MMDers,  As you many of you might know, early last spring we tried to
re-cut 16- and 28-note Tanzbär rolls from the MIDI scans originally
made by Ed Schmidt.  These files turned out to be badly flawed, and
there was so little interest that I decided to shelve the project for
a while.  Recently there have been some inquiries, so I would like to
open this up again.  It looks like I need to start from scratch --
that is, re-scan original rolls all over again.  What I need is help
on two things:

1. I would be willing to pay a reasonable price for a junker 28-note
Tanzbär with the roll mechanism intact to make a reader.

2. I am currently using Sonar X1 Essential for all our MIDI recording
and editing.  There is a function I need which it does not have.  I need
to be able to select, in the piano roll view, all or part of a file and
create a gradual increase or decrease in tempo.  I have tried to contact
Cakewalk directly but I have been unsuccessful at acquiring any
information.

If you unroll Tanzbär music you find that the same note value
[duration or distance] increases almost 30% from beginning to end.  For
the novices, the tag board being thicker and the take up spool being
smaller the area of paper passing the tracker frame increases, as the
take-up spool fills up, therefore the tempo of music needs to slow down
to compensate.

The biggest problem with Ed's files, aside from some of them being
jerky, is that the tempo compensation is too much, so you have to
squeeze that handle much faster to maintain proper tempo near the end.
I am sure many of us would like that the other way around.

Any help I could get in this respect would be greatly appreciated.
Once I have a reader established I will put out a call for rolls to
scan.  In the meantime, if anyone is in need of spools for either the
16- or 28-note Tanzbär, the spools are available.

Thank you,
Brian Thornton - Pipes of Pan Music Rolls
Woodbury, Tennessee
http://www.popmusicrolls.com/