Forwarded Message:

• From: jwmiller@winternet.com    To: ALL                       Orig: MBNET
 Subj: Re: Player rolls => midi  Area: 1-ec.music.ragtime      Date: 02/23/96
=============================================================================
•driller@slic.com (Doug Vensel) wrote:

> I wish I could help.  I have the same problem up here in Northern NY.
> There is one hope however.  In California there's a company called the
> Ragtime Automated Music Co.  I'm not sure of the address but they
> build/rebuild piano with their own player action in them and even fit
> regular piano with that player action.  Tha basis of the machine is
> electrical and uses solenoids to operate the piano action.
> In light of the fact that player rolls are nothing more than early
> computer punch cards, they may be able to direct you to an area or
> company that can do exactly as you desire... I.E. preserving the
> ragtime directly from a roll.   They've got many sources and would
> probably be able to tell you where to get such help.
> Good luck to ya.
> P.S.  How many people out there actually realize that player pianos
> are the world's first actual computers?  The whole principle of on/off
> to form certain commands (chords)(songs) comes from the principles of
> the player action.   Think about it.

Thanks for the info. I'll contact them and see if I can get some
direction. I've received a couple of promising pieces of mail, too.\

Eventually, I hope to have one of my player pianos MIDI'ed....
hopefully IN and OUT. It would be a nice way to be able to play
the piano from the theater organ console. Actually, I hope to have the
whole music room MIDI equipped... with the player pianos, the pipe
organ, even the lighting can be MIDI controlled. (Hope I can find
enough money to realize my dream...  heh)

I've often referred to player pianos as "the original computers", and
people laugh at me - until I remind them of what the early computers
were programmed with - paper tape with holes punched in them.
I also refer to them as "early digital music reproduction devices".
After all, a note is either "ON" or "OFF" at any given time. Even
reproducing pianos, with their expression devices are controlled
with nothing more than a matrix of ON-OFF.