Marvin Polan said [020424 MMDigest, Keystone Music Rolls]:

> I do not know when he will be up and running but he seems to be
> very seriously working at it.

I understand from Rex Lawson in London, who was there over a year ago
helping to provide an electronic interface to the perforator, that the
process became seriously delayed because of the illness of the person
helping Richard with the computerization element of it.

In Great Britain we're a little more laid back about it.  Some time
back, before all this started, I remember putting an order for rolls
in and forgetting about it.  When it finally came I looked at the order
photocopy Richard puts in the box and my order had been nearly two
years earlier.

However, the Keystone delays have rather held back fresh production of
Rex's own rolls.  To speed up production of his back list Rex has now
obtained the perforator made by the late Harry Medcraft around 1970 to
take over from Gordon Iles (Artona Music Rolls) the Duo-Art recut
programme using original rolls owned by Gerald Stonehill.  After lengthy
experimentation with photoelectric cells in the reader tracker-bar,
this had ended up with a pneumatic reader using dramatically thin note
ports and a pneumo-electric pouch block, but no computer and so no
editing correction.

These will now be provided as an interim solution, with a scanning roll
reader to follow.  The punch uses selector solenoids and a motor-driven
eccentric drive bar in the same manner as the former Aeolian/Artona/
Ambassador perforator used by Mike Boyd in Rye; so harmonisation with
Rex's Apple IIe "Perforetur" compose/edit/play-digital-piano/perforate
program (a great-grand-child of the QRS Duo-Art recut program) should
be just a matter of providing and fitting the computer/solenoid-drive
interface board.

Dan Wilson, London