MMD > Archives > November 1995 > 1995.11.19 > 01Prev  Next


Transcribing and Emulating Reproducing Rolls
By Robbie Rhodes

Marc Sachnoff:  Thanks for the report of the shaker chimes at Circus World.
Was this instrument operating from a music roll?  Was it a part of a big
pipe organ?

The services you need to preserve and convert your reproducing rolls
are already available, and the quality is top-notch.  Contact Wayne Stahnke
at Live Performance, tel 310-391-4921.  He can:

(1) transcribe the music roll to disk file, with such precision that an exact 
hole-for-hole duplicate may be punched.

(2) Convert the data into Midi file, with full expression.

If you want perforated copies he will arrange with Richard Tonnesen for 
that service.  Also top-notch quality.

Stahnke and Tonnesen both use precision pneumatic readers.  Until the 
optical technology advances further, the pneumatic reader is equal or 
superior to the optical reader for practical copying and archiving of Ampico, 
DuoArt and Licensee rolls.  (Jody will report about this soon.)

The DuoArt Concertola is not a precise machine, and I don't recommend
it's use for archiving of rare rolls.  (Just as you wouldn't use a WurliTzer
jukebox to archive old phonograph records!)

And attempting to record a Midi file from contacts on the keyboard of a 
player piano is as futile as copying photographs using Grandma's box camera.
You can recognize the song, and that's about all.  Just listen to the sad
music on Midi files offered a few years ago by Micro-W!

-- Robbie Rhodes




(Message sent Sat, 18 Nov 95 17:03:43 PST , from time zone -0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Emulating, Reproducing, Rolls, Transcribing