Tenori-on

Tenori-on is an electronic musical instrument, designed and created by Japanese artist, Toshio Iwai and Yu Nishibori of the Music and Human Interface Group, Yamaha Center for Advanced Sound Technology. It consists of a screen, held in the hands, of a sixteen by sixteen grid of LED switches, any of which can be activated in a number of ways to create an evolving musical soundscape. The LED switches are held within a magnesium frame, which has two built-in speakers located on the top of frame, as well as a dial and buttons that control the type of sound and beats per minute produced. There is also an LCD screen on the bottom edge of the frame. Using the connection function, it is possible to play a synchronized session, or to send and receive songs between two of the devices.

Tenori-on was demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2005 held in Los Angeles, CA in August, 2005 [cite conference | url = http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=conference&p=etech&s=etech29 | last = Iwai | first = Toshio | conference = Int'l. Conf. on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques | title = Tenori-On] . A detailed discussion of the design of the Tenori-on is given in a paper presented at NIME 2006 conference held at IRCAM, Centre Pompidou in Paris, France in June, 2006 [cite conference | url = http://hct.ece.ubc.ca/nime//2006/proc/nime2006_172.pdf | last = Nishibori | first = Yu | coauthors = Iwai, Toshio | conference = Int'l. Conf. on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-06) | booktitle = Proceedings | date= 2006 | title = Tenori-on | pages = 172-175] .

Toshio Iwai has been using the Tenori-on in live performances (such as at Sónar in Barcelona, in June 2006, and Futuresonic in Manchester, in July 2006, the Futuresonic 2006 live show had some good feedback from the audience and that was one of the most important triggers to make it a real product). The instrument was launched in London on September 4th, 2007 for a suggested retail price of $1,200 (£599). [cite web | url = http://www.global.yamaha.com/tenori-on/topics.html | title = http://www.global.yamaha.com/tenori-on/topics.html] To promote this launch, three prominent electronic and experimental musicians -- Jim O'Rourke, Atom Heart, and Robert Lippok -- were invited to compose "demo" tracks utilizing the device. These tracks have since been released as promotional MP3s from the Tenori-on website.

Iwai's intention in creating the Tenori-on is to create an electronic instrument of beauty. In his own words:

:"In days gone by, a musical instrument had to have a beauty, of shape as well as of sound, and had to fit the player almost organically. [...] Modern electronic instruments don't have this inevitable relationship between the shape, the sound, and the player. What I have done is to try to bring back these [...] elements and build them in to a true musical instrument for the digital age."

The instrument builds on Iwai's previous work, such as his Electroplankton software for the Nintendo DS in the blending of light and sound, as well as the aesthetic elements of the interface.

A World Tour introducing Tenori-on began in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 12th, and finished in Tokyo on 25th April 2008.

Usage

Basic Interface

'Composing' on the Tenori-On's sixteen by sixteen grid of LED backlit buttons consists of utilizing the various different modes of input by pressing and holding these buttons to generate notes in different ways. The function buttons of either side of the unit give quick access to commonly used functions, such as instrument changes, or layer switching.

Modes

core Mode

Score mode is your basic sequencer template, with a time bar running from left to right on the grid running in a loop, much like a conventional DAW MIDI sequencer. You input notes by pressing for a short about of time, which creates a note event, or 'dot', which when hit by the time bar, the corrosponding note is heard.

Random Mode

The closest comparison this mode comes to is a combination between Score Mode and an arpeggiator, whereinstead of a scrolling timeline, a light travells from each note you activate on the grid in almost a connect the dots fashion, combined with the ability to rotate the sequence of notes at varying speeds it can emulate many arpeggiator effects.

Draw Mode

This simple mode of the device allows you to draw on the surface of the Tenori-On and loops the sequence of notes drawn or tapped on the surface of the grid.

