Tenori-On @ Southpaw

Yamaha debut of the Tenori-On happened in Brooklyn with various performers playing it with their distinct styles. The impressive electronic instrument was created by multi-media artist Toshio Iwai and features 256 LED buttons and 10 function buttons. It has studio-quality sounds from real and electronic instruments along with various effects. It’s also a very mezmerizing visual display from both sides and it’s an integral part of the process of making music. Although an impressive engineering feat and a cool idea, it fails on many levels. Creating complex songs is very difficult as the sequencer is “hidden’ behind the 16 levels that are not viewable at all times. The visual component is awesome but only viewable if played standing up and holding the machine to eye level or aiming a camera at it. Cumbersome. And it costs about $1200 which is just crazy. I find this more of a cool gadget rather than a viable instrument. I applaud Yamaha for putting the time and money behind the unique project but I feel it’s going to be a failure. I still love all my existing Yamaha gear though. 🙂

Pictures and videos of the Tenori-On in action

Tunebooks. It finally launches.

So a little thing I’ve been secretly working on with my cohort Tom Gibbons and Josh Koppel finally goes live. It’s called Tunebooks and it’s for iTunes. It’s what your digital music has been missing. After some diligent negotiating with Apple and the record companies, we realeased our first Tunebook for Click5 and one for The Darkness the following week. We are all very excited for this project and the future of digital music. Stay tuned for some new projects.

Our Official Site: Tunebooks

Here are some links to what the blogosphere is saying.

Digital Liner Notes for iTunes Albums. Finally.

TuneBooks Digital Album “Booklets” To Begin With the Darkness