Doctor Who's sonic pioneers to turn internet into giant musical instrument | Music | The Guardian
The Radiophonic Workshop - heirs of the team that created the Doctor Who theme tune and hundreds of other radio & TV sound effects - will be performing with the internet as an instrument. Sunday 22 November, 8pm GMT.
Quote:
Bands and orchestras have struggled to perform live online during the pandemic, and most have pre-recorded shows because it is almost impossible to synchronise instruments in different locations.
The internet has an unpredictable natural lag, or latency, caused by the milliseconds it takes for electrical signals from one computer to reach another, as anyone using Zoom has experienced.
The trick that Earland and Kingsland discovered was that they could extend the internet’s delay from a few milliseconds into several seconds. Instead of trying to play at the same time, the Radiophonic Workshop will play one after another – in sequence, rather than in parallel.
“We had the bright idea of using that latency to make a loop of music,” Earland said. “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.”
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It promises to be ... weird.
The next day, 23 Nov, is Delia Derbyshire day (
Delia Derbyshire Day - The Woman Behind the Dr Who theme) - but she passed away in 2001, so the remaining team are afaics all old white men.
23 November was chosen because it's the anniversary of the first transmission of Doctor Who in 1963.
Latency - Sun 22 Nov
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