88 Note Rolls on Duo-Art
By Darrell Clarke
G'day all,
I would like to respond to Jim Canavan's query on playing 88 note rolls on Duo-Art players.
My 1914 Stroud D-A upright does an excellent job of playing these rolls as it plays all 88 notes in the "D-A off" position, the only problem being that it has a preset playing loudness which might be too high if you want to add your own expression. The preset is achieved with a small pneumatic which increases the "accompaniment" playing level and I set this at medium loudness for background playing. Manual override allows louder playing but not softer. My teenage kids found an elastic band helped to keep it at full volume without having to hold the lever against the spring! In the "D-A on" position, I can use the full expression range, so long as no playing notes overlap the expression holes -- 'cos then you get some strange effects! There is an intermediate position on some players which turns off the expression, but you still lose the extra notes (only some early rolls used these anyway). The theory was that you can play other, eg Ampico, Welte, reproducing rolls as standard rolls, but you have to close off the motor switch and rewind holes or you won't get far! Recordo rolls have the same problem on electric players.
These older Aeolian players will play Themodist or accented (snakebite holes) rolls and with a little practice, they can sound almost as good as a reproducing roll, although the older rolls were not hand played and can sound a bit mechanical. If you have the Metrostyle feature (just a long pointer on the tempo scale) and dextrous fingers, you can vary the tempo according to the red wavy line and then you really do feel you're part of the playing. My 1920 Steck grand isn't so good in this department since the controls are spaced too far apart and it doesn't play all 88 notes.
There were a few Duo-Art "pedal/ electric players made and if you are lucky enough to have one, you can have all fun of a traditional pumper as well as an electric reproducer. In Australia, it is still quite easy to find the old accented rolls and it is usually well worth the extra trouble to play them as intended.
To sum up, Duo-Arts (early models at least) were designed to play the huge numbers of 88 note and accented rolls which were available at the time, and they did it well. If you do get one Jim, I'm sure you will have fun with all your rolls.
BTW, does anyone have a spare Themodist pointer, it is missing from my Steck?
Cheers,
Darrell
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(Message sent Thu 11 Jul 1996, 16:45:00 GMT, from time zone GMT-0600.) |
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