Doug Mauldin wrote in 011126 MMDigest:

> A book arranged with frequent and well-placed "trem off" and
> "trem on" commands and played with tempo at or near an integral
> sub-multiple of the trem rate, say one-quarter (105 beats per minute)
> or one-sixth (70 beats per minute) gives a pretty good illusion of
> metered tremolo.  This effect can be heard often in the "Dutch Band
> Organ" recordings.

The only other alternative for arranging in these organs is a
reiterated staccato, although I once experienced a situation where
I had to "fix" a broken out staccato line by putting it into
Tremulant mode.  ;-)  Worked fine for me <hehe>.

> A problem with these book-playing organs is that occasionally the
> book will hang in the keyframe causing an unplanned fermata.

Uh, this is not necessarily the case.  There are a couple reasons,
though, and you have to react to each differently:

> I have seen operators respond to such a condition by grabbing the
> book at the discharge side and tugging.  It seems to me that it
> might be easier on the book if one were to clear the jam by briefly
> unlatching the overarm (or whatever the hinged top part of the
> keyframe mechanism is called.) This procedure is effective, as I have
> confirmed by experiment. ;-)  Comments, anyone?

Yes, from me.  :-)  So:

The number one problem is -- how odd this may sound! -- _new_ cardboard
music books.  Because the plates stick together due to the shellac
coating, these have the habit of coming as "doubles" onto the playing
table.  For this case I agree with your method of opening the tracker
bar latch.

Then there is the case of wrong climate.  Here the case will usually
be that the rubber rollers, which are supposed to transport the book
through the table, are so un-adhesive that even a small resistance can
stop the book.  In this case you need not open the latch -- a little
pull (or, what I usually do and at this point advise: push!) will do.

This doesn't really solve the problem, which would be to either
re-adjust the pressure on the rubber rollers (something that is always
better to avoid) or to make them more adhesive, e.g., by using a hot
air blower (an ordinary hairdryer will do) to heat the rubber rollers
and thereby make them more sticky again.

The worst scenario would be that one of the keys is in such a bad
condition that, once it was released by a hole in the book, it would
not move back "down under" (no, not Australia!).  In this case pulling
or pushing is completely wrong: you will break your books.  My advice
would be still to _not_ just open the latch and re-close it as if
nothing happened, but to _repair_ that key!

There would be only one more case left: a music book already broken by
longtime use, or by wrong handling of a hanging key; this book has to
be rebuilt or repaired, so far as possible.  You can keep playing it,
of course, in whatever way you want (pushing, pulling or
latch-opening), but the book will not get any better by doing that
either.

> I am still looking for the physical dimensions of the 72-key
> Carl Frei tracker scale.  Can anyone help?

Uh, I might be able to "up"-calculate it from our scale, but I don't
have the actual dimensions at hand right now either; it's something like
4.5 to 5 mm (?) between the center of each hole.  I'm not sure about the
side border distances; that may vary from instrument to instrument.

> One other observation:  I'll bet a lot of English speakers like
> me have been mispronouncing Carl Frei's last name like "fry."
> The announcer at Dutch Village, a native speaker of Dutch, says
> it like "free," that is, with a long "e" and the "i" silent.

Maybe he got it wrong? :-)  As Carl Frei -- if I'm not absolutely
mistaken -- originally came from the Black Forest (Waldkirch),
I would pronounce it like a German name, which would equal up with
your "fryed fries"...

greetings by(e) InK - Ingmar Krause
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany