[ Paul Bell wrote in 160418 MMDigest:

> I have read with interest the replies to this subject.  In particular
> I was interested greatly in the quote from Wallace Venable:
>   "I found that I could punch faster with my foot-pedal machine than
>   the computerized punch could".
> If that really was the case then the mechanical part of the Bob Essex
> specification that you were constructing must have been very
> inadequate.  It is not the software that Bob Essex supplies that is
> slow, it is the interpretation that the constructor uses to build the
> punch unit that limits the speed of perforation.

All probably true.  My speed comparison was with circa 2006 YouTube
videos of machines punching John Smith rolls.  Those I saw would take
seconds to traverse between punch operations.

(See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGAD6s32JSU
  and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDQOHKD7SgE
  )

I actually stopped building because trying to get my fingers to do the
precision installation of the various sensors was too frustrating.

John Smith rolls require overlapping holes to make slots.  I can punch
about 4 slot-holes per second.  I can punch a John Smith 20er tune in
about 2 hours.  I usually do it in about 20 minute segments.  I use
MIDIBoek to produce the templates and I move the paper by eyeball.
I run MIDIBoek on a Windows 95 computer and print continuous full-song
master strips using an old-fashioned dot matrix printer.

As seen in the video, Paul's machine is truly a wonder.  It is punching
88-hole piano rolls (?) with non-overlapping holes.  That is a different
task.

Knowing what I know now, if I really wanted a production machine for
small organ rolls, I would build a classic gang-punch machine with MIDI
controlled interrupters.  I would emulate Dave Wasson's punch, following
more-or-less the design of the Wurlitzer band-organ punches, but
substituting MIDI control for the hand-punched masters.

See "Wurlitzer Music Roll Department Exhibit - Herschell Carrousel
Factory Museum", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjj66yc_Rto
 

I don't want to be in the roll-punching and selling business.  If I need
a "commercial quality" roll I prefer to use the services which Melvyn
Wright and/or Pipes of Pan provide.

Wallace Venable