Pat Metheny's "Orchestrion"

[PsyOps]

Many of you know I am a pretty avid Pat Metheny fan. He just released a new album (showing my age: CD for you youngsters) called Orchestrion. You can check out a video and description of this here

An Orchestrion is one of those old mechanical player bands-in-a-box (if you will). It had a piano, various drums, whistles, and other instruments. You'd crank on this thing and it would play all the instruments automatically.

Metheny took this same concept and applied today's computer technology and meshed it with some very innovative mechanical technology to produce an entire band with one guy playing: Pat.

Pat Metheny has always been on the cutting edge of guitar and electronic instrument innovation. Doing things that no one has ever done before. He recorded the first album using a guitar synthesizer. He designed (along with luthier Linda Manzer) a 42 string guitar – called the Picasso Guitar. He recorded an album that is essentially one 68 minute-long song (called The Way Up). And now this new project: a one-man-band playing dozens of instruments. He will be performing this on stage as well. He will appear at the Strathmore Theatre on May 19th.

For those that are interested in music innovation and new ideas, check this out.

 

[Larry Gude]

Help me here.

Is everything else triggered of of each note he plays, or some fraction or time signature? I didn't see him doing anything with his feet.

What go on?

 

[PsyOps]

Help me here.

Is everything else triggered of of each note he plays, or some fraction or time signature? I didn't see him doing anything with his feet.

What go on?

I think it works more like a MIDI sequencer. Except, rather than triggering electronic sampled, computer-based sounds, it triggers actual instruments. So, he preprograms the whole song and then plays along with it (I’m sure he’s hitting some of the other instruments himself too). The innovative part about this is to get actual physical instruments to obey computer commands. So the computer sequencer has to trigger some sort of central mechanical controller that sends signals to each instrument to play the specific notes when commanded. So, when you consider chords on a piano, xylophone notes, cymbals and other percussion instruments, bass (or is that bass?), and some other instrument I can’t quite identify, it has to be a very complex process.

I really want to see this in concert but I’m afraid watching it from the audience vantage-point still wont reveal a lot about the actual mechanics of it.

 

[Larry Gude]

I think it works more like a MIDI sequencer. Except, rather than triggering electronic sampled, computer-based sounds, it triggers actual instruments. So, he preprograms the whole song and then plays along with it (I’m sure he’s hitting some of the other instruments himself too). The innovative part about this is to get actual physical instruments to obey computer commands. So the computer sequencer has to trigger some sort of central mechanical controller that sends signals to each instrument to play the specific notes when commanded. So, when you consider chords on a piano, xylophone notes, cymbals and other percussion instruments, bass (or is that bass?), and some other instrument I can’t quite identify, it has to be a very complex process.

I really want to see this in concert but I’m afraid watching it from the audience vantage-point still wont reveal a lot about the actual mechanics of it.

See, he was triggering something in the beginning with each guitar note. THAT would be fascinating, to be playing the guitar WHILE playing the various other instruments such as another guitar with his feet.

I don't mind, in fact I dig, the trigger, playing other instruments part, the one man band. Anything that is recorded, playing along with, I lose the interest. So, I gotta find out more about this because my impression was that, somehow, he is playing along with himself, not a recording of himself, thus he has immediacy, feel, inflection as you get when playing with other musicians. THAT is what I thought he was getting at.

 

[PsyOps]

See, he was triggering something in the beginning with each guitar note. THAT would be fascinating, to be playing the guitar WHILE playing the various other instruments such as another guitar with his feet.

I don't mind, in fact I dig, the trigger, playing other instruments part, the one man band. Anything that is recorded, playing along with, I lose the interest. So, I gotta find out more about this because my impression was that, somehow, he is playing along with himself, not a recording of himself, thus he has immediacy, feel, inflection as you get when playing with other musicians. THAT is what I thought he was getting at.

It seems there is a combination of both him triggering a lot of the instruments with his guitar and some pedals and some sequencing technology using solenoids. A lot of his personal involvement along with sequencing.

Here's his video describing the process:

Pat Metheny

And here are some FAQ videos with Pat explaining the process:

Pat Metheny