Video
Story
A musical interface of light and sound, born from the collaboration between Yamaha and media artist Toshio Iwai.
Minimal
An intense presence enhanced by an insistence on quality textures and their choice to eschew paint in favor of a magnesium exterior. To fit batteries, speakers, 512 LEDs, and the other components required into the square body, designers embraced only the barest elements necessary.
Instantly-usable
A proposal for a fun, interactive instrument that anyone can use; an instrument that you want to try as soon as you touch it. In testing an interface based on the tactility and lighting of switches, Yamaha Designers sought to make playing a musical instrument an enjoyable experience for all.
Dual-View
The 256 switches that make up the Interface are not reserved solely to output sound, they also emit light to add expression to performance. Accordingly, the reverse face of the instrument also features LEDs for audience to see. When performing with a TENORI-ON, sound and light unify in a duality that surpasses the performance styles of other conventional electronic instruments.
Revolutionary
The result of a collaboration with media artist Toshio Iwai, the TENORI-ON is a twenty-first-century musical interface that will allow even those without any musical knowledge to create and perform music using visual cues and their own intuition.
The Moment TENORI-ON Began to Move On Its Own
- Toshio Iwai, Designer / Media Artist
The idea for TENORI-ON came from discussions I had had with Toshio Iwai on the nature of new musical instruments. We had sketches of it from very early on, but right from the outset we had to think about what one could actually do musically with this "digital" layout of 16 by 16 squares. Of course we planned to include the ability to do things like create songs using steps like you find in a conventional step-based sequencer, but that in itself was nothing more than a replacement for existing products.
One day I was thinking about this while in my car, it began to rain. I was watching the raindrops on the windshield and thinking about how I could connect this drop to that one and make a triangle…and then a square...and then move them all together to create a polyloop..and then it hit me. I realized that it would be really interesting to make the switches on the TENORI-ON light up and move just like the raindrops.
I went straight back to work and wrote a program to do just that. The results were fantastic. Both musically beautiful and complex, I was deeply impressed with how simple the program was to use. When the simple poly-loop I created began to expand beyond what I was capable of creating myself to become a truly wonderful sound, I realized that here I had an instrument that could exceed the abilities of the artist and work by itself. I think in that moment TENORI-ON took on a life of its own as an instrument.
- The Inventor of TENORI-ON, Nishibori
Leaving cost aside for a moment, there's much to admire about the Tenori-On. Like a fully evolved Electroplankton, it challenges us to think differently about how music can be made and its clarity of vision helps it quickly become intuitive, bordering on the addictive. For musicians it could be anything from a neat sketchpad, an ideas generator or a quirky performance instrument. For those with no musical background, it could be a fun introduction to creating tunes and noises.
The light show is undeniably lovely and I could easily imagine spending many hours hypnotized by it when under the influence of something slightly stronger than coffee. Drawing musical patterns using the various modes produces results you wouldn't obtain any other way, making it doubly fortunate that its MIDI output can be routed into your sequencer.
Specifications
Polyphony: 32-note
Timbrality: 16-part
Synthesis type: PCM (AWM2)
Aftertouch expression: No
Velocity expression: Yes
Effects: Reverb, chorus
Keyboard: 16×16 grid
External control: MIDI
Manual
Download Manual
Download Quick Guide
