Learn Archives

Synth History: YC25D with Lutz Krajenski

Written by Blake Angelos on April 29, 2022. Posted in 1970s.

German organist and pianist Lutz Krajenski is a great player. He has worked with artists like Randy Crawford, Carla Bley, Till Brönner, Roger Cicero and Tom Jones and recently released his own solo record, “Orbit”.

In the video below Lutz explores the YC25D combo organ. Released in 1972, the YC25D is a two manual organ, each with 49 keys. The bottom keyboard is divided into 30 treble and 19 bass notes with the bass notes reversed in color. There are a total of 28 levers that change the sound and timbre of the instrument, and the YC25D could be fitted with bass pedals. Lutz plays a mint condition YC25D with bass pedals in the video. In the hands (and feet!) of a great player the YC25D truly shines. Check it out!

Want to know more about Lutz? Check out this interview in the Music Production Guide here.

SynthBits: Dusting off the Tenori-On

Written by Blake Angelos on April 28, 2022. Posted in 2000s.

YouTuber allmyfriendsaresynths dusted off the Tenori-On for a short jam. Technically this is the “TNR-O” (“Tenori-On Orange” for the Orange LEDs) – the more affordable sibling to the original TNR-W (“Tenori-On White”).

Tenori-On is truly a piece of digital art designed by Japanese artist Toshio Iwai and Yu Nishibori of the Yamaha Center for Advanced Sound Technology: Music and Human Interface Group (say that three times fast!) Both models feature 256 LEDs, a custom 32 note polyphonic tone generator, 16 parts with different sequence types and visual animations. Check out the video below:

You can check out lots of fascinating creations at the Yamaha Design page here, which reminds me…Do you remember the refacerobot for reface CS!