John Malone had assembled a simple but serviceable recording piano
at Play-Rite which was successfully used in the mid to late 1970s to
record several visiting performers, including stride pianists Ralph
Sutton and Johnny Guarnieri.

Key switch signals were sampled 100 times per second and recorded as a
synchronous serial data steam on reel-to-reel tape recorder.  The tape
then controlled the perforator, and it could also be played back via
a modified IMI Cassette Converter to operate the Universal pneumatic
player action in the piano.  I believe a Danish fellow named Moevens
Ravens did the installation.

I visited Play-Rite in August 1981 to use the recording piano.  John
introduced me to Walter and then led me to a tiny room.  He pulled off
the piano dust cover and checked the condition of the companion tape
recorder; everything seemed okay.  John remarked, "It hasn't been used
in almost one year."  Why not, I asked?

John explained that he soon agreed with Walter that making pop piano
rolls with the recording piano took much more time and effort than
simply starting from scratch and doing the job at the 'drafting board',
with a blank paper roll and a knife and mending tape.

Walter added that, except for the 1979-1980 sessions when he recorded
his hand-played songs, the only subsequent times he used the recording
piano was to record a difficult passage to segue from one tempo to
another, as in a medley of songs.

So Mr. Morrey indeed owns a genuine hand-played piano roll performed
by Play-Rite's own staff pianist and arranger, Walter Erickson.  The
difference, compared to other "hand-played" rolls, is that Walter chose
to not square up the chords completely when he did the final editing,
and so some human element is preserved.

Another reason for the ragged chords is that, unlike most piano firms
of the 1920s, the Play-Rite roll duplicating process is asynchronous
and so it always introduces random jitter of at least one perforator
step (0.016" for Play-Rite 9/inch rolls).

Robbie Rhodes