Greetings from Sydney, Australia.

I was interested in seeing the references to the Mastertouch Piano Roll
Co.  based in Sydney.

I am a 25 year old professional pianist and vocal coach, and I have
made several rolls for Mastertouch. Time has limited my work there
over the past two years, but I plan to return and make some more
recordings over the next few months.

Recording the rolls is an interesting process - you play, just as you
would play normally, a specially converted Pianola (made by the
Australian firm of Beale and Co.). There are electrical contacts under
the keys which register which notes are being played and the
information is sent to a computer. The notes can be manipulated on the
screen (I often add extra notes to end up with a recording of a duet
with myself), incorrect notes can also be deleted. When the recording
has been fully edited, it is sent to the master cutter. Watching this
machine is quite remarkable. I am led to believe that the system can
still be set up to cut the roll directly as it is being played, but I
have never tried this as the beauty of roll-played instruments and
music in my opinion is the fact that music can be made which could
never possibly be played by human hands. Does anyone know Grainger's
wild arrangement of "Shepherd's Hey"? (Not the reproducing roll
version, the earlier one made for a London company which has an
outrageous amount of notes inserted! This is the roll I use to test my
player!)

Mastertouch has an extensive catalogue, with new rolls being added all
the time. The principal recording artists are/were Greg Crease, Laurel
Pardey, Lettie Keyes, Barclay Wright, Luke Dearlove, William Ferrier,
and myself. I concentrate mainly on my own transcriptions of opera,
and have recorded rolls of excerpts of Tosca (with the words in
Italian! for all the budding opera singers out there...), the
Pearlfisher's Duet, Strauss medleys, Erik Satie piano works, etc. I
have also made the occasional journey into the world of popular music -
having also made a recording of my own arrangement of "Crazy" (Patsy
Cline), for example.

One question, does anyone know whether the Conlon Nancarrow "Studies
for Player Piano" have ever been released as rolls? I have the
recordings on LP, but would much prefer a 'live' performance.

Mastertouch can be contacted on (+61 2) 9569 5128. They are more than
happy to receive visitors, and can take guests on a tour through the
factory and music instrument museum.

Kind regards

Glenn Amer.