Brian Thornton wrote, "I would like to get some feedback on the
availability of [M-rolls], if there are any recutting projects on the
near horizon [...]."

I was involved a while back with an M-roll re-cutting project with
PPCo.  Wayne Stahnke was to scan the rolls, and I would edit the result
to restore all the original-roll imperfections resulting from poorly
maintained perforators.   The result was a true restoration of the
production master, and the result was near-perfect production roll
reproductions, as cut by Custom Music Rolls.

One roll was completed, as a "demo", to serve as a calling-card for
subscription solicitations.   The cut of "Barney Google" on my WWW page
is from that roll.

Note the use of the past tense in all the above, and judge for yourself
the effectiveness of the above-mentioned solicitation.

There just aren't that many Orchestral J's out there, and nobody did
buildups of that particular configuration.  It would appear that the
vast bulk of instruments that can fully realize the potential of
full-blown "orchestrated music rolls" are build-ups, not original
instruments.   This is why there are so many O-rolls available -- there
are enough machines to play them that it becomes economically justified
to produce new ones.  Same goes for A-rolls -- there are lots and lots
of machines that take A-rolls, so lots and lots of them are produced.

So, how many Cremona Orchestral J's are out there?   10 to 15 at most?
Producing rolls for a market that limited is a labor of love.  Frankly,
I do love doing rolls, but not that much.

So, it's up to the owners of those 10 to 15 machines to make such a
venture justified, not build-up owners.   Nobody's going to convert
their O-roll buildups into M-roll buildups if there are only a few
re-cuts available along with closely-held disintegrating originals.

George Bogatko
http://www.intac.com/~gbogatko

 [ It's a vicious circle, too.  Until more instruments are built there
 [ simply isn't enough market to pay for re-cutting those disintegrating
 [ originals.  Wake up, collectors!  -- Robbie