I was reading the home page and was just wondering if you guys are
reffering to the Yamaha Tenori-On?  If so, I think your stuff is cooler
and I have and will support small businesses! Your devices inspired me
to dig deeper into the electronic realm of engineering, so thanks for
that!!


Meoff

as a computer science student, it is very rare that i actually get into 
anything related to engineering and circuitry. the one class that taught 
it did not interest me at all. but learning about the monome has sparked 
a serious interest in engineering and integrated circuits. so i would 
also like to say thanks to tehn et al for making such a kickass device! 
now, if i can only find my breadboard....

we spotted a couple of articles that really suggested a monome vs. 
yamaha sentiment, and we realized that it was time for us to reiterate 
that we're a couple of artists, not a huge company.

regardless, that fact alone doesn't convey enough information to 
illustrate the clear differences between our devices and others like it 
(korg, etc). those companies have huge marketing engines whereas we've 
relied on the viral spread of enthusiasm-- and we don't even publish the 
huge list of artists using our designs.

so we'd like to thank everyone for helping make this community and these 
devices come into existence. it wouldn't have happened without your 
support. while that's a common cliche these days, it's actually true in 
our case.


brian

ps to bloggers (our good friend peter kirn not included): primary 
sources mean credibility and correct facts! e-mail me, i'm friendly.

the viral spread of enthusiasm. i like that. am i the only one who 
thinks the only similarity between the tenori-on and the 256 is that 
they're both square and have, er, 256 LEDs? the tenori-on is "just" a 
(non-configurable) instrument, right? dont get me wrong, i think the 
tenori-on looks SWEET. i want one, and i don't see it as conflicting 
with my 40h any more than a synth conflicts with a piano.

yeah, i don't really get the comparisons either but then again, i 
understand these difference out of research. i think folks throwing out 
general speculation really don't know all the info and haven't 
researched the products clearly. it's unfortunate but common.

even with the clear distinction that Brain has posted folks will 
continue to post "monome vs. tenori-on" topics. hopefully with efforts 
such as Peter Kirn's CDM and other good sources it will become clearer.

i heart monome and all that's behind it.

> we spotted a couple of articles that really suggested a monome vs. 
> yamaha sentiment, and we realized that it was time for us to reiterate 
> that we're a couple of artists, not a huge company.

congrats on the visibility and props for being the independent duo 
making an indelible mark on the music/art/science landscape.  10, 15, 20 
years from now people will still remember the 40h let alone the newer 
creations.  mlr goes right along with that.

BIG SHOUT OUT to kelli too!!  the 'silent partner' behind it all.

Don't worry I think that the difference between the 256 and the tenori 
is clear. At least for me it is clear: complete open design and 
software, a community of enthusiast people that adhere to the share 
principle. It opens so many possibilities, I am really exited ! When I 
see all the already existing apps, it shows clearly that the combination 
of an enthusiast community and open design works great. Despite their 
physical similarity, the tenori and the 256 does not target the same 
usage. As I see it the tenori is more of a new independent instrument, 
whose usage has been planned in advance. The 256 is not tied to any 
usage.

on 4th of September for all the answers on Tenori (spec, hardware, open 
source ?)

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/tenori_on/tenori+on-set-for-september-launch-295444.php
http://www.global.yamaha.com/tenori-on/index.html
http://www.pixelsumo.com/post/tenori-on-development

as I concern it seems a toy compared to the 40h

tenori website has launched.  599 uk pounds

http://www.tenori-on.co.uk/specs/

http://www.tenori-on.co.uk/downloads/manual.pdf

From a glance at the midi docs it looks like it transmits for button 
presses
but does not let you trigger the lights over midi.

It also seems to me, given this spec, that the software that runs on the 
tenori could be cloned (probably at great difficulty, and with some 
changes to button layouts) for the 40h or the 256. It is nice to see 
more grid based controllers out there, it shows that monome is really 
onto something important.

wow, there is quite a lot of mis-information out there.

thanks those of you trying to help correct these wrongs.

also, yeah, who's going to port yamaha's software? from the demos i've 
seen it's completely possible, even easy if someone has the time to put 
in. i'll ask some friends.

I was already thinking of try to add light intensity control to 
serial-pyio. So that you can do something like => setLed(x,y,intensity). 
Once this works you could do the same effect that the tenori has: like 
the small "explosions" around the turned on lights.

Considering the software, there is nothing the tenori does that the 256 
could not do. The 256 does nothing in it self, so it can do everything! 
Logical no?

Julien

i'd love to be part of porting yamaha's software to the 256.  definitely 
seems possible and i'm sure it would be quite a bit of fun.  so if 
anyone's starting on this project, holla my way and we'll work 
together...

as for the explosions...  i think they're cool looking sometimes but i 
don't really like that they continue showing up when you move to other 
"layers" (as yamaha calls them).  likewise for even the single-button 
blinks.  you keep seeing all of these dimmer explosions and blinks as 
you're in other layers and to me, that would make it hella hard to see 
what you're doing.  (see this crappy youtube video for reference: 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y2SqrSh6moI)

and brian, correct me if i'm wrong but there are parts in mlr that send 
messages to box/intensity.  are these legacy?  do they not do anything 
anymore or does the 40h actually understand these messages and change 
light intensity?  (i've never messed with it.)

Normally the OSC message related to intensity is for the whole board, 
not the individual leds.

julien is correct. intensity is full-board, not per LED. this was a 
design choice we kept in the new series.

ah.  yeah that makes sense.

I envision controlling the intensity by sending pulses at different 
frequency to the board. Did you envision this ? Could it damage the leds 
on the longer term ? I doubt it but I am no led expert.

somewhere on here there's a max patch that does this.  its called 
something like "hacking the intensity via blinking."  no idea about the 
led damage issue...

Ok cool. Did you try it ? I don't have winXP to run max.. I am wondering 
if we can get good visual results with this technique. I'll hack 
something this week end to test !

we discussed this extensively elsewhere, maybe we can find the thread.

i suggested that the firmware should be changed to do this most 
effectively.

no damage possible.


google:

pwm site:forum.monome.org

http://forum.monome.org/topic/706

here is a product demo of said device:

looks fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SGwDhKTrwU