Reader Franz (Franz Keller, VJFranzK) has been blissfully happy with a Tenori-On-inspired application for Apple’s iPad, and he’s committed his enthusiasm to video. I love his presentation style, a bit like a cheery authoritative voice from a vintage newsreel. From his description:
Aurora by 4Pockets for iPhone, iPad etc. The newest amazing synth program to enter the iScene! 14 sparkling tracks of improvisational music briliance… a full on Tenori type experience for the great price of $10!
There appear to be some tradeoffs here in the transition to the iPad. One of the strong features of using the Tenori-On was the tactile feel of those buttons against your fingertips; the feedback and precision are lost here. It’s also nice to have MIDI connectors for controlling other, often (ahem) better-sounding equipment to the Tenori-On. But there are advantages, too. Having the keyboard at the bottom and context-sensitive menu options makes programming friendlier on the iPad, and that’s to say nothing of the ability to use the iPad for other things, at a price that’s less than Yamaha’s hardware.
And, incidentally, it is very true that the iPad does multitouch better than any other widely-available device — though my big question now is, will others soon catch up? (If they do, we’ll be indebted to Apple’s developers for beginning to create usable design patterns via the iPad and iPhone.)
Thanks for the review, Franz! Now, cue the commenters complaining about the use of “Tenori-On” and “iPad” in this post. (Hmmm… if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I may have to write an automated script that posts additional made-up comments along the same lines.)