Yamaha's TENORI-ON : Digital Music For Several Senses.

Above: designer of the Tenori-On, Toshio Iwai



Media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha collaborated to design a new digital musical instrument for the 21st century, TENORI-ON. A 16x16 matrix of LED switches allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a "visible music" interface.



The TENORI-ON provides six different performance and sound/light modes for broad performance versatility, and these modes can be combined and used simultaneously for rich, complex musical expression.

For DJs & producers it is a unique performance tool enabling them to perform using MIDI and load the TENORI-ON with samples to 'jam / improvise' within their set BPMs.



By holding one of the ten function buttons located on either side of the TENORI-ON and operating the LED buttons you can change voices, change octaves, and apply a variety of effects and variations to your performance.



This unique visual/tactile interface has been specifically designed to allow intuitive, instantaneous operation of a variety of functions.



TENORI-ON “Modes”
The TENORI-ON 16 x 16 LED button matrix is simultaneously a performance input controller and display. By operating and interacting with the LED buttons and the light they produce you gain access to the TENORI-ON's numerous performance capabilities.

The TENORI-ON provides six different performance and sound/light modes for broad performance versatility, and these modes can be combined and used simultaneously for rich, complex musical expression.


Above: Creating light and sound with a finger

Layers
TENORI-ON layers can be thought of as “performance parts” or “recording tracks.” The TENORI-ON has a total of 16 layers. Separate notes and voices can be assigned to each layer, and all layers can be played together in synchronization.

The 16 layers are divided into six performance mode groups. The six modes have different note entry methods and operation. Up to 16 layers created using different modes can be combined for rich, complex musical expression.



Above: hardware details

Blocks
Once complete set of 16 layers is called a “block.”
The TENORI-ON can store up to 16 programmed blocks (16-layer groups) in memory, and you can switch from block to block instantly during performance.

You could, for example, create a musical composition in one block, then copy that composition to another block and edit it to create a variation of the original composition. Or you can load a number of previously-created compositions into separate blocks from an SD Memory Card and switch between them to create variation during playback.


Above: collaborate and share or send music

Click images to enlarge:



To see all the technical specs go here.

It's available for purchase now. Price? Not quite music to your ears at $1,200.00 USD.
Buy it here.

Six Sites That Bring Back The Art of The Mixtape

Three (make that six, because I added three) Hot Mixtape Services That Are Remaking the Art Form
source: Read,Write Web




The elegant simplicity, combined with the tech success of its New York founders, has made Muxtape the mindshare leader in the online mixtape market. Users upload up to 12 MP3 files and then publish their collection. The interface is like one big button and it's a lot of fun to explore different peoples' collections of favorites.

All kinds of mashups have been built on top of Muxtape. See, for example, our coverage of Muxtape With Coverflow [Mac] (pictured below), MuxtapeStumbler, MuxSeek Search Engine and MuxScrobbler - a script to synch your Muxtape listening with your Last.fm user profile.


Muxtape


The newest entrant into this field is much easier to use for publishing collections. Favtape creates a Muxtape-like interface for listening to the full-length version of your Pandora or Last.fm favorited songs.

It's simple, but it's very cool. There are tie ins to Lyric Wiki, a ringtone search, the ability to listen to more songs that are similar or by the artist and other features. It's powered by the Seeqpod API, which must be one of the most popular APIs on the web lately.

Favtape just launched this week, but we really like it already.


MixWit is a Flash mixtape creator with a very nice interface and the ability to embed your player on a web page. This service can have songs added by URL or through Seeqpod or Skreemr MP3 search.

It's a relatively full featured Flash authoring environment and exemplifies the design possibilities that emerge from a confined space. The cassette tape border around images users upload is really visually appealing. It's all pretty easy to use and it's a whole lot of fun. It's more fun to use as a publisher than either of the services above and it might be more fun for listeners too.

It appears that there are some performance issues, though, as the "menu" command often doesn't work with Mixwit. That should bring up a collection of other mixtapes.
Mixwit

The Changing World of Mixtapes

Different mixtape services serve different purposes. The point though is that this art form is becoming easier than ever before.

Mixtapes used to be something you put a lot of time and effort into, typically making one copy to give to one other person. The loss of that art form is a little sad. These services are something very different, they are very public and considering the free music widely available online - scarcity is no longer an issue.

Are these services legal? That's unclear; they are riding a thin line and legal decisions may be made about services like this in the coming years. Streaming, as opposed to full, direct downloads, is a different animal. The original mixtapes were arguably illegal as well, though, and what a loss the world would have suffered if that medium had been strangled.

Left out of the above article, but also worth noting:

project playlist




Splice is an online music production community for editing, mixing, tagging, and collaborating on original songs. Its Flash-based audio sequencer lets you throw together beats and melodies even if you've never edited music before, then share the results with other users.

Splice allows you to:
MEET- Find musicians from all around the globe.
MIX- Make music with the world's most advanced online sequencer, complete with real-time synths and DSP sound effects.
MASH-UP- Add your sounds to the common library. Get rated. Get remixed.

Splice

Brand new to the arena:

Check it out here.
what is a mixtape? see the wikipedia definition along with legal implications here