•Hello All, While I certainly appreciate all the 'sound' advice (pun intended) about the PDS-128 that doesn't recognize that a disc has been inserted, I get the feeling that no one knows someone who can actually fix the problem. To date, all the responses I've received state that I should call a loc...

•I saw Andy Taylor's post and could not hold this in any longer. Sorry if it's a bit heavy, but I have simplified as much as possible, missing some techie bits out! [ Andy wrote in Digest 980721: ] > A solenoid is the weakest at it's "open" (down) position; [it] > reaches its maximum power when the ...

•Reply to Jerry Hall -- I saw your question in the MMD about a piece you thought might be called "the Battle of Waterloo". From the description it sounds as if you might be referring to Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory or the Battle of Vittoria". (The "1812 Overture was in fact written to commemora...

•[ Claus Kucher wrote in 980909 MMDigest: ] > Hey Ingmar! It seems you have saved lots of energy :-) because > for the first time of your performing in Vienna you got some > electricity for your organ "s'Loewerl" (when my uninterruptible- > power-supply equipment stopped delivering current after onl...

•Roger Waring wrote in MMDigest 981105: > It seems to me that any artificial device, whether an electronic box, > or a computer microphone feeding into software, has considerable > limitations. I have tried one program, and from experience find that > it can only tune one string at a time. This ther...

•Hi group, I'm very pleased to wish you all Happy Holidays. And to continue one of my favorite subjects: musical toys! Robbie Rhodes wrote in MMDigest 981226, "... this device was patent- ed long ago (probably in the 1930s), and licensed to Mattel Toys, by a man named Duncan." Mattel used this paten...

•This is not exactly mechanical music but there are several of you who work with MIDI and of course sound cards. I have an application for which it would be nice to use a 200 ohm dynamic microphone as an input device for a Creative AWE 64 sound card. Unfortunately, the gain at the microphone input i...

•I guess you could deal with the AVC problem something like this: If your equipment allows it(*), you could use a VCR (preferably a Hi-Fi!) to record the picture but NOT the sound from the camera directly. Either you use a separate sound plug on the VCR (if it exists), or you connect to some of the ...

•I realize this does not quite fit the Music part of MMD but I thought it might overlap enough that someone may be able to help me out. I was recently given a 'Sound Scriber' (as-labeled) and it records via microphone on thin plastic disks (7" dia.) in what appears to be a crude record lathe-type of...

•[ Adapted from 960227 MMDigest ] Over 100 years ago a punched paper "music roll" was used to control a complex telescope built to photograph a total eclipse of the sun. It is described on page 360 in the book, "Stars and Telescopes", by David P. Todd, published in 1899 by Little, Brown & Co., Bosto...

•"SofI", for those unawares, is a large orchestrion that a number of people have wanted a recording or video of, so I decided to oblige and made a recording. What a mess. The first master went to a video production company that stopped pro- ducing in the meantime, and 3 months later, was returned. U...

•Thanks to the tip posted a day or so ago, I checked out the Web site of the British business that sells small circuit cards that receive MIDI and drive appropriate electromagnetic valves or whatever you need. John's "jw Electronics" is at http://www.jwelectronics.free-online.co.uk/ The news is enco...

•I use an electronic differential pressure gauge which gives an output of 5 volts for a differential pressure of 500 mm of water. This gauge uses the sensor MPX10DP from Motorola (pressure range: 1.5 psi or 1 meter of water, overpressure to 15 psi). The main advantage of this kind of gauge is its fa...

•Dear MMDs, Here are some results from the auction (more than 200 lots) which took place yesterday, Sunday Dec. 10th, 200, in Chartres, France. To answer some concerns expressed by some American members, no item was forbidden to leave France, and no item was "preempted" by the French museums. Severa...

•I appreciated the recent articles about crank organs and roll music for them. I have been the US distributor for crank organs made by Alan Pell (Lincolnshire, UK) since 1992 and have used his organs in my avocation as an organ grinder since 1985. Pell organs are known for their durability; my perso...

•Last week, Brian Chesters asked about a mysterious book music sold by Imhof & Mukle in London. Attached there are five pages from the 1893 catalog of "fils d'Eugene Thibouville", owned by the library of our society. This catalog was issued in 1893 and lists the instruments sold by the successors of...

•I am occasionally able to connect with Rich Groman at Keystone. I had heard rumors that he was going out of business. He assured me that just the opposite is true. Since he opened his web site http://www.keystonemusicroll.com/ his business has grown far beyond what he was capable of handling. To he...

•MMDer Bob Fine wants to add MIDI control to his 30-note Unaphone and he wonders if anyone is interested in this sort of project. The 30 notes of Bob's instrument begin at "G" above Middle C and extend up to "C" 2-1/2 octaves higher. It's believed to be of early manufacture since the dual-coil strik...

•Robbie Rhodes wrote: > ... the Unaphone coil resistance measures 2.2 ohms when cold, so at > 6 volts it draws 2.8 amperes, and at 12 volts (Heavens!) it draws 5.6 > amperes. That's much, much more current than drawn by organ magnets > and the solenoids in modern solenoid pianos. A chord of 10 notes...

•I telephoned Mike Ames today to ask if he knew the patent numbers of the Mills converter. He found them on the brass label of the machine, and I quickly retreived images of the original patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) web site, http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm I...