Herky-Jerky Music Rolls

Here's something I've wondered about for a long time, but thought it
to be perhaps too trivial to bring up.

It seems that whenever I listen to piano rolls, be it live, recorded,
or MIDI-ized, there is one thing I find to be common.  It is something
that is generally only noticeable on very fast runs.  It seems, for
instance, if there is an octave run of 64th notes, that they never are
quite even in attack and length. I doubt that even the finest pianist
could not play a run this way, so that leaves some other factor.

Is this a function of a poorly adjusted piano?  Is this something
related to misalignment of the holes on the roll due to limitations
of the machine?  Something else?  Anyone know?

Jon Miller
Saint Paul MN  55103

( Off now to Bemidji MN to pick up piano #9 for our house...
Is there a self help group I can join?????)

 [ Editors note:
 [
 [ We need "Pianos Anonymous" for compulsive piano collectors, and
 [ I'm one also!  :)
 [
 [ I assisted Rob DeLand with producing clean recuts of fine 88-note
 [ rolls, and I'd say that only about one out of 100 original rolls
 [ of pop tunes has any problem with jerkiness.  What you are hearing
 [ -- from audio recordings and low-quality recuts -- is the jerkiness
 [ of the paper transport and uneven response of the pneumatic player
 [ system.  Original rolls and good recuts played on a good pneumatic
 [ player aren't jerky, and they sound as good as the same music rolls
 [ which have been carefully converted to MIDI files.  Notice that
 [ I said _pop music rolls_; classical music rolls presumably reflect
 [ the skill of the artist named on the label.  (Listen to "Flight of
 [ the Bumblebee" performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff!  :-)
 [
 [ -- Robbie