Doug Henderson brought up an interesting point about human pedaling
verses pianola pedaling (sustaining).

Human performers do not use the sustaining pedal in the same way that
a common player piano does.  Pianists learn early on, to rely heavily
on the sustaining pedal, causing many notes to sound like they were of
great duration.  If the same note was played on a player piano, without
the pedal, it would be very short, and not sounding at all like the
original performance.

There is also a variation of pedaling that concert pianists use, if you
watch them closely.  It's called "half pedaling" or "feather pedaling",
a condition when the dampers are brought up into a "half muted" state.
This creates a subtle but noticeable effect that a reproducing piano is
not capable of.

Player techs strongly disagree as to the validity of "feather pedaling",
claiming that it is neither desirable (if it exists at all) or needed,
stating that the dampers are either on or off.  For player applications,
this is true.  But it is not the case for a concert pianist.

To understand this effect, depress your damper pedal and play middle C
in a short burst.  You will find a point that when the pedal is
depressed, the string will faintly sound after the key is released, but
it is not a full sustain.  Repeat this process until you have a good
feel of the point that this occurs.

Quickly play and release middle C again, instantly bring the dampers
fully up and then back down to that point as quickly as you can and
hold it there.  In a large piano with good dampers and downbearing,
you will clearly hear the effect.  The larger the piano, the more
noticeable it will be, especially on concert grands.  On small uprights
and spinets, it just isn't there.  The string loading is too great to
hear more than the fundamental.

What you're actually doing is faintly bringing out the seventh partial
of the string, causing that partial to predominate by the damper just
touching it.  Guitar players call this effect "chiming the strings",
and it will occur in the piano to a very limited extent.  This will
vary somewhat, depending upon the location of the dampers in relation
to the string termination points.  It is most noticeable on large
Baldwins, Steinways and Boesendorfers.

By using this effect, the pianist can generate subtle effects that
reach the audience, that are hard to pinpoint, but are quite
noticeable.  If course, pneumatic pianos can not do this.

This is just one example of the many reasons that player rolls, no
matter how well done, will only approximate the "live" performance of
a concert pianist.  There are many other reasons.

I've started something, haven't I ?!

Andrew Taylor
Tempola Music Rolls

 [ I often use 'half pedaling' to somewhat control the decay rate
 [ when playing a grand with aggressive dampers which dampen the
 [ final chord too quickly.  A series of brief applications of the
 [ dampers reduces the volume in steps.  Not quite the same effect
 [ as in the vertical piano with weak damper springs, but it helps
 [ when I want a slightly longer sound decay period.  -- Robbie