I have a well restored Duo-Art piano and it plays perfect rolls as well
as it plays from the PowerRoll.  New rolls do not require tracking at
all and old ones with good edges track perfectly as long as they are
not warped.  I have spent considerable time examining piano rolls and
measuring their defects in an attempt to make the scanning process as
automatic as possible.  There is an amazing variety of ills from which
they suffer that degrade their performance.

It is not the quality of the instrument (in my case) that is the
problem.  The question is whether or not I want to spend the rest of
my time and money finding the rest of the perfect rolls that exist.
Even if I can find and afford them, they will not last forever.  This
is, and has been, my major concern, the preservation of this excellent
musical heritage.

The precision of my scans is sufficient to produce new rolls and when
they are perforated by Richard and Janet Tonnesen, they play every bit
as well as the originals.  Of course there are those purists who insist
that the theme perfs (snakebites) be smaller but this doesn't bother
me, or at least my ear.

If it were possible to coordinate an effort among collectors to recut
the rolls they wanted, I would be interested in new rolls of the
quality produced by the Tonnesens.  This seems to be an even greater
challenge than finding old rolls.  No one seems to be willing to take
the effort to coordinate such a program.

In addition to the considerations above there are two other that, to
me, make the electronic interface superior.  In order to treat the old
rolls gently, I have lessened the brake tension on the supply and take
up spools.  This causes uneven paper feed speed as the tracker bar
suction varies and is very annoying in certain pieces.  This does not
happen from the electronic roll.  This was not a problem when the rolls
were new and the brakes could be set as intended.

I do not feel that I am missing anything when I eliminate this
randomness.  I also enjoy the ability to listen to a program of rolls
without interruption.  Since I can not afford servants (as could many
of the original reproducing piano owners) the PowerRoll is my only
option.

Spencer Chase
http://nt.mcn.org/spencer/