•This is a follow up of my posting back in December, MMD 1999.12.18, when my wife and I purchased a Marantz Vorsetzer at eBay auction. We paid $500 in none-working condition. Then we traveled from our home in Michigan to Tennessee, near Nashville, to pick it up. After getting home it was set up and ...

•While I agree with Doug Henderson that the Smithsonian exhibit should have showcased more pneumatic players, a lot of us are interested in the more modern piano actions. Here's a technical description of the original Pianocorder, which I just found in a 1977 clipping from Electronic Design, one of ...

•The problem: When playing tapes on the Pianocorder, the stabilization light keeps coming on, no matter what position the adjusting wheel is in. [ The light extinguishes when the data bit stream from the cassette [ tape is detected and correctly synchronized. The adjusting wheel [ controls the read ...

•Tom Lear wrote in 010105 MMD: > Problem: When playing tapes on the Pianocorder, the stabilization > light keeps coming on, no matter what position the adjusting wheel > is in. Out of curiosity, is the tape an old tape? Cassette tape, like any other magnetic media, suffers data loss over time. There...

•In 1986 (or so), the Chicago-based manufacturer of Cobra CB equipment was looking for its own in-house line of audio equipment. They purchased the entire Marantz line. Along with that purchase came the Pianocorder Division. In my conversation with one of their vice presidents, he explained that the...

•In Digest 01.01.06, George Bogatko suggested preserving the Pianocorder music library: > Has the information from these tapes been converted to something more > stable? I would hate to think that we are faced with yet another > mechanical control media that is failing and not being preserved. In 19...

•Hi All, QRS is still selling Pianocorder cassettes. You can order the 41-page catalog by calling 1-800-24-ROLLS. The complete collection of 300 cassette tapes is advertised for $3,100. Believe it or not, there is also a section in the catalog for continuous-play 8-track programs that have playing t...

•George Bogatko asked: > Out of curiosity, is the tape an old tape? Cassette tape, like > any other magnetic media, suffers data loss over time. While this can be a problem with any cassette tapes, due to poor handling and storage, I have not experienced it. I have old original Pianocorder tapes, ne...

•Regarding Tom Lear's message from 010105 MMD. One more possibility: I have occasionally found that the little nut on the stabilization wheel has loosened. Retighten and put a drop of "Lock-tite" on the threads. Dave Hall

•I have a Vorsetzer Pianocorder with the original owners manual. In the manual it explains that the light goes out as the tape plays, but comes back on as the tape comes to the end of the selection. My service man explained to me that it also comes on between notes. Watch and see if the light coinci...

•Regarding the Pianocorder System P-200 Vorsetzer reproducer, I think that if one has plugged this unit into a typical 20-Amp (or worse, 15-Amp) home circuit, then if one turns the volume up, one can observe a slight diminution in the room-lamps on the same circuit. To say that the lights dim consid...

•On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 Bob Baker wrote: > I do not believe that this unit requires 1500 watts to do justice to > whatever music one wishes to listen to. One San Francisco electronic > engineer of high repute informed me that he didn't think a typical > Pianocorder System would draw more than 6 amps. A...

•Hi all, I think the problem with the lights dimming is due to the wiring in the house. My steam iron used to do this every morning when I was ironing a shirt for work in my last house. It drove me crazy. I looked into it and found that in Colorado, they are wiring houses with number 14 gage wire. I...

•I can add a little here. I'm an engineer with a power company that works with the distribution system (the lines that run up and down the alleys and to houses). There is a large variation in the capacities and impedance involving electrical services into houses. Most relevant to whether or not the ...

•Dear Robbie, permit me to comment on your observations about Pianocorder System key solenoid electronic parameters. Pianocorder System key solenoids receive a fixed 170 Volts DC. This voltage does not vary. So how does the system create dynamic expression if the key solenoid voltage is constant? Th...

•The only predecessor to the Pianocorder System was a unit sold for a short time by Chemical Ventures Corp. in Alabama. This was developed by Teledyne, in Lewisburg, Tennessee. Around 1977, Superscope, Inc., owned by Joseph Tushinsky, purchased the entire enterprise from Teledyne, Lewisburg and then...

•Mark Fontana, creator of the wonderful "Mid2pc10" MIDI-to-Pianocorder conversion software, has placed a forum on the web for Pianocorder owners and technicians at http://www.voy.com/33099/ Tom Lear San Francisco, CA

•Hi Robbie, The artists that I have in "The Contemporary Artists Series" are George Shearing, Peter Nero, Oscar Peterson, Floyd Cramer, Liberace, Chick Corea, and Roger Williams. I really enjoy George Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland". Jack Conway

•Dear Robbie: To respond to your question posed in today's edition of MMD, the only avant-garde pianist who recorded for the Pianocorder System was Chick Corea. All of the rest were very traditional artists. Oscar Peterson's cassette is still very much available. However, Oscar Peterson is a recogni...

•Recent experiments here, with a new combined MC-2 MIDI Converter plus CD/Keyboard Interface for the Pianocorder System, have produced some useful results which I'd like to share. Because the Pianocorder System was created several years before MIDI appeared, it was not MIDI compatible until Will Dah...