Leabarjan Perforator
By Robbie Rhodes
After a few music perforating attempts using a razor blade or a hot-wire I finally got to use a Leabarjan perforator to make my first complete piano roll. I went to Bob Johnson's home in Long Beach, CA, early one summer evening in 1964 and started punching holes with his little Leabarjan. I picked the simplest piece I could think of: the piano accompaniment for the "Clarinet Polka". Brother John played it as a solo on his clarinet.
Bob had good heavy nickelodeon paper already trimmed to 11.25-inch width, and we put three sheets in the punch, for the repeated sections of the music. I started punching about 8 PM. The introduction was three note- strikes, like a clock chiming, just to set the tempo for the soloist. Then it was nothing but oom-pah all the way -- two notes in the bass on beats 1 and 3, and a 3-note chord on beats 2 and 4. Bob installed a very coarse index for the time base so that I punched only one or two holes for each of the notes or chords.
I began punching the third strain (the Trio) about midnight. Bob suggested that I add a simple tenor line, and that was easy, 'cause it was just one note held until the chord changed. About this time I was getting a little bleary-eyed, and I found a good use for all the little round punchings, the "chad". When I punched a hole in the wrong channel Bob showed me how to fill it with a punching and secure it with thin adhesive tape on the back side; the repair was usually invisible!
Finally the Trio was punched and I was ready to punch the last part, which is the first strain repeated, but played quite a bit faster, for a "flying finish." We did a little calculating, and guessing how fast John could play the melody without getting too mad at me, and Bob selected a different index for the time base, with the notches a bit closer together to make the music faster.
I also added a harmony line, the same as the clarinet melody but a "tight third" lower. I punched that first, and then went back over the section to add the bass and accompaniment notes.
We spliced all the sections together and carried the roll over to a piano to hear it for the first time. It was beautiful! I drove home as the sun was coming up, and awakened John to play it for him!
Years later I concluded it was appreciably faster for me to cut the roll on the piano, right at the tracker bar, so I could quickly play-back the music and correct the critical timing.
Robbie Rhodes
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(Message sent Thu 27 Feb 1997, 02:48:27 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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