Yesterday, Mr. Peterford asked if style "A" nickelodeon rolls can
be played on the 58-note Aeolian Orchestrelle.  The answer is,
"Yes, but..."

First of all, the piano arrangements on A rolls often sound terrible
on an organ, although there are some exceptions.  The broken chords,
staccato ornamentation, and "dig for the oyster" bass line, typical
on many piano arrangements, sound thin and choppy on an organ, compared
with the more legato arrangements made specifically for that instrument.
Without a sustaining pedal to hold or merge notes, one hears a surprising
amount of "dead air" when a piano roll is played on the organ.

More important, some A roll recuts just won't work on many models of
the Orchestrelle.  58-note rolls have very large perforations, 0.110"
diameter.  Earlier models of Orchestrelles with single valves, use very
large pouches and big bleeds, and need these big perforations to play
at all.  Later models, with small primary valves, may work with smaller
perforations, and Solo Orchestrelles, capable of playing the tiny holes
in the 116-note rolls, will work with any size perforations, in the
58-note mode.  Certain A-roll recuts (for example the "Clark" A rolls
I tried) are punched 6 per inch, but use much smaller, player piano
size (approx. 0.0625") punches.

So one may have to be careful to use only "big hole" A roll originals
or recuts, especially if the organ is the more common early single
valve type.

A-rolls can be trimmed from 11.25" to 10.125" width to fit on 58-note
"Aeolian Grand" spools.  However, the 58 tracks of music, within the 65
total tracks on A rolls are not centered on the paper; there are three
additional control tracks on the left, and four additional control
holes on the right.  The 58 tracks on an organ roll are centered on the
10-1/8" paper.

Therefore, one must trim 0.479" from the left edge of an A roll, and
0.646" from the right edge.  This assumes that the punchings on the A
roll are properly centered, which is not always the case on some A
recuts.

More precisely, the left trim should be started 0.188" to the right of
the center of the "soft pedal" perforation (number 1) on the A roll.
The right trim should be started 0.354 to the left of the center of the
"shutoff" perforation (number 65) on the A roll.

Since most 58-note organs do not have any automatic tracking device,
the right trim has to be accurately done, to keep the perforations
centered over the tracker ports.  (The 58th track is centered 0.3125"
from the right edge of the paper, and the accurately made wooden flange
holds the right edge of the paper 9/16" from the fixed face of the
drive chuck.)

Richard Vance