Transcribing and Emulating Reproducing Rolls
By Robbie Rhodes
Marc Sachnoff: Thanks for the report of the shaker chimes at Circus World. Was this instrument operating from a music roll? Was it a part of a big pipe organ?
The services you need to preserve and convert your reproducing rolls are already available, and the quality is top-notch. Contact Wayne Stahnke at Live Performance, tel 310-391-4921. He can:
(1) transcribe the music roll to disk file, with such precision that an exact hole-for-hole duplicate may be punched.
(2) Convert the data into Midi file, with full expression.
If you want perforated copies he will arrange with Richard Tonnesen for that service. Also top-notch quality.
Stahnke and Tonnesen both use precision pneumatic readers. Until the optical technology advances further, the pneumatic reader is equal or superior to the optical reader for practical copying and archiving of Ampico, DuoArt and Licensee rolls. (Jody will report about this soon.)
The DuoArt Concertola is not a precise machine, and I don't recommend it's use for archiving of rare rolls. (Just as you wouldn't use a WurliTzer jukebox to archive old phonograph records!)
And attempting to record a Midi file from contacts on the keyboard of a player piano is as futile as copying photographs using Grandma's box camera. You can recognize the song, and that's about all. Just listen to the sad music on Midi files offered a few years ago by Micro-W!
-- Robbie Rhodes
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(Message sent Sun 19 Nov 1995, 01:03:43 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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