Dave Miller's Introduction
By Dave Miller
Since Jody asked us to introduce ourselves, I guess I'll take my turn. I have hesitated since my interest in automatic music seems to be quite a bit more tame than most people on the list. I can see already that this list will be a great resource for me, but I probably won't have a whole lot to contribute. I must confess that I have never restored a player mechanism, do not own a reproducing piano, cannot read music, and cannot play much more than chopsticks and "peter, peter, pumpkin eater."
Anyway, I have always been fascinated by automatic musical instruments, especially player pianos and music boxes. When I was in Jr. High, my family visited Seattle and we wandered into a warehouse that had a number of old player pianos for sale. At that moment I decided that some day I would own a player piano. My family thought I was nuts, but regardless every birthday and Christmas I always put player piano rolls at the top of my wish list. Over the years they obliged me and by the time I was in high school I had about 15 rolls.
In high school I had earned some money and agonized over spending it on a player piano or a motorcycle. I decided that at that point in my life a motorcycle made more sense and postponed the player piano dream, but still kept my eye out for a roll now and then.
Then off to college where I studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, then took a job in Southern California, got married, got a job back "home" (Pacific NW, with HP), bought a house, and became a dad.
Then, about 4 years ago I convinced my wife that it was time to find a player piano since the old ones in working or repairable condition seemed to be harder and harder to find. I placed an ad in the paper, and ended up buying a 1910 Hallet Davis upright for $1000, including 91 old rolls. Except for being full of dust, cobwebs, and dead bugs and missing a few hinges and key tops, it worked great. It has been a lot of fun and I now have around 275 rolls. About 90% are old rolls from 1917 - 1925.
Lately I have been playing around with midi (albeit on my $60 sound card) and have amassed a pretty large collection (1500? songs) by reading alt.binaries.sounds.midi and following pointers posted there. Of course now the nagging thought is how to connect the computer to the piano (cheaply)... The thought of being able to store the equivalent of a whole cabinet of rolls on a floppy is awfully appealing.
I don't have a lot of $$ and with lots of house projects and two little kids I don't have a lot of time, but my interests for the group are:
- What are people's favorite 88 note rolls? I am especially looking for
boogie woogie or ragtime or rock, something that really gives the piano
a workout. One song I would kill for but have never seen is called
"Georgia Porcupine" by George Fischoff that was briefly popular in the
70's (I still have it on a 45).
- For people who have connected their computer to an 88 note mechanism, how
much did it cost? Can it be done without modifying the piano (i.e. just
clamp something onto the tracker bar)? Or should I just start looking for
a synth or decent sound card to play the files on (sacrilege!)?
- In general do people loan or trade rolls with each other much? I wouldn't
mind doing this but I imagine shipping rolls around is a bit of a pain.
The thought of being able to send midi files instead is awfully appealing.
- Does anyone know if any of the player roll companies sell midi or audio
"previews" of their rolls, i.e. collections of the first minute or so of
a whole bunch of their rolls to help you decide which rolls you might want
to purchase? When ordering rolls "sight unseen" it seems like 25% of the
time I am pleasantly surprised and 75% of the time disappointed.
Well, enough rambling, I'll be quiet now.
Regards,
Dave Miller
davem@vcd.hp.com |
(Message sent Fri 12 May 1995, 19:38:09 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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