"You will be able to compose music in 20 minutes."
This is what a developer of TENORI-ON, a new digital musical instrument from Yamaha, told AFP. The TENORI-ON, which translates to “sounds on your hand,” has a form factor of a square silver tablet. It comes with 256 LED buttons, which are arranged in a 16 by 16 matrix. By pressing the buttons, sounds will be played and buttons will light up. Yamha says that it “allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a 'visible music' interface."
Some more info:
The horizontal axis represents the time and the vertical axis represents different musical notes. There are 253 kinds of instrumental sounds you can choose from such as violin and piano. In addition, you can also use your own original sounds with a SD memory card.
You can switch between six different modes while you play. More info about the modes and functions can be found on Yamaha’s website.
Here’s a demonstration on YouTube:
You can also see the Tenorions, a girl band, play the TENORI-ON in the following video:
What’s cool?
- It’s the Etch-A-Sketch of digital musical instruments. Not only can you draw with the LED lights, you can make and play music anywhere you go.
- It’s designed by interactive media artist Toshio Iwai, who also developed the interactive music game Electroplankton for the DS.
- The matrix of LED lights are double-sided, which means your audience can see what you’re playing.
In Japan the TENORI-ON costs 121,000 yen, which is about 1,200 bucks. It's available in US, Europe, and Japan with limited quantities. If you are in the States, you can get on the waiting list at KEYFAX.
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