The Tenori-Off Project

Off topic… I’m a guest on Internet Superstar today.

I had a great experience hanging out with Martin Sargent. He’s a real funny guy. Check out the other episodes.

It’s been deathly busy here at work so I haven’t had a chance to update for a while… Maybe I’ll get my life back when Dead Space ships…

Till then, Check out this app they have cooking for the iPhone.

 

 

I haven’t  been able to update because it’s been really busy here at work…
I hope to upload a new song soon….

Here’s something cool till then.

It’s probably been about a month since I last visited Goh’s page so I don’t know if this change is new but he has redesigned his whole site. It is now more spartan and simple. You are immediately greeted by a large video performance of Daylight Savings performed with Adam Shulman followed by an awesome rendition of Embarcadero Blues! The playlist goes on to show the music video I did for Embarcadero Blues and an in-studio video of the recording of his upcoming album scheduled for an August release Ulysses.

Goh is definetly one of my musical heroes and one of the inspirations to my attempt at learning music.

If you haven’t heard his first album. Click the image below and buy it. It’s a great album from start to finish! A must have!

 

I seem to have lost my last two posts. I wrote about how I got an email from Sergio of From Monument To Masses about their upcoming new album and linked to their recording sessions on youtube;  then wrote about the Tenorions; an all female musical group that play the Tenori-On and linked to a feature on them on Sonic State. Both entries someow mysteriously vanished to the ether!

Something must have gone wrong with my server. I hope it does not happen again.

Here’s that video again.

From Monument To Masses is one of my favorite bands. You must definitely catch them perform if they play in your area. They are an amazing socially conscious post rock trio that fill their performance space with a pulsing resonant wall of sound. It’s really hard to explain… but trust me that last statement will make sense when you see them live.

It’s pretty in-depth and thorough. You should check it out.
Here’s the video part of the review.

Nina brought me to the local Japanese bookstore today because she said that during her last visit, she saw a magazine with a DIY theremin kit included.

I was expecting a cute little theremin replica that would fit in those little Japanese doll rooms with the intricately detailed furniture and knick-knacks.  I was very excited to learn that the said kit was for a 4 inch tall fully functional theremin!

The magazine seems full of very interesting information and interviews with people like Lydia Kavina and Cornelius. There are product reviews on the Matryomin, the tVOX tour and the moog Etherwave Theremin.

I say seems because the magazine is completely in Japanese so I can only look at the pictures and read the few English words sprinkled along the pages.

I was worried I’d have a problem putting together the theremin but the instructions were pretty straight forward. It was IKEA-ish in simplicity. The theremin is self amplified with an internal speaker and has a tuning stick to adjust the waveform and the brightness like a real theremin.

It’s very cool. I think I’ll keep this one at my office desk.

 

I spent most of the day tinkering around with different things.

First, I worked on structuring the lyrics I’ve been writing the past week. It’s finally coming together, I think it’s an okay bunch of words.

I then tried to compose the chorus part on the Tenori-On. I had worked out the main body of the melody earlier last week but I have been struggling with the hook. I’m still struggling.

I then watched a few videos on how to play piano on YouTube. This was really fun. I learned part of Let It Be and Imagine. I am really enjoying the versatility of the microKorg. I wish I can actually learn how to play it properly. It’s fun enough as a vocoder or a ethereal sound generator, but it would be a shame if that’s all I use it for. I have to make an effort to learn how to play it.

I also poked around Cakewalk Sonar 7… It seem’s pretty straightforward. I learned how to record stuff as seperate tracks. Next time I explore it I have to figure out how the sound editing and splicing part works.
To wrap up my day I pulled out the theremin and practiced playing Love Me Tender by Elvis. I think I’m getting better. I might try to find other songs to play.

Over all, this has been a very productive day of exploration. I feel like my lateral approach at learning may be working. It seems like my time with the keyboard is helping me understand the theremin and the Tenori-On much better and vice versa.

Well, not really robots… more like computer parts that make robot sounds. I saw this on DIgg a few weeks back, well before i stated this blog. I think it’s still worth posting.

This is amazing. This guy played Nude by Radiohead using various old computer printers, hard drives and a Sinclair ZX Spectrum personal computer.

I found a second hand MicroKorg a student was trying to get rid off at a $100 cut from the store price.

I drove to Berkeley after work and  jumped at the chance to get it. More about it soon. It’s awesome!