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Yamaha's new instruments
Also in the Times today, Weird Noises That Blossom Into Symphonies: a description of several new musical instruments with unusual user interfaces.
The tenori-on, a prototype from Yamaha's product design laboratory, produces computer music through a grid of 256 illuminating buttons on a brushed-aluminum tablet. By pressing buttons along rows and columns, users can program melodies like plotting notes on a scale. When the tunes are looped and layered, the machine creates a symphony of synthesis, musical blips and bleeps matched with light patterns that bounce and ripple across the device.
"It's a digital instrument in a new form," said Toshio Iwai, a 43-year-old interactive artist and University of Tokyo professor who created the device. "It plays light as well as sound."
I've been interested in Toshio Iwai's work for awhile. Anyone know him and willing to make an intro?
More on the tenori-on (annoying Flash site, sorry): click.
