Digital Digressions: Tenori-On: Coolest Electronic Music Interface since the Invention of the Synth!

August 09, 2006

Tenori-On: Coolest Electronic Music Interface since the Invention of the Synth!

Some of you know I like to dabble with music and mixing every now and then. Anyone with an interest in this field knows that electronic music these days is a collection of computers, cables, USB midi-controller interfaces, software, plug-ins, compatibility issues - never enough performance and many more challenges placed in our way of masterminding the field of digital music making. Intuitive is in fact a word that seldom springs to mind, as there are so many components to use concurrently that it is often easier to get stuck reviewing a library of samples or simply trying to make things run smoother than it is actually making music.

This is why this movie of a collaboration between Toshio Iwai and Yamaha really caught my eye - it's extremely simplistic dotmatrix interface seduces one into thinking this is some sort of pre-wacom type of tablet, until you realise that not only is it an incredibly intuitive way of playing music, but it also doubles up as a sequencer and synth all in one beautifully simple interface. Moreover - you can hold it in your lab AND it makes for interesting watching by the audience! Gone are the days of some geek with sunglasses standing behind the keyboard pressing keys and twiddling knobs - for all we know, he could have just been pretending. Not with this thing though - making music becomes a visual spectacle as well as an interface for experimentation and play. I want one!

Many thanks to prof. Edith Ackermann at the MIT for bringing this to my attention.