It _is_ the love of Player Piano music that matters more than the
technology !

Having had 18 'real' players for several years I was constantly
frustrated by the fact that, most of the time, very few if any of them
worked properly.  To some people restoration is the primary hobby, but
to me it was the music that was the motivating force.  It was so
frustrating to possess over 5,000 rolls, of many standards, and yet be
unable to release the music they held.  ( For years, I wanted to know
what those two odd Angelus Artrio rolls in my collection sounded like
-- now I know.)

Being an electronics/computer engineer, the idea of converting the
rolls to MIDI and playing them on a solenoid piano was fairly obvious.
Nothing is perfect -- MIDI is flawed, solenoid pianos are not always
very good, I even _miss_ the smell of rubber cloth and glue when I open
the piano.  None-the-less, I now play and enjoy hundreds of rolls a
week whereas before, the pianos tended only to get used to demonstrate
the odd roll to visiting friends.

Nothing is perfect, the very best Hi-Fi system will never sound like a
real piano, but they're sufficiently good to be enjoyable.  The same
principles apply.  Whether the discussions about these issues are
relevant to the MMD is for the editors to decide but it is without
doubt the interest in Mechanical Music which links us together.

Richard Stibbons MIMIT
Cromer, Norfolk
England