Review: Yamaha Tenori-on

Jun 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO MOBILE MUSIC PRODUCTION

BONUS MATERIAL
Which Side Are You On?

Although it looks rather like a futuristic Etch A Sketch, the Tenori-on is a bleeding-edge musical performance instrument that combines sample-playback synthesis with real-time step sequencing. With a grid of flashing white buttons for entering notes, this one-of-a-kind device makes it easy for almost anyone to create music, especially if you understand harmony and song structure. The compact Tenori-on is powered by an included AC adapter or six AA batteries, making it completely portable.

The Tenori-on was designed by Toshio Iwai, a Japanese media artist, musician, and inventor who collaborated with Yamaha's Yu Nishibori in its development. Perhaps best known for originating the video game Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS, Iwai has produced interactive art installations and served as artist in residence for institutions throughout Japan, Europe, and the United States.

After a period of test-marketing in the U.K., Yamaha will begin selling the Tenori-on in the United States. (That should happen by the time you read this.) The company will make it available in very limited numbers only at tenori-on-tour.com. I consider myself lucky to have acquired one for review before its U.S. debut, and it's been my nearly constant companion for ten days.

YOUR OWN PERSONAL LIGHT SHOW

The Tenori-on's 8-inch-square magnesium frame surrounds a 16 × 16 grid of 256 LED buttons (see Fig. 1). The entire matrix is simultaneously a multitrack MIDI controller and an eye-catching display. Each button is a data-entry point for determining pitch, changing programs (which Yamaha calls Voices), and altering other parameters, as well as a sort of virtual pixel that can dynamically glow three levels of white. All 256 LED buttons are replicated on the opposite side; the grid is identical on the front and rear, but they function only as lights on the rear. Five buttons on each side of the frame, held while pressing the LED buttons, let you select timbres and parts, adjust levels, change loop length and tempo, transpose octaves, and control other performance functions.

Whenever a note plays, its corresponding LED button lights up for its duration. Playing a sequence, then, results in cascades of flashing lights, which add a lot to the instrument's visual appeal (see Web Clip 1). During use, you can set the Tenori-on on a table or other flat surface, hold it in your lap (my preference), or grasp it in both hands so that your audience sees the same light show that you do. When you hold it in your hands, the five buttons on each side — labeled L1 through L5 and R1 through R5 — are comfortably positioned under your thumbs.

The frame's lower segment contains a data jog wheel, a perpetually backlit LCD, and two buttons labeled OK and Cancel (see Fig. 2). The jog wheel affects whatever appears in the LCD and turns easily with your left thumb. On the frame's top segment are two small speakers and the Clear button, which deletes anything you've entered into the currently displayed grid. The power switch is on the bottom segment's opposite side, and three jacks for audio, power, and MIDI are on the bottom edge. To keep the jacks small, a mini DIN jack connects to a 23-inch breakout cable with MIDI In and Out ports on the opposite end.

TENORI-ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT

Understanding Layers, Blocks, and Modes is essential to using the Tenori-on. Layers are parts in a performance; most sequencers call them tracks. You can change each Layer's Voice and other parameters such as volume, panning, and length. A Block is a sequence containing up to 16 steps and 16 Layers. The Tenori-on's memory can hold 16 Blocks at a time. To switch Layers, hold the R1 button and press an LED button in the row corresponding to the Layer you want. Likewise, to switch Blocks, hold R5 and press an LED button in a column corresponding to the Block you want.

Modes are techniques for programming sequences; six Modes are available. The Tenori-on devotes 7 of its 16 Layers to Score Mode, 4 to Random Mode, 2 to Draw Mode, 1 to Bounce Mode, 1 to Push Mode, and 1 to Solo Mode. You can't change a Layer's Mode; if you'd rather program entirely in Score Mode, you're limited to seven Layers.

The Tenori-on starts up in Score Mode. The flashing grid scrolls from left to right and then loops at the default tempo (75 bpm). Pressing the OK button stops and starts playback. Horizontally, buttons represent individual steps in a 16-step sequence, and vertically, they represent 16 pitches. By default, they play a major scale (from C3 to D5), but you can globally change their transposition and octave and select from eight diatonic modes, a chromatic scale, or a pentatonic Okinawan scale (C-E-F-G-B-C). You can also shorten the sequence length to as few steps as one.

Score Mode should be familiar to anyone who's ever programmed a drum machine. Each row is a pitch, and each column is a step. Pressing an LED button plays its note, and holding it assigns that note to your sequence. Holding it again deactivates it. When a note plays, the surrounding buttons flash along with it. You can enter as many notes as you'd like into each column to create chords. All notes are of equal duration — a serious limitation, because you can't enter patterns in which some steps are 16th notes, for example, and others are quarter notes.

In Random Mode, holding an LED button causes a note to repeat every time a step plays until you press a second button. Then you'll see all the buttons between them light up until they reach the second button, which plays a note and then bounces back to the first (see Web Clip 2). Pressing more buttons adds new notes, which play back in the order you enter them.

In Draw Mode, you can press LED buttons or use your fingertip to draw lines and curves that become repeating note patterns. Patterns play in the same rhythm you enter them, without regard to step duration, except that no note is longer than one step. Continuing to draw adds to the pattern, but you can't erase additional parts in the same Layer; pressing Clear makes the entire pattern disappear.

In Bounce, Push, and Solo Modes, pitch is arranged in columns, ascending from left to right. When you press an LED button in Bounce Mode, a note drops from that button and bounces back repeatedly when it reaches the bottom row. The distance from the button to the bottom determines the note's rate of repetition. Pressing the bottom LED cancels that note.

When you press and hold an LED button in Push Mode, it plays a note whose sound changes continuously, and the LEDs surrounding it flash in a repeating pattern. Push Mode works best with sustaining sounds.

Solo Mode lets you change a note's duration in response to how long you hold its LED button. It resembles Bounce Mode in that the row determines its rate of repetition. If you don't want notes to repeat, play only the lowest row.

When you leave the Tenori-on idle, its Interior Mode begins playing its onboard demo or a song you've stored in memory, or its grid begins flashing the time (in 24-hour format), or both. It can chime on the hour and even function as an alarm clock if you'd like. Such tricks quickly become tiresome, though, and a Power Save function turns off the LED buttons after whatever period of inactivity you specify.