December 12th, 2009 by alephnaught
The Bliptronic 5000 from @ThinkGeek – A Tenori-on for the rest of us
I first saw the Tenori-on in a video by Little Boots; it is a real-time, matrix input musical instrument. It is also very expensive (to me at least) at $999.00 (a less expensive plastic cased version is coming out soon). I got the regular “what’s new” email from ThinkGeek and I skimmed it. I saw the Bliptronic 5000 and thought it looked a lot like a Tenori-on. And it was only $49.99, so I ordered one.
Here are some pictures of the Bliptronic 5000 – its about 5.75 x 5.75 x 1.25 inches and its in a metal case, which has a nice amount of heft to it.
The top of the Bliptronic 5000
The front, note the 8 x 8 matrix, pitch goes up, time across
You can slave multiple units together and plug into an amp
There are four knobs on the right side, from the top: Loop, BPM (60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160), Tone and Off/Vol. There are eight tones available, all sounding very much like an old Casio keyboard from the 90s. There four jacks on the left side. from the top: Link in, Link out, Line out, Phones. You can link up to 4 Bliptronic 5000s in series.
The matrix buttons for selecting when a sound plays are just the right size and spacing; I rarely hit the wrong button, and its quick enough to clear three to four notes in one measure at 140 BPM. The tone choices are nice if somewhat cheesy. And having a line out means I can record what I did to my computer or a tape deck for further processing, a huge plus.
And here’s a video where I show off the Bliptronic 5000:
I love this – I plan to use it after I set up some of my musical gear and start composing again; its a wonderful sketchpad and I think a neat way to incrementally compose music. For less than $50 US this is a definite “glad I bought it.”
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+Bob Hays
- I'm a father and husband, have two schipperkes, like to read, compose music, travel. And I manage a couple software development teams at DIRECTV.
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11:21 am on December 13th, 2009
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by purplehayz, purplehayz. purplehayz said: [Blog] : The Bliptronic 5000 from @ThinkGeek – A Tenori-on for the rest of us http://bit.ly/7vGniS […]
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10:16 pm on January 3rd, 2010
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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1:21 pm on August 27th, 2010
You’ve truly a attention individual posting design and provide wonderful facts. The content articles are nice to go through and you don´t use a great ads like every one of the other bloggers.
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3:18 pm on October 19th, 2010
Can I buy this at any place in New York?
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2:12 am on October 20th, 2010
Can I buy this awesome thing somewhere in New York?
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4:35 am on October 20th, 2010
I think the only place you can get it is ThinkGeek.com, online. It is very cool!
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