WEDNESDAY 5th SEPTEMBER
8pm-midnight
Carbon - a Futuresonic and Sequence event
Mint Lounge, Oldham Street, Manchester
Featuring:
Robert Lippok (Domino/To Rococo Rot), Secondo (Dreck Records), Graham Massey (808 State / Toolshed)
Admission Free
Please arrive early to avoid disappointment!

@Damon: Yes, to say nothing of the mythology of the glockenspiel. Actually, if I had to use one word to describe most traditional music instruments, ergonomic would most certainly not be one of them. Well, unless you rolled a La-Z-Boy up to your Steinway, which is a very nice way to spend an afternoon!

and no entries regarding where the leads going…

Thing about keyboards, string things, drums, and brass is that you can seem actual body parts moving and pushing and pulling in a very physical way, which is most important in the area of performance.

Also, it is a bit hard to relate to obscure controllers if you are most familiar with traditional instruments. Having banged on a keyboard and strummed a guitar, I know what a performer has over come in order to play that instrument. Traditional instruments have a context, that is not easy to approach without developing controllers that in some fashion retain some of that traditional instrument energy.

It is just not all that exciting to watch even a virtuoso player exorcizing the same muscle groups I use to operate my microwave oven. So, for the most part, I think until folks can create rather unique hybrids of more traditional instruments, many of these greatly revolutionary controller concepts will just not connect with most audiences.

The violin and the piano represent technological advances, their functions just happen not to be located within the code of software that’s embedded in a sliver of silicon. Tenori-On as compared to, for example, fxPansion’s GURU, meets the criteria for that wise musician’s statement quite well, in my opinion.

Seriously, though, mastering any instrument can involve muscle memory. Does the xylophone really defy mental understanding? What you’re talking about is not the result of a great instrument design; it’s the natural properties of bars and mallets.(The metallophone turns out to be a pretty great instrument design, but nothing about the xylophone per se.) Those physical properties are indeed missing here because they’re abstracted from the instrumental interface. On the other hand, a lot of what you’re describing is endemic to the player, not the instrument.

You’ve got me thinking, though. I think the really fundamental issue here is that things like the Tenori-on are better understood as a kind of compositional device, somewhere between an instrument as it’s traditionally understood and an interactive score. And the ability to reach a level of physical interaction beyond the cognitive level of the instrument may simply be a matter of finding someone who can develop virtuosity on it, who in a way defies the essential design of the thing.

None of this means “go run out and buy a Tenori-on.” But at least seeing various instrument designs can help us reflect back upon what’s essential in the player.

Maybe once everyone gets bored of it and they all end up selling for $50 used … a few guys from Detroit will re-invent music with them.

I think this is THE NEW ABACCUS! Shoes of the future, trousers of the past! In search of The New Sound!