To try to answer the query of which is better musically, pneumatics
or solenoids.  I have restored pneumatic players and reproducers
for over thirty years.  I have installed Pianocorder since their
first installation class.  Since 1978 I have installed Pianocorder,
PianoDisc, Pianomation.  Several hundred pianos are included in those.
I am also a classically trained pianist and organist.

After installing all those electronic player systems, I have not found
one single piano that could play as musically as my Weber Duo-Art
grand.  I have installed the solenoid player systems in $50,000
Bechstein grands, new Steinways and new Baldwins.  I have gotten as
much out of the solenoid systems as can be gotten, and I can tell you
their deficiencies:

1.  The loudest playing is only possible from the pneumatic systems.
It is my belief that Duo-Art is capable of playing louder than any of
the solenoid systems.  With the crash valve running the stack from full
pump pressure, it can play louder than Ampico or Welte, either one.

2.  The softest playing is only possible from the pneumatic systems.
I was able to get Pianocorder to play almost as soft as the pneumatic
reproducers.  The technique I used to install Pianocorder into a grand
made the AMICANs gasp when they heard their favorite Ampico roll on
cassette.  When playing softly there was a problem that the solenoids
loudly buzzed, like bees in a bottle.  The other systems just could not
handle soft playing very well -- they just dropped out notes.  Of
course, only pianos that had been regulated correctly can play that
soft anyway.

The only exception to this is the Boesendorfer SE which was totally
unencumbered by deficiencies or customers, as it was way out of price
range for any but the most wealthy.

The modern solenoid player system available today that is closest to
pneumatic system performance is Pianomation, but I can still tell a
little difference compared to my Duo-Art.

The modern systems do a good job of playing the notes and they cover
the middle ranges of expression levels very well.  If you are an
accomplished pianist (say, the top ten percent) you will be disappointed
in the modern solenoid players.  If you are an accomplished listener of
pneumatic reproducing player systems, you will also be disappointed in
the modern solenoid players, but that leaves most of the world
perfectly happy to listen to a solenoid player and not know any
difference.

If I was going to build a modern reproducing piano system, I might
consider a pneumatic stack being controlled by tiny solenoids with a
good rotary pump system with expression also being controlled by MIDI
and solenoids.  This would get rid of most of the pneumatic boxes now
under a reproducing piano, and still be able to make the piano get up
and walk around like a Duo-Art, which with its crash valve it is
capable of doing.

I would make the expression system a modern copy of that from the
Ampico B, which could change faster than any of the other systems.  It
also has the smallest number of moving parts.  With so few boxes under
the piano and no need for a drawer, the stack could have more than just
the treble/bass sections.  Perhaps the stack could be divided into four
or more sections for greater versatility in expression.

This is probably not something for mass production, because you still
have that pump noise as every Ampico and Duo Art has, but it would be
worth building a few of them.

D.L. Bullock   St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com