When Yamaha first debuted the Tenori-On a couple years ago, the square light-up instrument was highly sought after, expensive, and difficult to get, in the States at least. For those music-makers that never did get their hands on one, Yamaha is offering a new orange version, the TNR-O Orange, at a more affordable price yet to be announced.

The TNR-O Orange has the same features and creative capabilities as the original Tenori-On, but it looks and feels a bit different. Instead of the magnesium outer casing that the original had, the TNR-O is housed in a heavy-duty plastic. Furthermore, the orange instrument does not include the the back panel LEDs that you would find on the original.

For all the current Tenori-On users (pre-Orange era), Yamaha is about to release a firmware update that addresses a number of areas, including the syncing of Tenori-On to external DAW applications, and improved MIDI sync implementation.

Look for the update in the early months of 2010, and expect the TNR-O Orange to ship in December of 2009. Final European pricing will be announced later this month.