Old School... or something

Part one is cute, Part two goes off the deep end.



OK, this one is pretty cute too.

Timbre

You know what sounds pretty sweet? A Doepfer A110 Oscillator into a Plan B Model 13 LPG into a Plan B Model 12 mk2 Multi-Mode Filter into a Moogerfooger MF-103 Phaser into a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay on panning delay into a Lexicon MX200 set to chorus then reverb.

Yup.

Voice

OK, so we probably all remember that ancient mac voice software into which one types a few lines and is rewarded with an audio output of high-grade, monotone robot voice. I personally spent many an hour with my cousins fine-tuning the text input in order to get properly pronounced profanity. WELL... here we have a new and exciting version of that software (again via Musicthing). I'm sure there have been a few intervening generations that I've missed, and I'll wager that my life is that much better for having missed them (though I did catch this one). I imagine it's kind of like going straight from those giant, lunchbox-sized portable 80's carphone things... to an iPhone.

I must admit I felt a little less lonely after discovering the proliferation of singing robot videos. This one even put in breath pauses/sounds.

This is sort of a kissing cousin several times removed to the above, but is fascinating nevertheless. I first heard this on WFMU. I was driving around Brooklyn and flipped stations to someone who was just playing this thing over and over in every accent imaginable.

Sometimes

Sometimes I feel lonely because my best friend is leaving the country and I eat too many chocolate chips immediately following dental work.

Translation

Via "Musicthing" (ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES ON THE WEB) comes this... which is a new product description shunted through Babelfish.

Having grown up bilingual and in a creative environment with at least some semblance of a sense of humor, word play was pretty much guaranteed to be in the mix. Back in 2002 I wrote a careful description for a Contact Improvisation class I was teaching at the time and then had the brilliant idea to run it through some online translation algorithms (i.e. English to French to German to Dutch to Spanish to ... back to English). I think when it finally made its way back around to the English, I neatened the punctuation and a few dangling anomalies were either removed or rearranged. Enjoy!

Original:

Impulses (from within and without) and our responses to them form the basic fabric of improvisation. In order to have a range of choices available to us, we need an open mind (able to changes states and have a loose grip on intention), and an open body (able to change direction fluidly). There exists a balanced state of potential – neither tense nor limp, frantic nor lethargic – this is the Sweet Spot, effortless and indefinable where time expands and the choices make themselves. Learn to shift between roles (active/passive) more readily. Learn the framework from which to expand your dancing. We will study the minute details of choice making and the grand arcs of transition between states. There will be focused exercises (both physical training and learning to work with ideas and states useful to the dancing) as well as class time to explore the materials we’ve studied on your own terms, in longer periods of open dancing.

Translated:

The impulses of the interior of the form (within the internal part and of the external part), observe the tender marks to smooth ignition and our answers to them: the material of low improvisation (under equipment – towards outside). For having an interval of the selection that is present, we, the practitioner of the formation of the circumstances, need one opened spirit to change, to modify (conditions in degree and having loosened the tight intention) and to an open body (the fluid direction). Here a circumstance balanced of delicate improvements holds no filters, this is the soft mark, without effort, indefinable, where the time rises and the selection takes place. Easier he learns between the rolls to move. He learns structure among them, the end to dance, the end to magnify. We will examine the embarrassingly exact details of the production of the selection and the large elbows (physical equipment – towards outside) of the transition between the statuses. It will similarly give very bundled physical formation (of exercises) to a lot of the practices (and study, in order to operate with ideas and statuses which can be danced usefully) and likewise before that one to classify the hour in order to investigate in the long term the materials that we have examined in the appropriate period of the end we opened.

I admit it:

Most of what I think about is toys. Most of the time... most days. Music gear to be specific. I don't know that I have anything terribly new and important to add to the Tenori-On debate, but I wanted to pitch in my tuppence regardless.

As to the Monome vs. Tenori-On angle, it seems probable to me that they were developed independently and simultaneously. I mean, really, it's not exactly a "left field" idea to have a grid of buttons (as per my X0X link in another post). If anyone copied anyone, I suppose the more likely scenario is that Yamaha copied Monome.





The Tenori-On is decidedly "toylike" and it also has some very interesting, if restrictive features. The MIDI functionality is apparently quite limited... this may be a sticking point for me as one of my main uses for it, if I end up with one, will likely be as a MIDI controller for my modular. It is not 100% clear from the video, but it seems like it might meet my requirements in terms of MIDI output, since I would be sending into the Analogue Solutions MT-16, I don't really need anything other than note on/off info and note length info, as long as I can easily define what channel is sending what note. And of course sync with external MIDI clock.

There has been some hoopla about the price of the Tenori-On being too high for the feature-set and also about it being appropriate considering the hand-made nature of the object (despite its corporate backing). I don't really care that much who made it or how... Basically, I would consider getting one if they were half the current $1200 pricetag. If there is a software update that increases functionality a little and it cost $500 or below, I would almost definitely get one. The factors that are keeping me from getting a Monome are simply not present, assuming the price comes down.