Flashback (radio program)

Flashback is an American radio show syndicated by Cumulus Media Networks (formerly Citadel Media and ABC Radio). Flashback plays a diverse mix of classic rock from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Other show elements include newscasts, classic TV and movie clips, commercials and comedy bits to create thematic segments from the 1960s into the 1990s. The four-hour program is syndicated to over 200 radio affiliates in the United States and Canada.

Flashback was originally hosted by voiceover artist Bill St. James. In January 2012 he was replaced by Matt Pinfield, who currently hosts 120 Minutes on MTV2 and is a former DJ and record executive. Pinfield told the website All Access "I am so honored to have been selected" and "It's the music I grew up with and can personally relate to."

Flashback Pop Quiz

In addition to the original show, Benztown Radio Networks/ Cumulus Media also produce the weekly Flashback Pop Quiz, a trivia program also once hosted by St. James. Each week, questions are asked about pop culture from the 1960s to present day. If questions are answered correctly, prizes given away are CDs, DVDs, CD-ROM games, t-shirts, books, caps and other pop culture memorabilia.

Flashback (Ivy Queen album)

Flashback is the fifth studio album by Puerto Rican reggaetón recording artist Ivy Queen, released on October 4, 2005 through Univision and on September 15, 2007 as Greatest Hits in Germany and Spain. It is often considered as a studio-compilation release due to the amount of the album being previously released material. Queen began working on Flashback after the moderate success of Real in early 2005. Featuring content dating back to 1995, when she was still a part of the all-male group The Noise, the album includes four new pieces of work all produced by Rafi Mercenario, the genre's most requested record producer at the time.

The four tracks were written and recorded after the end of Queen's nine-year marriage to Omar Navarro, months before the album's release. Lyrically, the remaining sixteen tracks tell stories of female empowerment, love and heartbreak and sociopolitical criticism. Following an international tour of South America which began in 2004 and presentations in the United States, Ivy Queen partnered with the co-founder of Perfect Image Records, José Guadalupe, to form her own record label Filtro Musik and signed a distribution deal with Univision Music Group in 2005. She was previously signed to Guadalupe's independent label Perfect Image Records which was distributed by Universal Music Latino. The Flashback Tour was launched in September 2005 to promote the album.

Synthesizer

A sound synthesizer (usually abbreviated as "synthesizer" or "synth", also spelled "synthesiser") is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate the still existing sounds (instruments, vocal, natural sound, etc.), or generate new electronic timbres not existing before. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other input devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via MIDI or CV/Gate using a controller device.

Synthesizers use various methods to generate signal. Among the most popular waveform synthesis techniques are subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, wavetable synthesis, frequency modulation synthesis, phase distortion synthesis, physical modeling synthesis and sample-based synthesis. Other less common synthesis types (see #Types of synthesis) include subharmonic synthesis, a form of additive synthesis via subharmonics (used by mixture trautonium), and granular synthesis, sample-based synthesis based on grains of sound, generally resulting in soundscapes or clouds.

Envelope detector

An envelope detector is an electronic circuit that takes a high-frequency signal as input and provides an output which is the envelope of the original signal. The capacitor in the circuit stores up charge on the rising edge, and releases it slowly through the resistor when the signal falls. The diode in series rectifies the incoming signal, allowing current flow only when the positive input terminal is at a higher potential than the negative input terminal.

Most practical envelope detectors use either half-wave or full-wave rectification of the signal to convert the AC audio input into a pulsed DC signal. Filtering is then used to smooth the final result. This filtering is rarely perfect and some "ripple" is likely to remain on the envelope follower output, particularly for low frequency inputs such as notes from a bass guitar. More filtering gives a smoother result, but decreases the responsiveness; thus, real-world designs must be optimized for the application.

Definition of the envelope

Aerostat

An aerostat (From Greek ἀήρ aer (air) + στατός statos (standing) through French) is a lighter than air craft (the average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air) that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. An aerostat's main component is one or more gasbags, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas to provide buoyancy, to which other components such as a gondola containing equipment or people are attached. Especially with airships, the gasbags are often protected by an outer envelope. One of the most recent deployments of an aerostat was seen at the opening ceremony of the nineteenth 2010 Commonwealth Games, held in Delhi, India. The aerostat used in the ceremony was the largest in the world.

Aerostats are so named because they use aerostatic lift which is a buoyant force that does not require movement through the surrounding air mass. This contrasts with the heavy aerodynes that primarily use aerodynamic lift which requires the movement of a wing surface through the surrounding air mass. The term has also been used in a narrower sense, to refer to the statically tethered balloon in contrast to the free-flying airship. This article uses the term in its broader sense.