2007-09-09 #1

Light Music: The Tenori-On

There's been a bit of a buzz about Toshio Iwai's Tenori-On instrument on the old Interweb over the last few months, so I sauntered into the UK launch party last week to see for myself. I was pleasantly surprised by the device, which is more of an electronic instrument, and less of a toy, than I was expecting. The build quality is exceptional, and the Tenori-On has an array of features generally found on professional instruments, such as a comprehensive MIDI specification (which includes beat clock sync and switchable local control). The AWM sound engine is weak (although new samples can be loaded into the device via SD card), but the ergonomics and control features are slick and well designed.

Yamaha have chosen to market-test the Tenori-On through a small number of record shops, and are being careful to emphasise that it is not a programmable sound device or a sampler. I see it as a highly interactive algorithmic sequencer with scratchpad sound generation, ideal for generating ideas or for live performance. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the Monome (which is just a controller).

The list price of £599 is higher than my guess on the price point at £500, but one is paying for quality; perhaps one is also paying for art.

The Tenori-On has, of course, been blogged by Matrixsynth and Music Thing; there's a good write-up at Create Digital Music.