Bounce Mode

This mode allows you to input notes which repeat at varying intervals depending on how high on the vertical scale a note is placed, which activates a bouncing ball effect, where the note is heard when the ball hits the bottom of the grid. Notes are deactivated by pressing the very bottom button on the corrosponding vertical line

Push Mode

This mode allows you tohave held sustained notes played, by holding down a button until the note 'locks', and is repeated, and some of the sounds have evolving qualities, which work well in this mode.

olo Mode

This is the most tactile and instantanious mode on the unit, allowing you to play either quantized or unquantized notes on the grid, the bottom line having a constant sustained note, and each of the lines from then on plays notes at varying intervals, e.g. 1/1, 1/4, 1/16 and so on. This mode is also useful to create a drum machine effect controlled by the user.

Advance Mode

A little known secret about the Tenori-On is it's unlockable 'Advance Mode', first unveiled at the US Tenori-On forum, which allows the user to customize the different modes of the Tenori-On, outwith the standard layout of modes. By holding function keys L1 and L5 on power-on, Advance Mode is unlocked and new features within the Layer Menu are unlocked. Discussions with designer Toshio Iwai have brought about rumours of other hidden fetaures of the unit, but no further details are available at this time.

Critisism/Bugs

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A number of users of the unit have complained of the quality of the soundset, when connected to external amplification a dullness of the sound is apparent - especially when compared with the output of other sound modules. Also the soundset itself does have many similar duplicated sounds with perhaps only slight changes to the envelope, it has been suggested that the palette of sounds available from the factory are not really suitable for long term professional use and fall mainly into the new age or ambient catgories.

The user samples (or Samplings as called in the machine) are limited to 3 slots each of 16 samples with a duration of 0.97 seconds, however these are global and as such any blocks are assigned to user sounds 1 thru 3, consequently it is not possible to have different samples for different songs or blocks. This is further compounded by the fact that to load a new sampling takes in excess of 60 seconds and can take up to a few minutes depending on the length of the sounds. Many users have commented that this, along with the fact that the built in sounds are of limited scope renders the machine of limited use in the long term and for performance.

The design of the unit is more suited to the casual composer, as in order to keep it simple many omissions normally expected on a product of similar price have been left out, the most significant of which is that 16 steps is the maximum allowed per block, also there is no provision to chain blocks to allow longer phrases.

The construction of the machine is not suited to heavy regular use, the buttons are small tactile switches that simply do not have the usage cycle for a professional use. Another design flaw is evident when using the machine in a dark environment - the buttons on each side of the device used to switch blocks, layers, sounds and so on, are not illuminated, so this and the fact that the playing surface is brightly lit make it very difficult to ensure the performer is selecting the intended function.

Some early units from the initial UK batch were recalled by Yamaha for modification to the battery circuitry due to a report of a heat build up in the batteries.

Although the unit was designed for performance, in use when using anything other than very simple compositions the unit appears to choke and lose sound for a brief duration when changing between blocks, rendering it quite impractical for professional use.

When using random mode if the sequence is spinning then cleared the unit will not allow further input into the layer, a workaround is to stop the spin before clearing the layer.

Many users feel that the retail price of the unit is too high given its shortcomings, consequently many sell their Tenori On shortly after purchase, however many of the bugs and limitations could be resolved in a firmware update from the current V1.0, although almost a year after its introduction no indication of this has been made public.

References

ee also

*Monome

External links

* [http://secure.keyfax.com/affiliates/jrox.php?id=3335_1_tlid_2 Yamaha Tenori-on Official US Sales Website]
* [http://www.global.yamaha.com/design/tenori-on/ Yamaha Tenori-on Official Global Website]
* [http://www.tenori-on.co.uk/ Yamaha Tenori-on Official European Sales Website]
* [http://secure.keyfax.com/affiliates/jrox.php?id=3335_1_tlid_8_WIKIPEDIA Yamaha Tenori-on Official Store]
* [http://www.tenori-on.ca/ Yamaha Tenori-on Official Canadian Sales Website]
* [http://tenori-on.pl/index.html Tenori-on Polish Site]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/this-gadget-rocks-the-worlds-newest-musical-instrument-791234.html This gadget rocks! The world's newest musical instrument] , "The Independent"
* [http://www.tenori-on-share.com Tenori-On-Share - The Tenori-on Community and Sample Bank Share!]