Doctor Who: "TARDIS take-off" - the ORIGINAL sound effect!

Created by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop in 1962, this highly distinctive sound-effect is still used TODAY (minus the later sounds which, whilst state-of-the-art in '62, quickly became passe). Most of it was made using tone generators - but the sound EVERYONE is familiar with is FOLEY! Wanna know how it was done? The technician simply SCRAPED his HOUSE-KEYS over the strings of a PIANO - then played the recorded sound BACKWARDS. Now you know!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Doctor
• Who
• Radiophonic
• Workshop
• TARDIS
• sound
• effect

[explosionsfun]

Funny, they hadn`t used this sound for a while and then it just popped back in on the christmas special... I was happy.

[dwaynepipe59]

@explosionsfun I heard it on a recent episode - where they actually USED a few seconds of the NEXT bit I said they didn't USE anymore!

[explosionsfun]

@dwaynepipe59 ...What? I`m not sure I follow.

[dwaynepipe59]

@explosionsfun If you listen to my piece, the FAMOUS bit comes first - but then it slides into a bunch of TONES that were new in '62-3 - but quickly became OLD.

Thus they took to ONLY using the first bit - FADING it BEFORE the tones. However, on a recent episode, the sound mixer kept it GOING, so you could hear those tones - for a few seconds - something I hadn't heard since the early Sixties.

I suspect it was a GOOF!

[TheTenatDoctor]

The sound was made by scraping a key down a keyboard key.

..Holy crap.

[dwaynepipe59]

@TheTenatDoctor NO! The piano's STRINGS!!

[skodas]

63

[dearthcool223]

how did you get this if this is the original copy???

[goodwolf359]

LMAO I was actually expecting to laugh when I found out what that was they used to make this sound, man its like watching a monkey drink its own piss these old effects these days. :L

[tzhr]

You know what that sound is . . . It's the breaks

I like that sound

[dwaynepipe59]

@dearthcool223 I popped into my Police box - then I came back here, a year later...

[DomIstKrieg]

Keys. That is amazing. Mind blown.

[LARUCUS]

the sound everyone wants to hear....