In 1963 Delia Derbyshire working for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop created one of the most significant and innovative pieces of electronic music, even before the availability of commercial synthesizers.
Starting with a score written by composer Ron Grainer, Delia created every note by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analog tape recordings of plucked strings, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music.
Below are pictures of Delia Derbyshire and the studios of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Our track starts with a Deluxe Memory Boy in full oscillation with the feedback at 100%.
A second track was recorded running the Deluxe Memory Boy through a Ring Thing while slowly lowering the pitch.

Below are the settings used for the bass and main melody sounds.
A second melody pass was added using the HOG`s upper octave sliders with a slow attack.

To recreate some of the white noise effects of the original Doctor Who theme, I harnessed the white noise generated

by a Big Muff distortion cranked full up.
Using a dummy plug to turn the unit on I routed the output to various effects.
I used a LPB-1 booster to help generate even more noise. This pedal is optional.

For outer space sounds I used a glass guitar slide, tapping the strings and processing it through a Ring Thing ring modulator and Stereo Memory Man delay.

For more information about Delia Derbyshire and the Doctor Who theme check out this great Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music

Thanks for watching!
Bill Ruppert

Couldn’t find time to do a ring-thing dalek voice in there?

Nice work, and way superior to the theme they’re using for the current series.

If anyone’s interested in more background on the 1963 version, wikipedia’s got a nice article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_who_theme

…As soon as the melody kicks in, It just sent shivers down me spine.
The whole track is almost creepy, It’s like you just brought a dead woman back
to life. The whole track just breathes her soul, He creative mind ..etc.
Anyway, Great great work man. You have a awesome mind aswel.

Cheers.
Benny

i just had to watch two more times

Benny it funny you say that as unintentionally I started recording this track on Delia`s birthday!
Bill

* Shame. Yeah’ I didn’t mean that litterly. I just have a way
of saying things.

Hi,
referring to the first part( Deluxe Memory Boy through a Ring Thing)it’s possible to lowering slowly the pitch of the Ring Thing with the Exp pedal?