Regarding Spencer Chase's letter, which explains how the PowerRoll's
automatic shutoff feature responds to MIDI files, it is true that in
order for the PowerRoll to shut off the piano's pump motor, a special
signal must be sent to the relay which does this.  As Spencer says,
MIDI channel one's first and second notes turn the motor off and on,
respectively.

MIDI files don't have these signals unless they are added; I believe
that when he designed this feature at my request, Laurent Coray assumed
that all files would be run through WindPlay, which automatically
supplies them to any file played through it.

Since WindPlay can't operate on the Macintosh directly, one would have
to simulate Windows to use it on the Mac, or use another MIDI file
player program.  Such a program would not have the shutoff feature
WindPlay uses, all as Spencer relates, and one would have to be more
vigilant so as not to forget to shut the piano off after a session of
playing the PowerRoll.

Of course, though it would be less likely, even during paper roll
operation, if the mechanism is set to continuous play whereby the
shutoff of the piano is disabled, the piano could operate for a long
time, and the motor could overheat.

In 34 years of reproducing piano restoration, I have never seen a
single case of a piano motor catching fire, the concern Spencer
mentions in his letter; if these massive motors overheat, their
armatures generally "freeze" and burn out windings.  Even this is
extremely rare, as it is clear that these motors were made to take
considerable heating; I have never seen the underside of a soundboard
charred or blackened from this heat, however.  This is not to say it
could not happen, since the original cloth-covered windings are indeed
sometimes oily; but if anyone knows of such a case I would be
interested to learn of it.

We are in process of redesigning the power supply box and updating the
firmware of the processor board, and at present, the plan is to add a
time-sensitive signal monitor instead of the old system, which should
solve this problem.  With this new method, whenever a MIDI signal
reaches the processor board, it sends a signal to the relay to connect
the pump motor to power.  A one second buffer is allowed before sending
note data, to allow the motor to attain full speed.

After thirty seconds or so of idle time when no MIDI signal is being
received by the processor board, instructions are sent to the relay
to break the connection to the pump motor until the next signal is
received.

With this new arrangement, any music roll file will actuate the
automatic pump control on the PowerRoll, without the need for special
preparation.  This seems like the best and simplest approach; if anyone
has suggestions for other approaches to the problem, please let me know
about them.

These upgrades will be available at no charge to all PowerRoll owners,
when available.

Regarding availability of Ampico roll scans: about 2,000 roll scans
exist for Ampico.  About 350 from Wayne Stahnke's company, "Live
Performance", on a disk containing over 500 roll images, which sells
for about $140.00 (an excellent bargain).  The rest are by Peter
Phillips in Australia.  I have tested about 200 of Mr. Phillips' roll
scans and they seem very good upon superficial inspection.  I have no
information as yet as to when these will be released or at what price.

John McClelland recently contacted me about the advisability of his
preparing a disc of about 200 Welte scans.  I hope he decides to do
so, because there seems to be much interest in using the PowerRoll with
the Welte-Mignon.  We have built a special model PowerRoll to fit the
T-100 ("Red Roll") scale, and the standard model PowerRoll fits any
9-to-the-inch system, including the Welte Licensee and Welte "Original"
(Auto-Pneumatic).

Also please see Michael Waters' excellent site about the PowerRoll at
http://www.waterex.com.au/player/poweroll.html

Sincerely,

Larry Broadmoore, Broadmoore Research Corporation
1709 First Street, Unit "C", San Fernando, CA 91340
tel: (800)497-4266 ; (818) 365-6231 ; fax: (818) 361-0911
http://www.powerroll.com/