Doctor Who composers use internet latency to create new music

The composers behind the iconic Doctor Who theme are getting creative again, using our current age of Zoom meetings to make new music.

The Doctor Who theme song has become iconic over the decades; you hear it and know you’re  about to go on a time-traveling adventure. That feeling never really goes away, no matter how many times we hear the theme.

Now, the composers of the Doctor Who theme, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, have come up with a unique way to create music during the pandemic. The inspiration came when trying to play instruments in quarantine, over Zoom. There’s a natural lag or latency when you do that, which throws things off considerably.

The members of the Radiophonic Workshop are now going to use this latency to create music, according to The Guardian. , it appears that this lag can actually be manipulated in a way that allows them to make music. Workshop members like Bob Earland and Paddy Kingsland took that awkward delay and made it longer by several seconds. They play their instruments one after another instead of at the same time, making for a very unique effect.

“We had the bright idea of using that latency to make a loop of music,” said Earland. “The sound gets sent to someone, and they add to it, and it keeps going round. So you’re not relying on everyone being on the same clock.”

It’s no wonder these guys were able to write the classic Doctor Who theme — they’re musical geniuses!

Anyway, the Radiophonic Workshop will perform “Latency” online on November 22. That’s a day before the anniversary of the very first transmission of Doctor Who back in 1963.

What makes it even better is that the day is dedicated to Delia Derbyshire, the genius behind the sound and tune of the Doctor Who theme. Years before EDM became all the rage, Derbyshire was a pioneer of electronic music. Paul McCartney himself loved her work asked her do an electronic backing track for the Beatles’ very famous song, “Yesterday.” That track wasn’t used, but it’s still quite a feather in the cap.

If you’re interested in seeing how the “Latency” performance plays out, be sure to head to the Radiophonic Workshop YouTube channel on November 22!

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h/t Bleeding Cool