Pat Metheny and LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots), recently teamed up to create a robotic orchestra that can be controlled by a single composer. They call it "Orchestrion", and it consists of 40 instruments that can all be controlled remotely from Pat Metheny's guitar. LEMUR used electronically induced coils called solenoids, which can be manipulated easily, to control the machine. Each solenoid corresponds to a MIDI key on ones instrument and there is almost no lag between the time you play your instrument and the time Orchestrion plays. Since Orchestrion uses MIDI it can be used with any of the popular MIDI software such as, abelton live or logic.
Orchestrion, is also a way for Pat Metheny and other composers to experiment with other instruments and see how the work. These robots are also capable of doing certain things that humans are not so it allows Pat Metheny an opportunity to use these instruments differently than ever before.