Name: TASCAM GT-R1 Category: portable digital recorder Price: about JPY35,000 Release date in Japan: August 26, 2008
Here's one for the musicians. TEAC, the Tama city-based maker of recording gear, offers the new 208-gram GT-R1 IC recorder and effects box for music makers on the go.
While aimed primarily at recording guitar and bass via direct line input, the GT-R1's stereo microphones will capture acoustic guitar - or your whole band - at better-than-CD 48kHz/24bit quality. (Or capture your sales meeting instead, should you want to request such mundane tasks of the device.) Record your riffs for later output to another device, or lay a new track on top of a saved recording. Also built in are a 55-effect multi effector, which you can add either during recording or during playback; rhythm presets to give your session a beat; and a chromatic tuner. Playback options include such niceties as speed control and interval looping.
The GT-R1 saves to WAV or MP3 format on SD/SDHC external memory. The included 1GB SD card will record about 100 minutes of audio in WAV format, or over 18 hours in MP3 format.
Look for the device at music and electronic shops throughout Japan from late August.
Name: YAMAHA TENORI-ON Category: musical instrument Price: JPY121,000 Release date in Japan: May 12, 2008
The TENORI-ON has been on gadget-watchers' radar for quite some time - the artwork/instrument has been shown off at conferences and concerts in Europe from 2006, leading up to a 2008 World Tour that began in Frankfurt in March and ended in Tokyo in April. It's been on sale in Europe since 2007 as well. So, apologies in advance for European readers for whom this is old news, but for those reading in Japan, take note: the TENORI-ON can finally be yours – as soon as YAMAHA can make enough. And that may take a while.
In case you missed news of the gadget, here's the quick overview: TENORI-ON is the brainchild of digital artist Toshio Iwai and the Music and Human Interface Group at the YAMAHA Center for Advanced Sound Technology. It's a magnesium-framed square holding a 16x16 grid of LED switches, looking nothing like a musical instrument. Touching the LED switches on the frid, as well as buttons on the sides, starts and stops repeating sequences of beats, tones, and chords, all set to flashing pulses of light, creating rich synthetic "sonic textures" that... ahh, forget it, there's really no way to describe it. This is one you have to see in action to appreciate; follow the links below.
There's only one place to buy in Japan, and that's the official YAMAHA TENORI-ON website. It went on sale May 12, but purchasers swamped the site, with those able to complete the purchase process quickly snapping up the initial lot of 100 units. Another lot of 100 ships in early June, and is spoken for. To get yours, keep an eye on the website for availability updates, or watch the online actions (though Japan's preferred Yahoo! auctions aren't showing any for offer at the moment).
In the meantime, you may be able to catch a demo at one of several locations in Japan (see link below), including Spiral Records (Minami Aoyama), Tower Records (Shibuya), and NTT Inter Communication Center (Shinjuku) in Tokyo.
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