Piano Rolls in the United Kingdom
By Dan Wilson
[ Rob DeLand asked if commercial music rolls are available in the UK. ]
"Commercial" meaning you can buy them, yes, but commercial-quantity, no.
Malcolm Robinson (Southport Rolls via Frances Broadway) uses a scanner to make Duo-Art recuts, and Steve Cox (Laguna Rolls) has a very accurate photo-cell reader which writes a DOS file which is then processed to simulate a MIDI file for inputting to SeqWin where it can be edited. Duo-Art codes appear on the screen as very short high treble and low bass notes !
Steve's Duo-Art recuts are highly regarded by the most exacting of critics here, but his new MIDI file to Duo-Art transfers, while they produce about the right general strength of playing, have a strangely uncommitted character - though this might be the quality of the original performance, of course. (Addresses were in MMD 960801.)
Rex Lawson is pursuing what most theorists seem to regard as a hunt for the Holy Grail, punch-for-punch copying. He has done a few manual transfers using a magnifying glass (notably from Red Welte rolls via a continuous-process photocopier) but has now found a suitable scanner which he is trying to teach Apple IIe language. (Apple IIe's are given away by schools - that's why.)
Dan Wilson
[ Dan, you gotta tell those theorists that punch-for-punch copying
[ isn't a Search for the Holy Grail -- it exists ! What sort of
[ evidence will convince them? Almost 10 years ago Richard Tonnesen
[ and I replicated a Welte Licensee pop roll, hole-for hole. If we
[ had a supply of 1925 paper we could make a counterfeit copy which
[ would confound the experts! -- Robbie
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