Nintendo DS creator strikes back

Mar 14, 2007 09:58 GMT  ·  By

More and more, I tend to avoid saying things like "it simply can't get weirder than this"; I have noticed that things actually CAN go weirder and they actually will. Now, making music has evolved quite a bit during the last century and from the traditional violins and pianos we now have MIDI and VSTi; but things haven't stopped here and people began searching for new methods to produce the new millennium's music, be that a refurb of classical music or the "technological", bytes-imbibed resonances.

Toshio Iwai, creator of Nintendo DS, looks like he has no rest at all. His latest contraption looks totally Star Trek yet it is a product which actually ships! Iwai has put light and sound together, but has not just combined them as in the lava lamp speakers: he actually made a completely new approach to a lot of problems simultaneously, such as sound generating, intuition in overall use, connectivity with other gear and last but not least, the show off of an eerie "dancing" light display.

The Tenori-On is spoken of as an instrument. Even if I have some small issues in already accepting it next to my guitars, it looks like a proper instrument as it really works and it works the way its player wants it to.

I can't go that far as to place it in a definitive category as I really don't know where it would be best suited: it is a synthesizer and no one can say the contrary, it is a sequencer because it loops and you can actually build your music in steps, it is a MIDI controller because you can properly send commands to other MIDI gear connected to the Tenori-On.

Shortly, the Tenori-On is a tablet loaded with a multitude of LEDs. A 16 by 16 matrix defines the field you can administer. On the "player" side, the 256 LEDs are actually-touch sensitive switches which trigger either some built-in sounds from the wavetable or can control other devices.

Moreover, the LED switches also light up in a manner very tightly related to what's actually being played - it is a very direct and splendid way to actually display what's going on with sound and light. Innumerable patterns can be created as the Tenori-On is truly an instrument, which allows for virtually unlimited direct creativity.

The back of this tablet has the same 256 lights matrix which copies what's happening on the player side so that the audience can enjoy both the acoustic and the visual side of the Tenori-On performance.

The tones can be also worked on, loaded from a flash drive and even more - pitch and measure values are controllable the same way one would control a classic sequencer. And if this is not enough, you can use the Tenori-On as a very capable controller for third-party MIDI devices with In or Through options.

For those of you that are more acquainted to music sequencing and the generic work with loops and samples, I must remind you of the Kaos Pad form Korg. If you know how it works it means that you'll get along with the Tenori-On even better and yes: the Tenori has more opportunities to offer.

Now, in order to play with the lights on the Tenori-On you have to offer something as well: the $1,000 it ships for and which also make it a very exclusive piece of gear, at least at present times. And if you think you haven't understood a thing from what I've said, watch this 6 minutes movie.

Photo Gallery (7 Images)

Lights on!
A small piece of wonderThe creator himself
+4more