Re: Optical Scanner for Music Box Discs
By Larry Smith
> I will scrounge around for a small Stella; I am assuming the disc
> needs to be no larger than standard paper width (8.5"). I have
> numerous 17" discs but the image would take up 2 pieces of legal size
> paper.
Now _this_ stuff is exciting!
From Robbie's description, it is the relationship of the holes that convey the information we need, the size should be irrelevant. The suggested algorithm should work even on a photo-reduced image, so long as the holes were still distinct.
Porter Music Box company, the last surviving disk music box maker in the US, uses computers to punch their disks. I imagine they would be very interested in this type of system, it would provide them with a way to scale disks from many machines - even transpose notes and per- form other such machinations to adapt them to their Regina-compatible format. They might be keen to help, if anyone contacts them with the idea.
The idea could also give us a way to experiment with disks that have survived all the machines that could play them. It would be a chore to figure out the notes, percussion, and whatever, but certainly far easier than rigging up an actual machine and trying to get a disk to sound like something!
regards,
Larry Smith |
(Message sent Mon 5 Aug 1996, 14:55:50 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
