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Preservation of Mechanical Music
By Robbie Rhodes

I'm happy that Bob Billings said that images should be preserved along
with the music.  Here is my list of desired capabilities:

1.  Capture the music data with sufficient precision that an exact
duplicate of the original roll could be punched.  That way you *know*
that the music has been faithfully preserved.

2.  Preserve the printed words, either as an image or as ascii-text.
Note that some music rolls have two sets of lyrics, on both left and
right margins!

3.  Preserve images of unique illustrations and pictures.  (Do we need
to transcribe the "pumping line" and "tempo line" of some early rolls?
Ugh!  ;)

4.  The file system should handle up to 176-channel organ roll.

5.  In short: the transcription should be almost as faithful as would be
a micro-film recording.

Robbie Rhodes



(Message sent Sat, 9 Aug 1997 00:08:11 -0700 , from time zone -0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Mechanical, Music, Preservation

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