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• The Dalek Masterplan
  • Performance dates and cast details
  • Looking back, moving forward
  • From screen to script to stage
  • Composing a Masterplan
  • The Daleks
  • Daleks out and about
  • Making the music for Masterplan
  • Inside the music studio
  • So it begins
  • The Return of the Daleks
  • The Dalek Masterplan reviewed
  • Photograph gallery
  • Music from the Masterplan
  • Behind the scenes video
• Related Web sites
  • New Theatre Royal
  • Doctor Who: Devious
  • My Dalek Life

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Dalek Masterplan’s music composer Martin Johnson gives us a tour of his studio – and an insight into how he works.

Peter here at Dalek Links thought it might be interesting for people if I wrote something about my background and current studio setup. That’s a great idea especially for people wanting to enter the music world or, like me, accidentally stumble into it!

I’m constantly asked about how I compose music without formal training and in my opinion as long as you have a fantastic sense of creativity you can do anything. Although it does help if you’re technically gifted too.

When I left school back in 1999 I had a keen interest in computers and did a bit of work experience at a PC company building and upgrading the things. Since then I have built myself 4 computers attempting to keep up with current technology, which we all know is virtually impossible! During college my PC was mainly for gaming because I think there’s no better platform. Also, PCs had High Definition long before the HD TV standard of today! I also used them to produce short films just for fun, which I still like to do.

Martin Johnson in his studio

Around July 2005 I wanted to dabble in music production so I bought myself the highly recommended EastWest Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra Silver. I had played around with an early version of Magix Music Maker a lot during school and college remixing such greats as Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata but I wanted something different. Something more like the film composers I grew up listening to. So using EWQLSO Silver and FL Studio I composed a remake of the music from level 2 of Earthworm Jim 2 and sent it to a website called OCRemix. A website for game music remixes. I thought that for my first true non-loop based composition it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately the track didn’t make it onto the site because the judges were not too keen on it.

Not to long after the fall of Jim I came across a website that really caught my interest. Whomix, a website designed purely for the purpose of showcasing Doctor Who theme remixes. How could I resist! I created ‘For A Darkened People’, a remix of the theme in the style of my composer idol Danny Elfman. It went down a storm and attracted the attention of Rob Thrush who, at first, asked me about using it for a secret project he was working on. Intrigued by the project I agreed and he told me more about the production. Evil of the Daleks live on stage, fantastic! The rest, if you have been keeping up with our articles, you all know. My PC then became my home studio that I have added to over the last 2 years.

So Evil was a complete success and The Dalek Masterplan was in the pipeline. I knew that because of the score needed for this production I would need to make some serious changes to my studio setup. I invested a sum going into the thousands to upgrade and I now have a vast library of samples to choose from.

My current setup is based on my own built Windows based PC because I find Apple Macs to be less customizable/upgradeable...and I can’t play Oblivion on a Mac now could I! However I do have a program that makes Windows look like a Mac because I do love the way the operating system looks. The PC consists of an AMD 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core Processor, Asus A8R-32 MPV Deluxe Motherboard with Crossfire support, ATI Radeon X1950 Pro Graphics Card in case I fancy installing Oblivion again, 2 x 120gb Hard Drives, 1 x 320gb SATAII Hard Drive and a WD 35gb 10,000rpm Raptor as my boot drive for better performance. All this is installed into a Reserator1 V2 water cooled Antec P180 case for absolute silent running.

Martin Johnson’s studio

I have an EMU 1212m Sound card sending the audio to a pair of Yamaha HS-50M bi-amp powered studio monitor speakers, which I had to get from Germany because they’re unavailable in the UK. Even though I can’t yet play the keyboard I have an EMU X-Board 49 midi keyboard because it is useful and I have occasionally recorded live!

As well as upgrading my hardware I also upgraded my software. I have kept EWQLSO Silver because it has an awesome church organ, which for some reason is missing from it’s bigger brothers. I have bought myself EWQLSO Platinum XP, Symphonic Choirs and Stormdrum 2 to get the score the Dalek Masterplan deserves all running through FL Studio. I did have Cubase Studio 4 but it is more tailored to live playing and the software proved difficult for me to use and was slow to work in.

In the photo you can see my cue list for The Dalek Masterplan at the top and the script on the desk. There’s acoustic treatment behind the speakers and 19” widescreen monitor. To the right are various books and magazines (Sound On Sound is an awesome mag) along with the software boxes. To the left is a mic stand used with a condenser mic for the Whocast live review last night, the large cylinder is the water cooler and under the desk is the PC. Also in the photo is a Sony Microcassette Recorder and a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder.

I hope one day I’ll be working as a TV & film composer and would really love to work at Big Finish as a sound designer/editor/composer. The scary thing is getting there because I really wouldn’t know what else to do with my life! My greatest ambition is to bring Doctor Who back to the cinema in the same way Tim Burton did with Batman. I would love to see a darker version of Doctor Who maybe finally telling the story of how it all began back on Gallifrey.