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MMD > Archives > October 1998 > 1998.10.26 > 05Prev  Next


Ampico A's & B's and PowerRoll
By Dick Merchant

I have a question about PowerRoll since it's being discussed now.
Please note that I am in no way trying to find fault with the system as
I've heard it work and I think it is excellent.  I'm sure I'll end up
buying one, but my concern is this:

I have an Ampico B and I got to wondering if PowerRoll had a way of
being told whether it is playing the A and B Ampico rolls coded on the
CDs  on an Ampico A or an Ampico B?  The reason I was wondering
about this is because the Ampico B intensities react quicker than the
Ampico A intensities.  (One of goals of improving the Ampico A that
ending up in the development of the B).

I am lead to believe that Dr. Hickman found that this situation made
the Ampico B "jump the gun" when playing Ampico A rolls, as some of the
really precision-timed coordination between the notes playing and the
intensity coding needed to make a single note stand out and play louder
than its supposedly simultaneously sounding softer playing companion
notes in the same chord was screwed up.  Similar mis-coordination would
have been encountered with an Ampico A piano playing Ampico B rolls.

The folks at Ampico dealt with this by very slightly off-setting the
intensity & cancel holes in the trackerbar down below (or past) the
line of note holes.  The expression perforations on a moving A or B
roll would then arrived a fraction latter at the intensity and cancel
ports on the B trackerbar than on the A trackerbar.  This would
compensate for the difference in reaction times between the A and B
systems.  I never noticed this slight off- set until I read about it in
an AMICA Bulletin, so I went back and closely looked at my Ampico B
trackerbar.  Sure enough, the off-set was there.

However, the offset of the intensity and cancel holes will not achieve
this timing compensation when the player is being operated by the
stationary PowerRoll device.  I would think that the only way PowerRoll
could deal with this timing compensation is by use of software that
could be told whether it was playing an A or B Ampico and delay or not
delay the intensities and cancel operations accordingly.

So, I have to ask the question:  Has this situation be addressed?

Regards

Dick Merchant
Carlsbad, NM


(Message sent Mon 26 Oct 1998, 07:16:58 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Ampico, A's, B's, PowerRoll

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