I suggest that the people who are scornful of electrified,
MIDI-operated player pianos are missing the point.  Old rolls are
dying and, whilst some rolls are being recut, there is nothing like
the variety of material that was available in the heyday of automatic
pianos.  Thanks to a few dedicated and generous people, many of the
old rolls are being captured (scanned or read) into digital computer
files and the music will live on forever.  This is a very worthy
project.

There are thousands of digital rolls available for all to use.
How do you use them?  There are two ways, a digital synthesizer
(and who wants that?) or a genuine piano that has been modified to
play digital rolls (as well as paper rolls).  With thousands of
digital rolls available, I have no wish to pump my way through them
all, so electrification makes sense to me.

Let's not forget, in the 1920s, the accepted progression was to
reproducing pianos so that expression became automatic, and with
electrification so that pedaling became unnecessary.  Be romantic
and pedal if you wish, but it's not for me.  Call me a philistine
if you wish.

Geoff Ward