[ Paul Bell wrote in 160418 MMDigest:
> I have read with interest the replies to this subject. In particular
> I was interested greatly in the quote from Wallace Venable:
> "I found that I could punch faster with my foot-pedal machine than
> the computerized punch could".
> If that really was the case then the mechanical part of the Bob Essex
> specification that you were constructing must have been very
> inadequate. It is not the software that Bob Essex supplies that is
> slow, it is the interpretation that the constructor uses to build the
> punch unit that limits the speed of perforation.
All probably true. My speed comparison was with circa 2006 YouTube
videos of machines punching John Smith rolls. Those I saw would take
seconds to traverse between punch operations.
(See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGAD6s32JSU and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDQOHKD7SgE )
I actually stopped building because trying to get my fingers to do the
precision installation of the various sensors was too frustrating.
John Smith rolls require overlapping holes to make slots. I can punch
about 4 slot-holes per second. I can punch a John Smith 20er tune in
about 2 hours. I usually do it in about 20 minute segments. I use
MIDIBoek to produce the templates and I move the paper by eyeball.
I run MIDIBoek on a Windows 95 computer and print continuous full-song
master strips using an old-fashioned dot matrix printer.
As seen in the video, Paul's machine is truly a wonder. It is punching
88-hole piano rolls (?) with non-overlapping holes. That is a different
task.
Knowing what I know now, if I really wanted a production machine for
small organ rolls, I would build a classic gang-punch machine with MIDI
controlled interrupters. I would emulate Dave Wasson's punch, following
more-or-less the design of the Wurlitzer band-organ punches, but
substituting MIDI control for the hand-punched masters.
See "Wurlitzer Music Roll Department Exhibit - Herschell Carrousel
Factory Museum", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjj66yc_Rto
I don't want to be in the roll-punching and selling business. If I need
a "commercial quality" roll I prefer to use the services which Melvyn
Wright and/or Pipes of Pan provide.
Wallace Venable
|
