While poking around in the List of Lists, I ran across this entry. It possibly may be of interest relative to the recent discussion of various OCR concerns. Regards, Terry ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ OCR@PHIL.RUU.NL Subscription Address: OCR-REQUEST@PHIL.RUU.NL Last Update: 1/15/94 Descriptio...

[ Editor's Note: [ [ I'm going to be experimenting with some "boilerplate" at the end [ of each digest. I invite you to send comments to me if you [ have suggestions. [ [ Jody Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editor(s). Comp...

Jesse Masen was asking about a source for old sheet music. I suggest contacting the Bagaduce Music Lending Library, Blue Hill, Maine (207-374-5454) as a first step. If something is desperately needed and is pre-WW II, I could try the Library of Congress (LC) music and copyright collections, but it's...

•Now that Walter Tenton and Robbie Rhodes have clarified the situation considerably regarding our acronym, I don't care for my suggestion at all, anymore. I do like MMD the best (so far) because it is the simplest and most direct. Bingo. Copyright it! Craig B.

Rob Deland wrote: > I too have a set of the Gulbransen instruction rolls.... > (1) my set says 1st edition, and I think there's a 2nd edition; I > wonder what the difference is. > (2) my set is 6 rolls, the last 2 being "practice rolls". > (3) the rolls are clearly manufactured by QRS: they have QRS...

I am getting ready to have a garage sale (sorry, no piano rolls for sale!) and came across some interesting publications while sorting through things and thought I would share them with the group. The first is a 1942 catalog from the Progressive Musical Instrument Company of New York City. It offers...

Next week (10/24-27) I'm going to be visiting Boston, and was wondering if anyone had recommendations on any mechanical music worth seeing in the city (whether in museums, restaurants, bars, whatever!). I won't have a car, so any sites would have to be reachable by bus or "T". BTW, as a Warner Broth...

•Dan Wilson alerted me to an article on the New York Times web site, dated December 15, 1996, by author Edward Rothstein, which tells about the radio broadcasts titled "Earwitness" on the nationally syndicated WFMT Fine Arts Network. New York station WNYE carries the program on Monday evenings at 10...

The Harry Fox Agency in New York handles the administrative work of licensing and collecting mechanical royalty fees for many publishers in the U.S. Sometime between April 1996 and December 1996, they've implemented a policy change that will hurt the player piano roll trade. Section 115 of the copyr...

The important point to realize here is what the Harry Fox Agency really is, and what it does. It surveys the sales of hard materials (CD, cassette, recordings) and pays publishers generally between two to four cents for each piece (song) sold. The Agency itself keeps about 1/4- to 1/2-cent of each f...

In Digest 96.01.04 S. K. Goodman wrote: > You might also want to head off the publishers "at the pass" by > contacting the composer(s) _first_ and getting them to waive any fees > collected in exchange for the "honor" of having their works perforated > by you for player piano, organ or whatever. Giv...

In the last digest, I was intrigued with S. K. Goodman's response: > it has been my practice to go ahead and produce the recording first, > and if it actually sells out 1,000 copies (well below the 5,000 unit > "demo" limit set by law), consider another 1,000 unit run. These > numbers are so small i...

S. K. Goodman said: > it has been my practice to go ahead and produce the recording first, > and if it actually sells out 1,000 copies (well below the 5,000 unit > "demo" limit set by law), consider another 1,000 unit run. These > numbers are so small in the grand scheme of modern commercial music >...

The good book, "Business of Music", comes at the end of this note. But first two other related points. In the last digest Dan Wilson suggests using the same strategy which S. K. Goodman uses sucessfully to obtain tacit permission to use a composition on an audio recording without paying royalties to...

Bob Fitterman is working on an automated scheme to retrieve articles from the Mechanical Music Digest archives, and he has invited discussion about the categories of the topics discussed. Over the weeks that I've been editing the Digest I've felt that these are recurring topics: Techniques for Resto...

•This book was mentioned recently as being on everyone's wish list. Somewhere along the line the title was changed to "Treasury ..." in the MMD, and that threw me off. The book is in my local library :-) I checked it out and it's sitting right in front of me now. Eat your heart out! For those of you...

What a wonderful risque popular song! Just going by memory on this: • The polar bears way up in Greenland -- They have the right idea! They think it's great to re-frig-e-rate while we all cre-mate down here. And if a gal wears X-ray dresses, that show everything she owns, 'Tain't no sin, to take off...

•Reading the recent discussion on the pros and cons of solenoid pianos, I think I should make a stand in favour of electronic action. The MIDI standard looks very much here to stay, particularly as many PC's sold today are 'multimedia' types with soundcards and MIDI built in. The ability for anyone ...

After visiting George Bogatko's home page (www.intac.com/~gbogatko/) I was struck with an idea. George uses streaming MPEG to allow visitors to hear, full-length, pieces played on actual instruments. Therein was my idea born! I would like to propose --    The Virtual Academy of Mechanical Musical In...

•Greetings, all. Regarding a computer program to search MIDI files for 'matching' themes, Jack Perron wrote: > My experience as a programmer (as well as musician), suggests to me > that such a program would not be terribly difficult to write. Probably > a labor of love, though, given the limited dem...