I figured I'd bring up this subject considering how over the years
we've had dozens of people recut piano rolls. Some, namely Julian Dyer,
Tim Baxter, and Keystone, have gone to all lengths to recut rolls as
they stood in their original form with every punch accounted for.

Others have been less successful in that venture and I've already
made my, sometimes rather rash, opinions known and especially one
company, that I will refrain from insulting again, that uses the most
questionable quality material (mine before I knew what I was doing)
and proceeded to recut it a half step sharp just to rub it in I guess.

Anyhow I wanted to ask, those who might have an opinion on it, what
do you think of recutting piano rolls using punch master files that
are edited to do any of the following:

- Correct timing issues in rolls with rough chords (like some of Frank
Milne's later output done on his kitchen table which is looser compared
to his Duo-Art "0" series rolls that are stiffer than 100-year-old
pneumatic cloth that sat in the desert), roughly timed arpeggios, or
modifying the timing of said things to one's own artistic preferences;

- Add or remove musical content such as counter melodies, tremolos,
etc., or adding grace notes, replacing grace notes with full chord
trills, and vice versa;

- Extend or shorten arrangements by shuffling the order of themes and
variations on those themes (like was done between some titles published
on both US and Imperial but with different intros and different order
of variations on themes)?

Would it be technically considered ethical from a quality preservation
standpoint, even with changes disclosed, copyright stuff aside, to
recut rolls from modified masters and allow them into circulation?

I know some of us, even myself, generally are against messing about
with the punch master (or worse degrading the quality of it like
Play-Rite did with their abysmal recuts that give me a headache just
looking at them) so I'm curious what the consensus is on this.

Broadway Music Rolls in Australia was known for revamping QRS
arrangements. Len Luscombe was a master at doing so; his rearrangement
of Milne's "White Christmas" roll was exceptionally good (thanks to
Luca Pastore for sending a recording of that to me!).

However, Luscombe also tended to take the roll and really do a lot
of work to it to make it radically different. I'm mostly referring to
nuance changes (aside from the reshuffling of arrangement sections).

Piotr Barcz