That thing bores me to tears.

It's unimaginitive, repetitive, and near useless for any kind of real composition. Calling it a "sketchpad" is insulting a pencil and paper. It's the only thing I've ever seen that could make trance music exciting by comparison. And yes, I watched both videos. Barely. It was all I could do to stay awake.

It's a perfect toy for the "sample and loop" generation of so-called composition. As a real instrument, it ranks somewhere below a triangle and a Fisher-Price xylophone, and requires somewhat less creativity and intelligence.

Give it to an elephant... or a room full of monkeys taking a break from transcribing the complete works of Shakespeare.

Synthfilker

(And I am someone who really likes alternate musical input devices.)

I'll wait for v2.0...

leMel

Since this is a gadget blog, let me make a parallel between computer code and music. I don't think it is cheating to use a pre-build library of functions to make a program. If I did, I wouldn't get anything done, reinventing the wheel every day.

Welcome to cut-and-paste remix culture. There's nothing wrong with creating by using different building blocks, or working at a higher level with "pre-fab". This is incredibly more important each day in our increasingly digital and media saturated lives.

"Analog" musicians owe a lot to appropriation and sharing of material. Bards used to travel from town to town stealing and retransmitting each others songs and ideas. It's called culture, as opposed to consumption. If you've ever played a cover, or tried perfecting that line from your favorite song, you don't have a leg to stand on.

Synths aren't easier. Their just different. And I don't see anything wrong with a tool designed to interest people in music having an easy barrier of entry. More people trying to create, as opposed to being dumb one-way consumers of media.

It's the musician not the tool that makes the music, and a good musician will quickly move beyond the pre-fab default settings and start getting into the good stuff.

fizgiged

Hey get ready to hit the button! We need a drum fill.

It's far better to be the "most ignorant post of the day" as opposed to the most person of the year. Once again... Good luck on your quest for work free and talentless musicianship.

Sorry folks, there is no "EASY BUTTON" when it comes to art. Learn to play an instrument.

donlphi

Yes, actually, you can. It's on a per layer basis though, from what I can tell. And it cannot go above 16. So in theory you are definitely right. Like I said, it's deep if you want it to be! *wink

Neight

jonnylam

Eptin

YAY

quasimotto

Be proud, you just earned the most ignorant post of the day. Do you even know how many synthesizers there are out there have step sequencers? Maybe about half I would say. Get this, some synthesizers you actually have to physically touch a key to make a sound! ISNT THAT GRAND?!

I'll echo Neight, what have you produced?

dead_red_eyes

Some of us buy all those things, even though we are trained in actual instruments.

Some of us also make music for personal happines and not monetary gain.

What have you produced?

Neight

When I was a kid and told a flute player I was playing an instrument myself (synthesizer, which were new and exciting technology 25 years ago), she told me without blinking "But that's no instrument".

Oh yeah: If it's got circuitry, it is just a toy. Just like you can't write a novel in Word, because only wimps would use formatting and a spelling checker.

And God forbid only two notes are triggered by something else than your precious ten fingers ("automated") - then surely that devil in the machine is making the music, thereby insulting ever proper artist on the planet.

Mr. Hustleufagus said he got frustrated by Reason, Logic etc. - but the Tenori-On might work for him. You, however, clearly see that he is just too dumb/impatient to learn; surely the traditional music software is not to blame. Because we all know that existing software is the best there ever will be, right?

This arrogance towards people using new technology to make music would be understandable if it came from an ignorant old fart hiding behind his piano (which, BTW, is a high-tech instrument in that building and playing it requires an immense amount of knowledge).

When I have to read on a tech site that a person interested in alternative interfaces/controllers "wants someone else to make the music" (so he should just buy a damn record), I'm not sure if the poster is even aware of his level of ignorance.

For millennia, making music involved technology, and most instruments provide some kind of "macro"/automation, where a few clever tricks will get you great results (e.g. strumming three chords on a guitar = instant pop song; incredibly hard to simulate this with a piano keyboard). This makes people curious, and they will eventually get beyond the tricks and create something. It's called *playing* an instrument for a reason, so the "Let's just try this" approach is not only acceptable, but natural.

Brushing off frustration with existing products and fascination with alternative interfaces/creative tools because they don't fit into your narrow mindset only makes you look like a tool. And if you think electronic music is just pressing a few buttons, I suggest listening to (and trying to understand) Squarepusher or Autechre. Good luck with your hick theories on what constitutes a "proper" instrument/approach to music.

(BTW, I play "real" keyboards and have only moderate interest in classical sequencing. But I welcome all the shiny new toys, from Tenori-on to Reactable. More instruments, more musicians, more music, *different* music, new music, better music ... Pop music has been recycling the same old routines for far too long.)

MiddleOfNowhere

I think it's hilarious how people buy drum machines, and synthesizers, and all this other stuff that automates different tracks, and then call themselves musicians. Good luck on your quest for work free and talentless musicianship.

donlphi

Perhaps this is a step up from the crappy laser device we saw last week.

donlphi

Also, if you ever want to sell that 808, please let me know!

frigg

I'll quote and reply:

*Does it stand the test of time, or do you find that as you get used to it, it becomes gimmicky and you leave it lying around in the corner?

It hasn't become gimmicky at all. It definitely stands the test of time, but I DO leave it laying around (I have a nice little home studio). I generally take it with me almost everyehwere and use it to get the songs or beats out of my head when needed. This is, by no means, its only purpose, but it definitely serves as the ULTIMATE SCRATCH PAD, as it were, for me. I can see how someone who purchases this with the idea that it will take over as a major part of their setup might feel miffed after a couple months.

