Pat Metheny’s sick MIDI rig

Got to work for Pat Metheny this weekend.  His stage setup is pretty complex.  He has all of these percussion instruments set up, with sticks being held by motors which are triggered via MIDI.

On top of that, we loaded in these massive cabinets, that had jugs filled with water and laundry detergent. Why would someone do this?

Turns out this was another MIDI instrument, an air organ that blew air across the bottles, creating the required pitches.  Here it is in action:

-brian