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MMD > Archives > September 2002 > 2002.09.09 > 02Prev  Next


My Homemade "O" Roll Orchestrion
By Fritz Gellerman

Steve,  I built up an O-roll player in the early 1970s as my second
automatic music project (the first was a player piano), and it's
still one of my favorites.  It has metal bells, tambourine, triangle,
wood block, drums, and piano expression.  I started to add pipes or
reeds several times but never completed the projects.  The drums are
from a child's set.

All the instruments are shoe-horned into the original player piano
case.  If I had it to do over I would extend the case to give more
room.  The bells have been out of order for some time and need
rebuilding.  Maybe I'll make a xylophone instead.  I went to a lot
of trouble to get some sort of balance between the instruments.  Also,
I didn't like the fast repetition rate of the bells, they sounded more
like door bells, and worked them over to get much slower repetition.
That makes them a lot easier to listen to.

Best wishes,
Fritz Gellerman


(Message sent Mon 9 Sep 2002, 14:49:35 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Homemade, My, O, Orchestrion, Roll

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