The is an electronic musical synthesizer. It was developed in Japan by the CUBE toy company and the Maywa Denki design firm, led by the brothers Masamichi and Nobumichi Tosa.

Description

The Otamatone is a synthesizer whose body is shaped like an

eighth note 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note (American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note pla ...

(quaver) (it also somewhat resembles a

tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found ...

, or a ladle, being Japanese for ''tadpole'' and ''ladle''), with sound emerging from a "mouth" on the notehead. It requires two hands to play: while one hand holds and squeezes the "head", the other hand controls the pitch of the tune by placing the finger on a ribbon controller on the stem; a higher position on the stem creates a lower sound. The ribbon controller is logarithmic to resemble a string instrument, so there is a shorter distance between higher notes than between lower ones. Varying the pressure on the head (thereby opening and closing the "mouth" of the Otamatone) creates a wah-wah effect, and shaking the neck (and thereby slightly changing pressure on the head) creates a

vibrato Vibrato ( Italian, from past participle of " vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms ...

effect. Switches on the back of the head allow users to change octave, turn it off or on, or change the volume. The structure on top of the Otamatone's stem is called the tail. The sound made by this instrument can be compared to the sound of a

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

, or jinghu.

Variations

The Otamatone has different models, such as the Otamatone Melody, a smaller Otamatone that can be held on a keychain; or the Otamatone deluxe, a bigger Otamatone with more features. Some Otamatones have designs based of popular Japan based characters, like

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...

Hello Kitty , also known by her full name , is a fictional Character (arts), character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphi ...

Reception

The instrument has gained significant popularity online, especially on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

. It is often used to create

cover songs In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

, with channels such as TheRealSullyG and mklachu gaining popularity primarily from the use of the instrument. The Otamatone has also been used by musicians such as Ola Englund. On February 3, 2021, Juanjo Monserrat performed

Nessun Dorma "" (; English: "Let no one sleep") is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' (text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni) and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, (the unknown prince), ...

on the original Otamatone on the auditions for the sixth season of '' Got Talent España'' and won the Golden Buzzer award after several judges tried playing the instrument themselves.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Japanese musical instruments Toy instruments and noisemakers