I agree with Craig Brougher's remarks about the (attraction) power
of the pneumatic player over the electronic.  You have a lump of real
history and craftsmanship sitting there.

The major advantage, at present at least, is the power to interpret the
music the way you want, which gets us off the subject of reproducing
pianos.  Rex Lawson is slowly developing a kind of Aeolian pianola
"joystick interface" with the five levers and two pedals, where you
pull a roll down on-screen (green monochrome, on an Apple IIa !) and
it behaves just like a paper one, with a MIDI board in the Apple and
the piano patch of your choice rattling the windows.

But that's just his lab model and Rex is no Henry Ford.  The two pedals
have already shrunk to one, which doesn't even tickle your feet when a
trill plays like a real one, so hideous compromises are being made
there even before he's got into production.  (He reads these exchanges
on floppy disk, so maybe this will halt the rot before it goes too
far.)

I'll just take issue with one remark of Craig's:

> Another powerful draw that pneumatic players have, is the power of
> those old pianos, themselves.  A good old upright is awesome in its
> ability to bathe the room in the rich power and harmonic overtones
> of an acoustic instrument designed to fill a home with music.
> By and large, such pianos are not available anymore, with one
> exception, and it is a very "expensive" exception.

What's the exception?  Steinway ?  I think you'll find that the
Bechstein upright is still quite something.  And I've never heard a new
Welmar that didn't make me marvel that you can still get such tone in a
modern showroom.  Welmar (about =L=8,000 or $12,000 these days) is made
by the London branch of Bluethner that got expropriated in WW1; there
are close ties and some rivalry with the German side.

Dan Wilson, London