*Also, do you find that there's any kind of learning curve, or has it been plug and play for you and friends that might pick it up and just start using it?

It all depends on how deep you want to get into it. A complete idiot with 0 musical perception can pick this up and within no time come up with something quite impressive. Alternatively, someone with a bit of knowledge and passion can come up with an incredible bit of tune, as the Tenori has a pretty wide bevy of different modes, layers, pages, and tweaks that can be applied to it.

*Do you like the relationship between the lights and the sound, or again, do you find that after awhile it seems gimmicky?

No way is it gimmicky. At first you may be like "damn that's cute", but later on you realize that some of the modes actually depend on it. You dont need a readout of any kind due to the way they have magnificiently gone about using the lights. Everything is apparent to you by looking at what is going on. They aren't just there for a light show.

I want to throw in here that it isn't just a "hit a dot to make a beep when the play head comes around". There are a bunch of other modes that are quite unique only to something as visual as the Tenori.

*Does the restriction of notes to predetermined modes frustrate you after awhile and make you feel like no matter what you do, the harmonic choices box you in? Or is this not an issue as there are enough other parameters that you are able to manipulate so that you feel that you are leading it rather than it is leading you?

Liek I said before, at first it's very easy to get a bit 'boxed in' if all you do is use the general interface, but once you dig a bit deeper, there are many many things to keep you occupied. There are 256 preset banks of sounds. Some banks actually have 16 different voices within each one (such as a full drum kit). You can hook it up to the computer and add your own samples to use as well. There are some basic effects and all the general assets to apply (tempo, individual volume, individual loop points (!!!), etc etc).

Another gripe, you can't change time signatures. This may be big for some people, but so far, hasn't been to big of a deal for what I use it for.

*Finally, as I understand it, you said you were frustrated by its inability to create multiple sections and put them together in a larger song.

This is true. Please understand that you can create a whole song, measure by measure, on different 'pages' and flip between them. You can even have seperate pages for each layer! But the ability to sequence the pages is just not there. Seems like a no brainer for them to have added. There is a mode that records what you are doing into an mp3 though. If I'm not mistaken, you can also have this slaved up and control it via some other software (I know you can use it as master in the midi chain as well, which has been fun to hook it up to my tb-30 devilfish). I have to admit that I have not attempted to take said pages out of it and into another software based program. I work with comptuers all day and when I play music, I tend to shy away from the mouse+keyboard realm and stick with knobs and buttons (mpc, 909, 808, 303, virus, etc etc).

As a side note, it has some cool other features that are completely gimmicky. Like you can turn it into clock mode, where it shows what time it is with a little dot going around the outside. You can then set an alarm and ahve it play a song you have made at a given time. Little idiotic things like this are the green gel-icing 'happy bday' writing on the cake.

Have any of you every used PSPKick by chance? (insert big grin here)

Neight

ideaman2020

workingonyourinvoice

frigg

Also, do you find that there's any kind of learning curve, or has it been plug and play for you and friends that might pick it up and just start using it?

Do you like the relationship between the lights and the sound, or again, do you find that after awhile it seems gimmicky?

Does the restriction of notes to predetermined modes frustrate you after awhile and make you feel like no matter what you do, the harmonic choices box you in? Or is this not an issue as there are enough other parameters that you are able to manipulate so that you feel that you are leading it rather than it is leading you?

Finally, as I understand it, you said you were frustrated by its inability to create multiple sections and put them together in a larger song. However, if you come up with something that you really like, could you offload it to a more full functioned sequencer like logic, and then create a new section from scratch on the tenori-on, and then offload that to Logic as well, and then manipulate the sections in Logic? It's not very elegant, but would this work as a way to use the tenori-on to come up with tenori-on-ish ideas, and then string them together as sections in a larger piece?

Alternatively, is the tenori-on like Vegas: what happens in the Tenori-on stays in the Tenori-on.

TIA!!!

frigg

+ Watch video

workingonyourinvoice

But that could easily be changed in a firmware upgrade (PLEASE GET TO THIS!!) in the future.

I personally feel it is WELL worth the cash if you have it laying around. If you have any questions.. Feel free to ask.

Neight

Mr_Hustleufagus

duckandcover

strider_mt2k

jonnylam

ftw5000

[partyflock.nl]

is this it?

justseth

Mr_Hustleufagus

It's like it all presupposes we make some sort of techno-ish music, and that we all want to be the new Kraftwerk.

I find the sound palette of the Tenori extremely limited, even annoying, but I guess it's not for me, so I'll stop whining now.

digidandy

The tenori-on is as much a playback device as it is a musical instrument. Logic has a big learning cuve. But any fool can play a Tenori-On just by picking it up and fondling its lighted face with your digits as easy as Mr. T can kick Ned Flanders' ass. Logic to the Tenori-On is like the iPhone SDK to an iPod.

That's why Yamaha chose to introduce the Tenori-ons in record stores in the U.K. rather than traditional music instrument shops. It doesn't require any musical training. In a way it's like a controlled playback device that distances the user from typical musical decisions at the note level so that you can control an overall tapestry of patterns designed to sound harmonious no matter how you combine them.

frigg

bandit

70ph3r

P3nnst8r

thechansen

Set to evil

St.Jimmy

Mondoz

+ Watch video

Mr_Hustleufagus

Mr_Hustleufagus