Hi,  I have finally came to this conclusion for recutting rolls.
Without expensive equipment, it would be hard for the hobbyist to con-
struct a roll reader that would work with any degree of exact accuracy,
the MIDI file would be okay to listen to, but not good enough to cut
new rolls from.  So a lot more work may be involved here than just
"reading" a roll.

Most new rolls are punched on the Tonnesen perforator, which has its
own unique steps-per-foot (540, I think) so it would be hard to get an
absolute perfect copy from a roll that was cut from a perforator with
different advance rate.  In addition, some old perforators did not
always read their masters perfectly.  I might mention in passing that
a tracking device is rarely needed on a Tonnesen roll!

To get the reproduction roll as perfect as possible, I think the roll
should be re-mastered.  What I mean by that is that the notation of the
roll should be entered into Cakewalk in exact time.  Then the new MIDI
file can be imported into Richard Brandle's "Wind" editor, and then
edited for the original note duration for the Tonnesen perforator.  In
other words, a file re-mastered to work perfectly on the perforator the
roll is to be cut on, and made especially for that perforator.  Timing
is what makes a roll "sparkle".  If the same notation is applied out of
time, that same roll sounds "okay" but not like it should.

This is a lot of work, and much more time-consuming than most people
would want to spend.  The last time I tried that, a three-minute roll
took me 18 hours to re-master, but it turned out wonderful.

So my roll reader would be used only to step-record the original notes
in Cakewalk.  The rest would have to be done by hand and this includes
measuring note duration.  This solves the problems of lagging valves,
jerky timing, errors in an original roll, paper slippage, perforator
timing differences, note start times, and a host of other things.

Works for me.

Andy Taylor

 [ Richard Tonnesen originally built his perforator to produce Welte
 [ Licensee rolls, which are 540 steps per foot.  Many years ago he
 [ and I created a hole-for-hole copy of a Licensee roll; it _can_
 [ be done, but customers still don't want to pay for the additional
 [ investment in hardware and software to do the job routinely.  When
 [ customers want to pay for the service, someone will offer it.
 [ -- Robbie