Orchestrion - I want this...

Subject: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Will Fly
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 10:40 AM

well, I've done some multi-tracking in my time, but not on this scale:

Pat Metheny - Orchestrion project

Just off to order a bag of solenoids...

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Bernard
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 10:55 AM

Hmmm... it's been done before... only they called it a Theatre Organ!! Before that it was a Fairground Organ... people don't realise how cutting edge those instruments are, and have been. Many touring fair organs run via MIDI these days... I once helped a friend convert a keyframe to read the card books and translate to MIDI, that way the quirks of the originals remained.

Seriously, though, what Pat is doing is a monumental undertaking!

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 10:59 AM

The Mind Boggles !!!

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 11:17 AM

Monumental indeed!

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 11:18 AM

That's trippy - thanks Will! I liked some of the comments:

"This is a 21st century front end on a 19th century back end" -Pat Metheny. Ok? Hook up a Formula One engine to a Stage Coach and festoon the carriage with flashing lights to distract and persuade the paying passengers they are getting the best of both worlds...nothing like "wagon wheels" when hitting the corners at 170 mph! Ye of Little Faith! Pat knows all and see all. Pat will deliver you. Only Pat is music, Disobey and Die

Headline 2025: "Thousands of Musicians Arrested in Protest of Pat". Today Interpol arrested the ring leaders known as "Mallet Players", who demanded the right to play their own instruments in defiance of "Pat" who was made Supreme God of All Music in 2020. The new 2021 "Deaf Penalty" is expected

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 11:37 AM

well if he's got the money and a big enough bedroom...

for the rest of us..
.. a couple of good cheap used Yamaha/Roland/Akai General Midi modules and Samplers off ebay,
or even just a Laptop and well chosen software sample sets,
would basically achieve a virtually indistinguishable musical end result..

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Mooh
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 11:47 AM

Will...Thanks for that, fantastic! I love Pat Metheny's ideas. Far better than (my) drum/guitar/bass loops.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: M.Ted
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 12:37 PM

Not really Punkfolkrocker--you can fool a recording machine with synthesizer sounds, but live and in person, real "acoustic" instruments have a much more complex sound.   But
there are an awful lot of little mechanical things there, and I suspect that the ratio of "playing time" to "getting everything working" time is fairly low.

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:42 PM

Will: Todd Rundgren has done a few impressive albums where he performed all the instruments and vocal parts, using multi-tracking. On one, "A Cappella", everything on it--vocals, guitar parts, percussion, even jungle sounds--he produced by processing just his own voice. It's not a real-time performance like Metheny's, but I'd say the scale was the same. I'm also reminded of Wendy Carlos's ground-breaking Moog recordings, created using much more temperamental analog devices patched together. Ah, the good old days!

I recently came across a fellow on YouTube who overlays his voice to produce "chorale" works. For one piece, he produced a 41-voice ensemble. Sorry, I forget his name and the piece I was researching that led me to him (some Christmas song about a robin).

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 04:16 PM

The used to have an Orchestrion in the Science Museum in Birmingham (Engand). Don't know if they still have it since they moved premises to the Think Tank a few years ago. Very impressive sound, I recall.

Subject: RE: Orchestrion - I want this...
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:40 AM

For anyone interested in Pat Metheny and his orchestrion project, this coming Friday, February 26, 2010, at 10:05 PM CET (German time, 1 hour ahead of GMT) the German radio station NDR Info will be broadcasting an hour-long (well, 55 minute-long) program about it in its "Jazz Special" program:

NDR Info Homepage

Some information

NDR Info Livestream