Myths about "Instant Playback"

A century ago American humorist Mark Twain observed, "A gold mine is a
hole in the ground with a liar standing by it."  He might have said the
same about company advertising, then and now.  They gamble that no one
will challenge their claims.  In other words, just because a big
company (or a Hitler) implies or declares the truth, don't believe it
without checking the facts.

Another version of Mark Twain's maxim is, "A gold mine is a hole in the
ground with an optimist standing by it."   This implies, simply, that
there are many people in this world who _want_ to believe in something
that, most probably, doesn't exist, never will, and never did!

It is a fact that a hammer-velocity recorder existed at Ampico; the
apparatus and underlying theory were documented by reliable journals of
the time.  The artist could hear a draft of his performance a few days
after he left the studio.

There are "eye-witness reports" of a recording system at DuoArt, which
recorded the data directly to a high-speed perforator.  A technician,
who was familiar with the music, wiggled levers and buttons with his
hands and feet while the song was recorded, and so created rudimentary
DuoArt expression coding for instant playback.

In my opinion, if this system indeed existed, the expression data was
so poor that the music editors ignored it; it was only for exhibition
and impressing the visitors.  The artist could hear a _real_ draft of
his performance a few days after he left the studio.

I believe that a piano existed in Freiburg which sensed key velocity by
means of carbon rods dipping into a tray of mercury.  The Welte Mignon
recording pianos subsequently built in America were similar.
Documentation of this exists in one of the American Welte publications,
in the form of a reproduction of a pen recording of key velocities.
Nonetheless, the artist could only hear a draft of his performance a
few days after he left the studio.

I heard a story that the Freiburg Welte recorder created a conductive
stripe on the recording paper, of varying width according to the
intensity, which was immediately reproduced by sensing the electrical
resistance of the stripe to control the hammer velocity.

Alas, I fear that this story, and probably all the others telling of
"instant playback", are only a myth, fed by eternal hope and kept alive
by those optimists standing by the gold mine, waiting for the gold to
magically appear.

Is it a fact that a Hupfeld or Welte or Ampico or DuoArt or Yamaha
Disklavier "reproduces every nuance" of the artists performance?  Who
says so?  And who is that fellow standing by the piano, hoping to make
a sale?  Do you believe what he says?  Could you believe otherwise?

-- Robbie Rhodes