BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive made available to use

The archive of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop has been made available for the first time, through a collaboration between Spitfire Audio and BBC Studios.

The archive is available to musicians and producers, who can download samples from the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop existed for 40 years and its output included sounds and music for shows including Doctor Who, The Goon Show, Blake’s 7, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Tomorrow’s World.

it was the place to go for the sound of the impossible, with audio created from such things as scraping pianos and hitting lampshades and manipulating tape loops with milk bottles. 

One of the Workshop’s biggest customers was schools programming, where graphs and diagrams came alive in experimental audio.

Its work has been cited as an influence by the likes of Brian Eno, Orbital and Hans Zimmer.

The sample library was created after Spitfire Audio was given exclusive access to the Workshop’s archives, tools, and hardware at Maida Vale Studios, with guidance from Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres and other Workshop members.

The library features sounds 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.

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

“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.

Harry Wilson, Spitfire Audio head of recording, added: “We’re not just looking back at what the members were doing way back when. We’re projecting a strand of their work into the future and saying: if the Workshop was engaged with a similar process now, what would it sound like?”

Using the sample library, musicians and producers will have access to tools to manipulate the samples, including digital versions of 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.

Dominic Walker, global business director for BBC Studios, said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating once again with Spitfire Audio in bringing the legendary sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to a new generation of musicians and composers with this valuable online library”.

Key Features

• Authentic sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop archives.
• Deeply sampled one-shots, loops, and multi-samples.
• New recordings and experiments by Workshop members and associates.
• Spitfire Audio’s powerful SOLAR engine with gate sequencer and vast effects suite.
• Wide range of sounds, including archival content, found sounds, junk percussion, tape loops, and vintage synthesisers.
• 13 different signal chains used for sound capture.

The Spitfire Audio BBC Radiophonic Workshop VST costs £149, with an introductory price of £119 available until 6 March 2025.