Craig Brougher said:

> We very much need a method to print words, as well as to cut paper.
> Are there any modern-day Gutenbergs out there?

The 1995 (London) AMICA Convention roll, composed by Rex Lawson and cut
by Mike Boyd, had words printed on using a dot-matrix printer.  This was
fairly slow, but the interesting feature is that the words are included
in the Apple IIe roll file along with the notes and Themodist snakebites.

Rex has rewritten the Apple IIe operating system in order to get a double
update rate on the screen to give a smooth "roll-playing" mode for editing
using a MIDI piano tone unit.  The file can also include a digest of
instantaneous MIDI velocities for later conversion to Duo-Art codes, where
a piece is being recorded off a MIDI-fitted keyboard, and even the
(digitally coded but analogue-displayed) suction of a Duo-Art being driven
(through a solenoid valve block and T-pieces behind the tracker-bar) by
the computer.

Though the valve block doesn't exist as yet, this last feature has been
tested by synchronising to a roll cut from the file; it gives treble and
bass hill-and-dale graphs showing how the suction is affected by transient
phenomena such as valve transits and pedal operations.

Dan Wilson

 [ It sounds as if Rex Lawson has fine project underway.
 [ Keep us posted, Dan!  -- Robbie