Mechanical Music Digest  Archives
You Are Not Logged In Login/Get New Account
Please Log In. Accounts are free!
Logged In users are granted additional features including a more current version of the Archives and a simplified process for submitting articles.
Home Archives Calendar Gallery Store Links Info
MMD > Archives > March 1997 > 1997.03.31 > 10Prev  Next


Duo-Art Concert Grand Vorsetzer
By Dan Wilson

Craig Brougher said:

> There was two ways a DR model Steinway could be fully utilized
> by the Duo-Art. First, as long as there were not huge chords
> played at crash levels in the music, the standard Duo-Art
> mechanism could handle it on a concert grand as long as the roll
> was coded differently to adapt to the DR's greater dynamics. This
> is how it was usually handled when the pianos toured the concert
> circuits. The second way this was done, I believe, was to have a
> large capacity remote pump offstage, with an additional device
> for reading the higher intensities required by the roll and
> providing the piano with greater power at some point ( presumably
> after the spill valve in the expression box closed).

The 65/88n Pianola pushup converted to a Duo-Art Vorsetzer by Peter Davis is used for recitals in London on, typically, Bechstein Model B (six-foot) grands in large drawing rooms, similar pianos in large churches and Steinway concert grands in concert halls. Once it was used on an Allinson grand which would not accept anything more than a mezzo forte touch (i.e. it just became unpleasantly harsh without getting louder). It has a remote pump and traditional Duo-Art grand regulation gear. (And the Pianola treble/bass crossover at E/F -- but rolls are checked for both-sides theme on middle E !)

Denis Hall is normally wheeled in to conduct the necessary adjustments and I've asked him what it is he does. There seems to be a "black art" element to it but at the least, it involves using a pump setting that will produce the right level of "ff" and then setting the two regulator springs to get firstly a proper dynamic slope to match the DA codes, secondly the interpolated theme and accompaniment levels and lastly the right touch at zero levels.

He has become very familiar with the pushup's behaviour compared to his own two critically-adjusted DA grands, and rather than use a test roll, he employs two or three well-known rolls to check sensitive mezzo forte performance and tax the Duo-Art to its upper and lower limits. (I only know that the "fast soft repetition" check is done with the four-hand version of "The Carioca".)

The difference in power needed is very great and there are occasions (as mentioned in MMD 970322) when even the top settings aren't enough to get a piano to speak out enough. In fact, I've never heard the Vorsetzer playing too powerfully for a concert grand.

Dan Wilson


Key Words in Subject:  Concert, Duo-Art, Grand, Vorsetzer

Home    Archives    Calendar    Gallery    Store    Links    Info   


Enter text below to search the MMD Website with Google



CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD

Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz.

Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site.

Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website.

Please support publication of the MMD by donating online

Please Support Publication of the MMD with your Generous Donation

Pay via PayPal

No PayPal account required

                                     
Translate This Page