The Rutt-Etra-Izer

June 10, 2011 7:21 PM

The Rutt-Etra-Izer is a WebGL emulation of the classic Rutt-Etra video synthesizer created by Felix Turner. It requires a recent version of Chrome or Firefox. If you can't get the synthesizer to work, there is a video of the audioreactive version made with Processing in the author's announcement. YMMV. Do not taunt Rutt-Etra-Izer.
posted by mkb (10 comments total)

Would not be at all surprised to see this (the audio-reactive version) introduced as a iTunes visualizer in the near future.

This is the same guy who came up with Simpleviewer, which has been a godsend when trying to help friends add a "basic cool photo gallery" to their websites.
posted by ShutterBun at 7:47 PM on June 10, 2011

I've known Bill Etra for many years.

I was at a show where Benton Bainbridge was doing video synthesis - and I was blown away by the effect he was getting. I literally ran over to see what was going on - and Benton wasn't doing anything, it was Bill was playing with the rig. "That," said Benton, "is the Rutt-Etra Video Synthesizer."
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 8:03 PM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Didn't work in Firefox, but did work in Chrome. Very cool effect!
posted by rmmcclay at 9:09 PM on June 10, 2011

Oh, that's very cool. Some pics I had on my desktop.

Seems to work well with pics on black backgrounds.
posted by alikins at 10:07 PM on June 10, 2011

I like it. It does neat things to faces.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:46 AM on June 11, 2011

I recently got a call from Steve Rutt, asking if I still had any data on his server that I needed, from about ten years ago. He didn't mention it, but I found out later that he had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and had only a few weeks to live. And this is what pops into his head, at a time like that? Very nice guy. RIP.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:59 AM on June 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh!!

I hadn't seen that Steve Rutt was dead! Bummer. I met him two or three times, once when he ran into Bill Etra for the first time in a few decades (it was cordial and uneventful).

Bill's also had years of health issues that have tried the patience...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 8:29 AM on June 11, 2011

God, I hadn't realized that he had died - and so recently. Stickycarpet, that's a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it.
posted by running order squabble fest at 3:40 PM on June 11, 2011

This was very sad news indeed. Steve was one of my heros, a friend and endlessly amusing. The Rutt-Etra-Izer is very cool, but a wee bit higher rez than the real thing. For those of you in NYC there will be a memorial for him at the end of June (details to follow). The plan is to show lots of work people made on the RE-4 and work that Steve created. Here is an excerpt from "Modulated Horizontal Lines," a tape I made with the RE-4 video synthesizer in 1976. (I hope posting this link doesn't violate the posting guidelines -- I'm new to Metafilter.)
posted by Dean358 at 12:50 PM on June 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just received this note from Trilby at SVA:

"A Tribute to Steve Rutt: Video Visionary"

Thursday, June 30
6:30-8 PM
The SVA Theater
333 West 23rd Street, between Eighth and Ninth Aves.
Free and open to all
posted by Dean358 at 7:06 PM on June 14, 2011