Hi MMD friends,  I scan daily the MMD subjects and enjoy reading the
parts that are of interest to me.  The reason that I write to you is
that I would like to hear some ideas and viewpoints that you might have
regarding old mechanical musical instruments versus new ones.

I'm very interested to know more about how well a mechanical instrument
actually plays.  I would like to appeal to the ears above all other
senses that make up the whole picture.  I know that the way an
instrument plays is not the full picture, but for what I want to know,
lets pretend that we are all blind (with all respect) and that all we
have to judge the instrument by is our hearing senses.  I would like to
ask the "automated piano people" out there the following question:

  If you compare the better old style player piano systems to new
  systems -- like PianoDisc, QRS or the Yamaha Disklavier -- and this
  in turn to the real thing (an 'A-1' performing artist), how would they
  rate on a scale of 1 to 10?  Is a MIDI disk playing system actually
  better sounding, or not?  Does one have more advantages, or
  disadvantages?

I would be very happy to learn more about this.

Some more thoughts:

We have spent a lot of time in the last decade to improve the way our
organs (with all the subordinate parts) can respond to feeling.  This
means velocity control on the drum and percussion instruments, air
pressure control for the accordions, and air pressure on pipes to
produce vibrato and blowing FX, and very fast shutter systems to
accomplish the best possible volume control.

Let me assure you that it is a lot harder to build an accordion that
plays with volume control, instead of constant volume.  I'm not only
talking about the pressure system; what about the air supply?  If you
are going to build an accordion that can play the sweetest soft melody
in the piccolo register, you better have a ventilator that makes _no_
noise at all.  And that little clicking when you activate a key becomes
a tap dance when you turn the volume down!

My question here is this:  If anyone could build the ultimate sounding
instrument (overcoming most of it's problems), would someone really
like to have it for its playing capabilities?  Let's be honest, even the
ultimate sounding player piano will always have to be tuned and fixed,
it will stand in the way, and it will not carry that cathedral reverb
that is added on that latest Rachmaninov CD, and so on.

So could it be all a sad waste of time, or is there a genuine interest
to have a real playing instrument (with all its unavoidable problems)
in your home?

And let's not forget the subject of today: Is that new accordion really
better than the old one?  Or isn't that even the point -- Could it be
that the only reason that organs and player pianos and the like exist
is because there was nothing better at that time?  And now that audio
can be served in any quality, quantity, size and price, is automated
music a dinosaur, destined to cease to exist except for skeleton hunters?

These are just questions going through our mind sometimes, and we
thought that it would be nice to share them with you and to get some
feedback on this.  Hopefully you can respond in some way -- any way.

Best wishes for 2002, and let the music play!

Tony Decap
Tony & Frank Decap, DECAP Herentals, Belgium (Euro-Land!)
http://www.decap-herentals.be/

 [ Frank & Tony continue the Decap tradition of merging old and
 [ new technology in dazzling hybrid dance hall organs.  Be sure
 [ to read about the Decap history (and the family tree) and enjoy
 [ the old photos at http://www.decap-herentals.be/history.htm
 [ -- Robbie