r4c's New Writeups

mud flap (thing)

2001-01-17T18:30:17Z

The rubber flaps which hang behind the rear wheels of pickup trucks and semis, usually bearing witty catch phrases like "Back Off" accompanied by a picture of Yosemite Sam or the simple yet understated elegance of a chrome naked lady silhouette. Aside from telling fellow drivers "I have class", mud flaps are designed to keep mud and other road debris from soiling the owner's vehicle.

George Antheil (person)

2001-01-13T07:20:58Z

George Antheil (born 1900, died 1959) was an American born composer from Trenton, NJ but started his music career in Paris where he associated with numerous writers, artists and composers such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Igor Stravinsky.

Antheil composed over 300 pieces in many genres including works for symphony, chamber ensemble, film and opera.

His most famous (or infamous) contribution to 20th century music was his work Ballet Mecanique, which caused riots at it's debut.

Ballet Mecanique in its first incarnation was written in 1924 for 16 player pianos (pianolas) playing four separate parts, four bass drums, three xylophones, a tam-tam, seven electric bells, a siren, and three different-sized airplane propellors, as well as two regular pianos played by human performers.

This version of the piece had never…

trautonium (thing)

2001-01-12T18:49:37Z

An early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by German Acoustician Friedrich Trautwein. The Trautonium is played by pressing a finger against a wire along its length (to control pitch), putting the wire into contact with a metal bar, thus triggering a note. Another bar was pressed to control note articulation. Timbres were chosen by using several switches.

One of the only known extant pieces of music ever written for the Trautonium is Concerto for Solo Trautonium and Orchestra (written 1930 by Paul Hindemith).

A student of Trautwein, Oskar Sala later went on to develop a similar instrument called the Mixturtrautonium. This was an improved version of the Trautonium that he used to compose music and sound effects for film. It was also used on Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

The Love God? (thing)

2001-01-12T00:51:48Z

"Don Knotts stars opposite Anne Francis in a side-splittingly unconventional role as a small-time publication editor-turned playboy in this daring and delightful film."

The jacket tends to understate. The mere concept of Don Knotts as a leopard print scarf wearing stud makes for some seriously funny shit.

Written & Directed by Nat Hiken
Produced by Edward J. Montagne
1970, Universal Pictures

fuzz boxes (thing)

2001-01-11T18:28:06Z

The first commercial fuzz box was designed by Glen Snotty, a Nashville studio engineer and later released by Gibson under the name Maestro Fuzz-Tone around 1965. It was a brown wedge-shaped affair with a foot switch on the face, a jack and two knobs (volume and attack) on the back.

Maestro's fuzz box immediately spawned an entire raft of stompboxen seeking to cash in on the whole fuzz box craze. This in turn, gave birth to the entire stomp box industry, which is still quite large today.

The Maestro Fuzz-Tone has been featured on the Green Acres theme song as well as the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction".

Some of the more notable fuzz boxes of history include the Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, Roland Bee Baa, Fender Blender, Foxx Tone Machine, and the Roger Mayer Octavia (originally designed for Jimi Hendrix).

The fuzz box is as inextricably linked to rock 'n roll history as the electric guitar.

Compression ratio (idea)

2001-01-11T17:52:11Z

In professional audio terms, this generally deals with the amount an audio compressor reduces the audio dynamic range by, (expressed in dB). For example, at a 2:1 compression ratio, the input would have to change by 2dB to create a change in the output of 1dB.