Greetings all,  Kudos to Peter Phillips for his Mark II piano roll
reader [110729 MMDigest].  We discussed it, and his rationale for a
pneumatic versus optical approach, while I visited with him last year.

I also agree with his approach, although I have taken the optical
route, since that was the technology and equipment available when I
decided to take the plunge.  His and others comments about re-creation
of master rolls and MIDI files is salient and well thought out.

One issue, only tangentially nodded to, is the finite life of paper.
My thought is that regardless of the approach used, pneumatic or
optical, one of the pressing issues is the preservation of the rolls:
scan the things before they end up as so much dust in the bottom of the
box, or shredded Christmas decorations!  Let the future generations
address the issues surrounding the imperfect scanning that we do now.
Those enthusiasts will sort things out, much like we did when all the
roll life issues became apparent in the 1960s and '70s.

The present scans aren't perfect, but better to be imperfect than a
roll lost forever.

Keep on scannin'!
John McClelland