May 4th, 2010 9:18 pm
LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots is proud to announce that over 40 of its robotic musical instruments are featured on Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion album and tour. This is the culmination of a collaboration between LEMUR, a group of artists who create robotic musical instruments, and the 17-time Grammy winning guitarist.
LEMUR produced an orchestra of instruments for Metheny, including GuitarBots (LEMUR’s specially-invented robotic slide guitars), mallet instruments (marimba, vibes and bells comprising over 100 beaters) and a large array of drums and percussion.
Like LEMUR’s previously created instruments, these are computer-controlled mechanized acoustic musical instruments which can perform music by and with human musicians. LEMUR’s instruments, augmented with instruments by other roboticists, comprise the Orchestrion, a robotic orchestra entirely under Metheny’s compositional and improvisational control.
Duration : 0:7:6
[youtube cCMnPb0qLIU]
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
They all respond to …
They all respond to MIDI so anything is possible. If you wanted robots to respond to each other, the best way would be to generate the responses internally in a computer using a program like MaxMSP. A lot of the music is pre-composed and played back from computer. Pat also plays some of the instruments live using his MIDI guitar to the instruments.
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
how does he control …
how does he control an instrument such as the drums? can any of the robots receive input from other robots? i think it would be cool for instance if pat plays a phrase and the marimba interprets that phrase in a slightly different way, and then the bass and drums play off the marimba and then several measures later change the rhythym a bit…
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
You did, and he …
You did, and he does still use it. He doesn’t tour with it any more, but he still records with it.
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Wait, did I see a …
Wait, did I see a Synclavier sitting behind Pat?! Is he actually using that, or is it “just for show”?
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Exactly. To see …
Exactly. To see more LEMUR robots in action, go to lemurbots (dot) org
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
So basically these …
So basically these are MIDI-controlled (electro)acoustic instruments (see FAQ #4). It’s an interesting concept, as the output is not a synthesizer sound but a more “humanized” (electro)acoustically generated sound.
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
He uses a …
He uses a combination of these techniques. Much of the music is composed, but he does play some instruments live via his MIDI guitar.
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Does he use a …
Does he use a sequencer to store all the background compositions made for other instruments not his guitar played live?
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
holy sh**!!
holy sh**!!
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
If there is someone …
If there is someone capable to give SOUL to robots, this is PAT METHENY’s musical talent !
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Cool.
Cool.
May 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm
we miss you , mars …
we miss you , mars need your music pat