The Tenori-on Arrives!
By tyler on Sep 25, 2008 in Electronic/Digital, Experimental, Inventions, Technology
The Tenori-on (Japanese for “sound in palm”) is a new electronic instrument that consists of a 16×16 grid of LED buttons. The amazing thing about the Tenori-on is that the sound corresponds to the LED patterns and vice-versa, making it extremely intuitive and easy to play (since most of us are visual learners).
The nice people who make the Tenori-on sent one for me to review for 3 weeks. I’ve been playing for the last two hours and am giddy with how EASY it is to make a decent, even professional sounding track!
The Tenori-on has more modes, layers, sounds, settings, and instruments than I can fathom at this moment (maybe I should read the instructions), but playing the Tenori-on is surprisingly intuitive due to the heavy visuals - it’s like drawing music. It even has two built-in speakers and an SD card port for easy recording and source sample importing. This is an incredible piece of technology and I can’t wait to explore it further!
That’s it for now, but I’ll leave you with a video and a link to the Tenori-on website. Please subscribe to my RSS feed because I’ll be updating when I learn more.
From: ranjit | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
If you like that, check out the Tenori-off:
http://megaui.net/fukuchi/works/tenorioff/index.en.html
From: tyler | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
That’s too funny….
From: s. borges | Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
I have seen this before around the web and would really like to know what’s the big difference between a Tenori and Korg’s KP3 (which, different from a Tenori, I own). Its true that the Tenori seem, eh?, slicker, but, essentially, I take it to be the same thing as a KP3.
From: tyler | Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
That’s a good question s. Let me find out for you.
From: tyler | Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
The KP3 seems to be geared toward function rather than form. More effects, sampling control, pc connection via usb, and other hardware functions. The Tenori-on is portable and attractive with a great interface.