Yamaha Music Gadget

Twice the device
Shake hands with the Tenori-On,Yamaha’s new gadget for music pros and regular Joes alike
DARE TO BE SQUARE: The Tenori-On

By ERIK LEIJON
There’s always a new, expensive, life-altering gadget coming from Japan. It’s usually of the servant robot or miniature-car variety, but Yamaha’s Tenori-On is the latest head-scratching device that promises to amaze and revolutionize the audiovisual experience. The likes of Kraftwerk, Mouse on Mars and Matthew Herbert have already used the Tenori-On, a handheld electronic instrument resembling a Lite-Brite that produces both sounds and a light show. Currently available in the U.K. for over $1,200 Canadian, the futuristic music-maker will make its North American premiere in Montreal in collaboration with MUTEK.

The Tenori-On was created by Toshio Iwai, a Japanese visual artist whose previous work includes Electroplankton, an interactive music video game for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming console. The Tenori-On features a light board with 16 rows of 16 illuminated LED buttons. On the sides of the instrument are buttons that allow users to change samples, select one of 16 different sound layers, or change pitch, note length and time signature. Each of the LED buttons is a note that can be manipulated to emit single sounds, or make light patterns on the screen. Iwai isn’t a musician, and his interest in learning to play an instrument has been his motivation in finding a system of making music using visual cues.

“The very first inspiration came when Toshio Iwai saw the paper score of a little hand-cranked music box,” says developer Yu Nishibori, who began development with Iwai in the autumn of 2002. “The score was a paper strip with many little holes, so the music was visually recorded as a beautiful pattern. He realized there could be a new way to beautifully combine music and visual elements.”
Futuristic fun

The premiere at the SAT is intended to demonstrate the surprising versatility of the little machine. Montreal electronic composer Pheek has twiddled with the Tenori-On’s knobs, and will be on hand to show-and-tell his unique creation.

“My first impression was a flashback from my youth,” says Pheek. “As a kid, I was imagining the year 2000 to be filled with gadgets and weird devices like the Tenori-On.”

Considering one can upload personal samples to the device via an SD card, the instrument largely acts similar to a well-equipped laptop. There is more to the device, though, according to Pheek—his goal is to use it for the improvisational elements of his work, since he found it very easy to draw and program structures on the fly.

“The Tenori-On is more of a performance tool which has a tactile interface for fast creative output,” he says. “That’s more of something that you can’t get from a mouse and keyboard.” Pheek particularly liked the randomizer, with which the user inputs the notes and the Tenori-On decides how to play them.

Iwai and Nishibori consulted with electronic musicians Jim O’Rourke, Atom Heart and Robert Lippok after the first prototypes were completed, and their contributions will be shaping future iterations of the device. Since it doesn’t require the ability to read music to actually create fairly catchy beats, reviews of the Tenori-On have likened it to a game as much as a serious tool.

Nishibori says combining the two resulted in the instrument being more attractive to seasoned electronic musicians, while retaining the interface novices could understand. “We could see the depth of possibilities in making music and at the same time, we found it’s very addictive.”
Magic tracks

The creators were especially surprised with what O’Rourke had created after only 30 minutes of experimenting. There are a finite number of samples in the machine, and they all have a similar shiny, robotic sound already being referred to as the “Tenori-On sound” among users online. O’Rourke’s piece, available on the official Web site, is eight minutes of minimalist, almost orchestral sounds. “It totally exceeded our original view of the possibilities of Tenori-On,” says Nishibori.

Pheek points out the hypnotic sounds of Tenori-On were seemingly “working together by magic” during his first attempts. A one-hour test proved it was possible to create a 12-layered, steel drum-driven dance number from scratch. There are layers, or tracks, that work similar to making music on a computer, but there are others that specifically take advantage of the visual capabilities of the LED lights.

It may have been made by and for non-musicians, but Pheek thinks electronic musicians should embrace new music interfaces as well. “I think this will open doors to other synths that will differ from the classic 16-step sequencer. Electronic music has been facing a lack of originality, and anything creative can only be good.”

North American launch with Pole, Robert Lippok,
Sutekh, I Am Robot and Proud, Nathan Michel and
Pheek at SAT on Friday, April 11, 8 p.m., free

Taken originally from here.