Robbie commented in Digest 970811:

>  [ Wayne Stahnke's optical scanner does all of that, and also detects
>  [ dark wood chips, grease spots, and other aberrations in the paper.
>  [ But it can't detect transparent tape repairs -- that's when the old
>  [ pneumatic system is needed!

We ran into this problem too.  Now an idea came into my mind: what if a
hybrid pneumatic and optical system was used.  This would allow to
record the finest details but it would not fail if transparent tape was
used.  Of course, this would make things more complicated.

Zoli Janosy
Hungary

 [ Zoli built an optical scanner from an old drum-type facsimile
 [ machine, and I believe he has the honor to be the first to transcribe
 [ music rolls to computer files by this method.  -- Robbie