Hi Robbie,  You write :-

>[ Are you now ready to make roll transcriptions for customers,
>[ Richard?  What would be the cost to transcribe a 100-foot roll
>[ for subsequent perforating?

Not quite.  My present prototype is held together with nails and
sticky tape but I've persuaded an old friend who is a skilled
mechanical engineer to make me a proper roll transport and 'tracker
bar' with Vernier alignment adjustments.  Once that's finished I'll
be able to produce more reliably accurate results.

Cost ?  Nothing.  This is an amateur retirement project strictly for fun.
Several people loan me rolls to transcribe and we all get MIDI copies
as a result. There is a copyright issue here, too.  Not charging doesn't
alter the formal position but keeping things at an amateur level must
be a defense.

In any case, UK law seems to have shot itself in the foot over MIDI.
The British Copyright Protection Society tells me a court has
established that MIDI files are to be treated in law just like
photo-copies of the original published score.  (I find this hard to
believe, but that's what the man said.)

For a start, this eliminates all performer rights (which, on their
behalf, I resent).  Also, who published the arrangements of Adam Carroll
et al.?  I'm transcribing and releasing free-of-charge any pre-war
material until I'm given a good reason to stop.  I hope the occasional
MMDer will call in to say hello when they throw me in the Tower of
London !

>[ Can you transcribe other formats, such as for orchestrions?
>[ I think a market is waiting for you!

The only problem here is mechanical.  My machines are built around
the physical 88-note standard.  [I.e., 9 channels per inch]

Yet again, I wish other folk would join in and start building scanners,
possibly with more elaborate mechanical arrangements.  The electronics
knowledge required is minimal.  The whole thing works from the PC
printer port and the hardware interface amounts to just two 30-pence
integrated circuits (chips).  (That's the next area for improvement,
but only for speed reasons.)

The bulk of the work is software, which is extensive but not particu-
larly difficult.  I'm a self-taught amateur working in Quick Basic
(I abandoned C at an early stage - too formal).  Any computer buff who
wants a good laugh is welcome to the source code.  (Please send it back
when you've cleared out the bugs !)

Richard Stibbons MIMIT
Cromer, Norfolk
England