[ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ Please welcome new subscriber John Lanphere.  I've taken the
 [ liberty of forwarding his subscription request here as a letter
 [ of introduction, since I wanted there to be some context for
 [ his OTHER posting later in this same Digest.
 [
 [ Jody

My friend Robert Ridgeway of the Sanfilippo Collection has given me
your e-mail address.

I would like to subscribe to the Mechanical Music Digest e-mailing list.

John E. Lanphere
Schaumburg, IL

Thank you!

A little about me that might be of interest.

    I am an electrical engineer within a couple of years of
retirement.  I work for a very large commercial sound contractor
managing large installations of sound and video equipment in stadiums,
arenas, theaters churches and corporate boardrooms.  For a while I was
an independent consultant in sound, video and acoustical design.

    I have always been interested in mechanical instruments and pipe
organs since I was a child.  During the 1960's in Ithaca, NY, I owned
and operated a small shop that bought and sold player pianos and rolls.
Also did restoration and repairs of player pianos including several
Ampicos.  Owned a Stroud upright Ampico which is now being cared for by
my friend Larry Kerecman in Denver.

    Now that I am close to retirement and live in an apartment, I have
given up owning "real" pianos and have sold my large collection of 88
note and Ampico rolls.  The last group of Ampico rolls went to the
Sanfilippo Collection.  I now use electronics piano synthesizer modules
to reproduce rolls that have been transferred to MIDI and Disklavier
formats.  The results are very pleasing and the piano generators are
getting better every year.  More on that later.

    I saw the item about the Rachmaninoff rolls from Live Performance.
I have experience with other rolls from Wayne Stahnke.... they are
first class.  They are in a special Disklavier format however, which
requires special equipment to play them.  I have also sent you an item
to post that describes how to do this. I think that others might be
like to be able to play the Live Performance disks without having a
Disklavier piano..

    I look forward to receiving the Digests and contributing from time
to time.  I have a special interest in MIDI and how it applies to both
archiving rolls and playing rolls and machines.

Thanks,
        John