Nov 7, 2009
Photo courtesy of Yamaha
November 7th, 2009 - (Somewhat) heeding the call of musicians for a lower cost model of the Tenori-On, Yamaha has released the Tenori-On Orange. Aside from the obvious orange LED's versus the white for the current Tenori-On, the TNR-O (as they also refer to it) sports a white plastic enclosure instead of magnesium, and omits the rear LED's.
It will retail for $1000 (although probably less when it hits the street). To put that in perspective, the current Tenori-On ... Read More
Jan 9, 2009
Photo courtesy of Yamaha
January 9th. 2009 - I've covered computer controlled vocal devices before, but this takes the cake. Vocaloid is a Windows software title from Yamaha, that allows you to create vocals without a vocalist. Let me explain.
Famous Japanese actors record snippets of words and phonemes, and then the Vocaloid software allows you to basically type lyrics to be sung, as well as allowing you to control pitch and intonation. Basically, the software allows you to manually create a virtual singer.
I ... Read More
Nov 2, 2008
November 2nd, 2008 - Yamaha has a digital recorder in the increasingly crowded music market. Along with their super tiny Pocketrak 2G, which is scarcely larger than a package of gum, they've released the more semi-professionally oriented Pocketrak CX.
The CX features stereo microphones in XY pattern, storage on SD cards, compact size, and a 40 hour continuous battery life. It also has an onboard speaker, although I'm not sure that it will be the best solution for monitoring. As a software bonus, ... Read More
Jun 6, 2008
Photo courtesy of Yamaha
June 6th, 2008 - Yamaha recently introduced the Tenori-On. It's a midi controller that has a built in sound-bank to trigger. It can also interface with other samplers and synthesizers. What I find cool about it is its strong visual aspect. You can use visual cues to create patterns you wouldn't normally think of. Plus, it'd make an awesome instrument for a live stage show. It's pretty pricey for the average person though, about $1200 USD. It was designed ... Read More
