Player Pianos as Teaching Tools
By Mark Fontana
Jody Kravitz <rollreq@foxtail.com> wrote:
> Martin's question, above, about "New Players" as a teaching aid struck
> me. I can't help but wonder if a MIDI editing system, a keyboard, and
> access to some digitized roll libraries might not be a better learning
> tool for this student.
I have to agree with Jody. Over the past 12 months, I have digitally converted about eight volumes of the Pianocorder library to computer data files and also standard MIDI file format. In the process, I've listened to and accumulated over 1200 MIDI files of terrific piano arrangements, the majority of which were transferred from reproducing piano rolls by Superscope/Marantz in the late 70's.
I've become familiar with the styles of the great roll arrangers, and I've even picked up a few pieces by ear. The conversion process requires that I listen to the final MIDI files at least once, so I've had Pianocorder music playing while I study, while I eat, while I do email, etc... the music has certainly been pervading my life. This project has allowed me to hear hundreds of great reproducing rolls, despite the fact that I don't even own a piano yet (MIDI equipment is tiding me over until I have the space and $... I use a Kurzweil MicroPiano for all of my Pianocorder work, a Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas for non-piano stuff, and a Roland A-80 weighted controller for my own playing.) While I am fond of pneumatic players, there is no way that I could locate, afford, and have convenient access to a music library of this size if it were in the form of paper rolls.
My ultimate goal for the project is to compile a CDROM archive of the entire Pianocorder library, containing both the original digital data frames from the tapes as well as standard MIDI files of each piece, neatly organized into subdirectories of volumes and tapes.
It is my understanding that Yamaha now owns the bulk of the Pianocorder library, and that QRS has/had been selling tapes for the system after the demise of Superscope, so my CDROM will be for personal use only. If I can do so without a great deal of legal hassle, I would like to provide copies of the CDROM to the generous people who are contributing tapes to the archive.
However, such a collection would certainly be a tremendous resource to many others interested in player piano music. If anyone on the MMD has the enthusiasm and legal expertise to explore the issue and find a way to license the archive from Yamaha, producing a CDROM or web site of the material for public use, I will work with you to make it happen. But I think such a venture would entail an unbelievable amount of red tape, even if the material were offered for free. In the event that permission could be secured from Yamaha, there are still copyright issues galore and many grey areas...
To date, Yamaha has released relatively little of the Pianocorder material for its Disklavier pianos (namely, some albums from the Contemporary Artists series such as Liberace: Penthouse Serenade). My guess as to why they haven't released more is that they feel the split-stack, low timing resolution Pianocorder material would not fully exploit the Disklavier's capabilities. This is true. However, I've also heard that Yamaha is $ecuring exclusive access to some large roll collections (including the Condon collection mentioned in recent Digests). So perhaps Yamaha is planning to expand its Disklavier library by scanning more rolls. I'd appreciate more information on this, if anyone knows what's going on.
But I digress... in any case, I've also been developing a software package to conveniently access my growing music library. This program permits viewing a MIDI file on a smooth-scrolling music roll display during playback and the capability to manually "pump" the performances using external MIDI devices (velocity-sensitive keyboards or volume/ expression pedals). The "tracker bar" of the music roll display is a graphical piano keyboard with visual feedback as notes turn on and off. These features create an interactive experience for playing digitized rolls, and although this setup pales in comparison to the real thing, it's still entertaining and potentially educational. I will make this playback software available on the MMD ftp site once I've finished making changes.
Regards,
Mark Fontana
* note: This has been mentioned before, but let me reiterate the fact that the Pianocorder roll conversions are definitely not of archival quality. The rolls were sampled at only ~35 Hz with only 32 levels of expression, and there are occasional glitches and duplication defects in the cassette tapes. The expression translation ranges from marginally adequate to surprisingly good. Overall, the material is really only appropriate for casual listening. It will take a high-precision scanner like Wayne Stahnke's to make an accurate digital recording of a roll for posterity.
P.S. I have a web page describing the Pianocorder->MIDI conversion process at:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~fontana/pc2mid/. |
(Message sent Wed 6 Nov 1996, 20:07:04 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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