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MMD > Archives > March 1998 > 1998.03.25 > 14Prev  Next


Perforators at Keystone Music Rolls
By Michael Swanson

Thought people might find this interesting.  Had a conversation with
Richard Groman of Keystone Music rolls about the perforator that is
being computerized.  This perforator is one of three that were built in
Los Angeles in the 1950's for the Aeolian Corp., to make 88-note music
rolls.

Richard said that they were just sitting around not being used so he
decided to convert one of them to a Duo-Art perforator for 1-to-1
copying.  He is having a mechanism added to the side of the machine
that will allow the step advance to be changed easily.  It is a set of
gears that can be engaged and disengaged quickly.

As he explained, this will allow them to have the proper step advance
for any roll.  He said that most all the popular rolls have the same
step advance however, this is not the case with the classical rolls.
According to him it was common practice for them to change the step
advance on long rolls to save paper.  Also British rolls have a differ-
ent step advance.  The advance changed with different perforators that
were used throughout production as well.

The variation in step advance makes it very difficult to copy rolls
with a synchronized perforator, because the gearing for the step
advance cannot be changed easily.  This perforator will take care of
that problem.  The other important thing this machine will have is the
proper punch sizes so the theme perfs will be the correct size.

Richard said that when this Duo-Art perforator is finished, they will
begin converting another one to accurately copy Ampico rolls that they
don't have 3-to-1 masters for.  That will probably take place at the
end of this year.

Michael Swanson


(Message sent Wed 25 Mar 1998, 18:25:01 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Keystone, Music, Perforators, Rolls

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