Tenori-On : New type instrument / sequencer ?

Stubbe · Post by **Stubbe** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:39 am

Hi Guys,

Just fell over this new device from Yamaha, looks like a lot of fun if it can be tamed, and it has MIDI in and out.

Watch the video : http://youtube.com/watch?v=_SGwDhKTrwU and here :http://youtube.com/watch?v=MRXEx-uQR7E

Official site : http://www.global.yamaha.com/design/tenori-on/

It's not out yet, but should be launched in London on September 4th.

Could be fun?

Cheers
Stubbe

Post by **hubird** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:42 pm

really great

petal · Post by **petal** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:20 pm

Yeah - it looks really interesting.

It's been developed by the same guy who's also the creative mind behind "Electroplankton" for the NDS, Toshio Iwai:

http://electroplankton.nintendods.com/flash.html

Post by **hubird** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:41 pm

great also, as is the site

petal · Post by **petal** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:10 pm

I found this link with a good article about the tenori-on and its alternatives:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/03/1 ... dware-win/

The open source community also has it's spectacular solutions - Check out the video at the top:

http://monome.org/

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:29 am

cool thing. looks almost like a student project, but anyway.. The Iwai guy is one of the more famous installation / media art guys in Japan. I like how they photograph the thing (in their flash site) so it looks almost wireless.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:55 am

well, the tenori thing was introduced at Sigraph 2005 according to one of the youTube links...
can't find any historic facts one the monome site - I'd rather consider this a steal of the original idea.
Probably not much relevant anyway as the concept is fairly obvious and has been implemented in synth matrix modulations before - just without optical feedback

cheers, Tom

petal · Post by **petal** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:03 am

This editors note was taken from the first link:

(Ed. note: Vlad rightfully points out in comments that the Monome prototypes actually came before Tenori-On. Toshio Iwai, among others, likewise worked on similar ideas before. Ultimately, all of these ideas have been readily available, meaning this is even more a matter of execution — and your preference / working style. -PK)

The monome is different in many ways, for example it's build to be "hacked", to build your own custommade software for it, like for example using PD, Max/MSP, Reaktor etc. Communication is through midi and OSC. These points really makes all the difference if I were to make a choise at this points. These two products are not the same - it's that simple.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:27 am

While Yamaha does have an offcicial TENORI-ON website, the TENORI-ON is not listed at www.yamaha.com only at:

http://www.global.yamaha.com/design/tenori-on/.

You can buy the TENORI-ON in the UK only and it is all sold out.

The marketing strategy (or lack of) seems akin to Creamware's method.

The Monome is hand made and will be very difficult to get. It also doesn't seem to have as many functions.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:39 pm

thanks Petal for putting that straight...
I've read 'Yamaha' and it rang midi controller - wich it apparently isn't at all

cheers, Tom
I might do a virtual one as an exercise, tho

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:04 pm

Braincell - Yamaha isn't known for releasing products as wildly esoteric as this one - it's usually just way too risky (I know, such a huge company should be able to afford to take the hit). I know people who have worked at Yamaha and you wouldn't believe the amount of crazy experimental cool stuff that doesn't go any further than the R+D department.

It's likely that the UK-only launch is a test-bed, because Yamaha really does not have any idea if this thing will take off.