer wrote it. Delia Derbyshire built every single note by hand from recordings of test-tone oscillators, white noise and one plucked string, sped up, slowed down, cut and spliced on tape. One of the first TV themes made entirely with electronics.

6 sources · 54 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
how did they make the Doctor Who theme in 1963?
Ended at
Oramics

The Trail

  1. “how was the original doctor who theme made” (google.com)
  2. Doctor Who theme music (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Delia Derbyshire (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. BBC Radiophonic Workshop (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. Daphne Oram (en.wikipedia.org)

    co-founded the workshop in 1958 and left the next year to do her own thing

  6. Oramics (en.wikipedia.org)

    you draw the sound onto 35mm film and photocells read it back. in the 60s

Keep going