Hi All,  This last year I tinkered together a Pianocorder "Obensetzer".
I had been playing my own tapes made from Midi files, run through Mark
Fontana's Midi-to-Pianocorder software.  The files came from the
Internet, and I also generate them from piano rolls by playing my
Dynavoice keytop player on the electronic keyboard.  They really work
great.

A few months ago, I finally got my hands on three volumes of original
Pianocorder tapes.  I was very surprised to find that, after all the
time and energy and brainpower that had been expended on the
Pianocorder unit, the Pianocorder tape recording department had really
dropped the ball.

The vast majority of tapes were recorded with an overloaded signal.
Many tapes were so bad I could not play them without re-recording them.
In addition, the majority also suffered from incorrect and fast tempos,
so fast that they could not be corrected by use of the tape speed
control.

I am happy to report that I figured out a fix for the speed problem.
It's a relatively simple fix that involves removing the external speed
control jack, then placing a switch controlling an additional 680 ohm
resistor added to the speed control system in the tape deck.

The additional resistance, switched across the existing 750 ohm
resistor in the primary circuit of the speed control, drops the overall
resistance, resulting (I know this sounds backwards) in slowing the
speed of the tape deck by the equivalent of about a quarter turn of the
speed control knob.  This is enough to vastly improve the listenablity
of a great number of tapes, that otherwise drive you nuts from racing
through the songs.  If there's interest, I will diagram the fix and
send it in for the archives.

Another problem with many of the tapes is a bit more complicated to
repair.  I refer to it as the "dink-dink-dink" problem.  Many songs
sound as though they are being played by someone who "thinks" they are
creating a sound that they "think" sounds like a player piano.  Their
interpretation results in many notes with _very_ short attacks.

These songs are really annoying and very choppy sounding.  It's
difficult to get through one side of a tape without going nuts; not
my idea of entertainment!

The fix is:  Place the Pianocorder Obensetzer on the electronic
keyboard and record the resulting MIDI file into PowerTracks.  Then,
with a few clicks and insertions, PowerTracks will find all the short
attack notes and correct them.  It's amazing!

Many thanks to Mark Fontana for his help trouble-shooting my system.
Also a special thanks to Mike Stehney for his invaluable contributions
and assistance to the project!

Tom Lear
San Francisco, CA