Matthew Caulfield wrote in 020305 MMDigest:

> I am curious about how much conversion (and from what scales) has
> been done of band organ music from roll or book format to MIDI
> format or other disk file format, and also about who is able to
> do this conversion.  Do any MMD readers know the details?

I am sure quite a couple of people have by now music book and/or roll
scanners.  I think that Le Turlutain in Toulouse uses a light sensor
device for this purpose, while J. Verbeeck in Belgium uses standard
keys as sensors.  Both firms only do this for their own re-arranging
purposes.

Interesting to know that J. Verbeeck's device records to a MIDI file,
but not to the correct notes.  It just uses the [MIDI] note channels
beginning at bass 1,2,3, etc. for the key channels of the book scanned.
The resulting MIDI-file is completely unusable at first! :-)

It is only with tricky re-filtering of the lines to the actual notes
they are supposed to represent that these MIDI file are melodically
editable.  In most cases this is not even done.  The piano roll display
is used not for listening but to visually correct the book material,
e.g., shortening too long notes, splitting notes that got joined into
one long note, etc.

Using irregular filters, the lines can be directly converted into
different scales, still unusable as actual MIDI, but perfect as output
for the punching machine!

I wonder about a pneumatic scanner for, e.g., 20er rolls, etc.  Instead
of valves these would have to trigger the contact switches for the
electric MIDI capturing.

greetings by(e) InK - Ingmar Krause

P.S.: Robbie placed pictures of the Rolmonica up on Foxtail.

 [ See http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/inKrolmonica.html
 [
 [ In the article "Pneumatic Switch Assembly for Reading Music Rolls"
 [ Richard Vance describes a pouch switch similar to that used in
 [ the roll readers of later Aeolian Duo-Art pipe organ players.
 [ Visit http://mmd.foxtail.comTech/vanceSwitch1.html  -- Robbie