•I'd like to offer a few observations about John Tuttle's excellent essay on "How to Pump a Player Piano." From what little I remember about human anatomy, using the ankles to pump the player pedals is good advice _if_ the entire player pneumatic system is in above average condition. Most of the new...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- Have a Gulbransen solenoid operate player unit that apparently has a problem in power supply problem for the solenoids. Electrical unit made by Dale Electronics, Yankton SD. They went out of business 17 years ago. Make was E-3 and serial 3907...

•I have finally finished the conversion of a small harpsichord to MIDI operation. Bob Lang previously reported on a MIDI operated harpsichord which he has built. I don't have anywhere near the skills of Bob in woodworking or electronics so I used, wherever possible, ready-made components. The harpsi...

•Hi all, I have been silent on this subject too long. Yamaha is a fine piano, no doubt. A concert grand Yamaha should have a beautiful sound and might be an interesting experiment, but why destroy a Mason and Hamlin to do it??? Your is a modern piano, so use a Pianocorder. Good God, there are just s...

•Bruce Clark wrote in 011115 MMDigest: > "Does the frame of the piano require cutting a slot under the key > bed? Will this cut damage or weaken the piano? Can you imagine > cutting a slot under the keybed and suddenly hearing a loud bang, > and finding a perfectly good 9' piano ruined?" The answers...

•I have been following the discussion arising out the problems with RealPlayer with great interest. Shortly after I got my first computer a couple years ago, I had downloaded a trial version of Winamp, and had the same problems with it attaching itself to my MIDI files and the hassle of removing it ...

•Tom Lear wrote: > So, here's my question: Is there such a thing as an audio player > program for WAV files that has a tempo control? More specific, is > there a player that has tempo control you can adjust while it is > playing, and operates in Windows? My educated guess is that it is not practical...

•There are a few more aspects to the question posed by Phil Dayson concerning designing around major transistor failures. In addition to designing circuits conservatively so that, in the event of transistor breakdown, one isn't faced with disastrous fires, the software designer can include sub-routi...

•D. L. Bullock wrote; "The key to selling pianos is to have them in top condition". How true that is! I visited the State Fair of Texas last week and there was one piano dealer there with a display of about 8 or 10 pianos. They were all new and some had the new style players in them. There was perha...

•Hello! Dan Wilson wrote: > In England ... old players still exist ... in fossilised form in > stupendous number - far more than can ever be adopted by the thousand > or so aficionados. The cost of restoring them increases as their > condition deteriorates, so there is now unlikely to be a great > r...

•I find the discussion posed as MIDI files vs. music rolls meaningless. More appropriate would be MIDI files as an adjunct to music rolls. They are not mutually exclusive in any way. Depending on the application, there may be any percentage of overlap. Both data systems have their advantages in spec...

•Hi All, In my research, I have read about the possibility of pedal solenoids overheating and binding up. Also the striker solenoids and power supply do put out a good deal of heat. I can see where all this heat might not be good for a piano that is closed up and under continuous use, like a lounge...

•In MMD 031118, Bob Valdez (a non-subscriber) wrote: > hi, I'm looking for a software (if it exists?) that will convert > MIDI files downloaded in the Internet and burn it on a CDR and > have it played by my QRS Pianomation piano? Bob, I have written a free Windows program to do such a conversion. Y...

•Hi all, Kim Bunker here from www.playerpianos.com There is a solution now to the problem you face with the motors on the Universal and Aeolian player systems, and that is: Mr. Randy Cox, who was one of their in-house techs. He has all of the answers and parts to all problems concerning these type o...

•Thanks to John Tuttle's repeated reminders about the efficacy of a tracker bar pump, I finally ordered one from QRS. When I rebuilt my Dynavoice, I didn't like the idea of any more paper bits getting into the pneumatics and placed filters in the control tubing ahead of each pneumatic (82). Playing ...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- Jody, Just been reading the MMD Archives and came across an article by Tim Ward from March 27, 1997, regarding PianoDisc Vorsetzer. Could you please put us in contact with him or post this on the MMD for any feedback regarding any advances or man...

•Hal Davis mentioned encountering a problem fitting a Dynavoice to the spacing on a Steinway. I have encountered this situation on three keyboards. On an electronic keyboard that I used to transfer rolls to MIDI files, and on my Mission Style upright, I found it necessary to remove the lowermost B-f...

•I'm very pleased to read Bill Flynt's posting re his work on converting Liberace QRS rolls to Ampico. The results of his editing are excellent, and the more we know about how Bill achieved this, the better. I have a particular interest in Liberace, mainly because my mother (age 92) loves him. I was...

•Hello All, In response to George Glastris' reference to the steam calliopes on the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen, both of these riverboats do indeed have calliopes. My wife and I have enjoyed traveling on both of these boats on several occasions. The calliopes are always played when leaving the...

•The Chicago AMICA gathering looks like it will be a "watershed" conference in the conversion of paper to digital media for mechanical music. The scanning technology has evidently evolved to a point where it can actually preserve a photographic image of the roll. Most of us have experienced the slow...