knob twiddler
n.— «When it comes to diversity in electronic music, one of the most important distinctions for the festival presenters is balancing the programs between artists affectionately known as “knob twiddlers,” who sit behind a laptop, manipulating sound with a mouse; and musicians who are active performers, either using technologies to process sound from an instrument as they play it, or triggering sound through gestures.» —“A music festival with a different beat” by Andrew Gilbert Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California) Aug. 30, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Why is it harder to talk if we don’t move our hands? Even when we’re talking on the phone we feel the need to gesture to aid communication. A new book offers a look at the relatively new field of gesture studies. And: Ever wonder why we describe the...