In Digest 961217 John Preble asked if anyone had adapted an 88-note player
for computer control.  Peter Phillips from Sydney, Australia, developed
and produced a number of Ampico players such as described above.

He scanned about 1500 rolls from Dennis Condon's collection for the
purpose.  I have heard the system and it sounds great -- you need a very
good ear to pick out the difference between the computer playing the
piano or the paper roll. I wished I had one myself, as 1500 rolls on
floppy disk doesn't take up "near" the room of the actual hardware, and
would no doubt be a lot cheaper to purchase.

I don't know any details on how it works except in that it is teed into
the tracker bar tubing and the tracker bar is covered when using the Midi
files.

Michael

mwaters@apollo.ruralnet.net.au¶
Home Page: http://www.ruralnet.net.au/~mwaters¶
Mildura Australia    Phil 1:21

 [ Editor's note:
 [
 [ The disk files of the Peter Phillips system, and the system
 [ assembled by Mohr and Tenten in Germany, contain the "image" of
 [ the Ampico roll, including all of the intensity control channels.
 [ This type of file has no "Midi velocity" data, and so all notes are
 [ the same intensity when played on a synth or solenoid piano (just
 [ as when an Ampico roll is played on a 88-note piano).
 [
 [ The "IMI Cassette Converter" system, developed by Wayne Stahnke in
 [ the 1970s, was quite similar except that the data was stored on a
 [ Philips music cassette.  Because the electric valves are installed
 [ next to the pneumatic valves instead of at the tracker bar, the
 [ pneumatic "data signals" are much stronger than when the roll is
 [ used.  Many owners reported that the piano played better because of
 [ that.  However, there is suspicion that these pianos had leaks in
 [ the pneumatic system, and thus were already performing poorly.
 [
 [ Owners of well-maintained pianos fitted with the Cassette
 [ Converter system said that sometimes the intensity commands arrived
 [ too late to have effect on the notes.  This effect was confirmed
 [ later by Stahnke, and blamed upon the inadequate 100-Hz frame rate.
 [ The same problem (occasional "lifeless dynamics") occurs playing recuts
 [ of reproducing rolls, for much the same reason.
 [
 [ I'd like very much to learn more about Peter Phillips' system,
 [ Michael.  How can we get the details?
 [
 [ Robbie Rhodes