Some 14 years ago, through the pages of the AMICA Bulletin, I expressed
concern over the continuing deterioration of our paper music rolls.
While we can repeatedly restore our player pianos into perpetuity, not
so the rolls.  They are absolutely guaranteed to self-destruct with the
simple passage of time.  When that happens, some historically
significant performances by the legendary masters of the piano may be
lost forever.

I speculated then on how nice it would if there was some way the content
of paper music rolls could somehow be scanned and captured into some
form of computer data.  At the time, I was unaware that Peter Phillips
in Australia was already doing exactly this.

Time passed and couple years ago, a small group of people banded
together to tackle this initiative, and used the magic and power of
the internet to share their ideas, progress, concerns, problems, et al,
through a Yahoo discussion group.  See
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rollscanners/

Last May I became involved with this discussion group and set out to
build for myself a roll scanner, something I was ill-prepared to do
from a lifetime background of administration and management.  Late last
year, a small group of us temporarily split off of resolve and proceed
with Richard Stibbons' MK3 roll scanner circuit board.

I am pleased to report that this initiative has been quite successful.
Some 10-12 people worldwide are now building roll scanners based on
this MK3 board and Richard's companion software.  My own scanner
recently became reasonably operational and I now feel sufficiently
comfortable about sharing my scanning results with others.

I've posted details of my scanner on my personal web site, along
with my initial batch of approximately 120 MIDI files emerging from
the conversion process.  It and they may be accessed at
http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/rebirth.htm

Results thus far are quite encouraging, and I would urge others to get
interested in building their own scanners.  If enough people build roll
scanners and make them available to existing large collections, we have
a fighting chance of preserving the content of our aging music rolls
before they die altogether.

The MK3 circuit board is not the only option currently under
development.  Gene Gerety is developing his "RollScan" circuit board,
aimed at similar results.  From the technical viewpoint, his work
and Richard's work may be seen on the web site dedicated to the
International Association of Mechanical Music Preservationists,
maintained by Warren Trachtman, at  http://www.iammp.org/

The MIDI files emerging from this process may be heard on most any
computer capable of playing MIDI music files.  That in itself is only
a small part of my initiative.  The other part of my initiative is to
equip my 1928 Fischer Ampico A grand with a set of in-line magnet
valves, so that I will be able to play my piano from a laptop computer
containing the content of thousands of music rolls.

This initiative will not ever replace paper rolls.  Many people will
continue to prefer to operate their player pianos in the manner in
which they were originally intended.  Others like myself, will
eventually operate their pianos through this MIDI interface.  Personal
choice.

The in-line magnet valves/MIDI interface does not in any way alter the
original design and construction of player pianos.  They are simply a
modest, inconspicuous addition that can at any time in the unforeseen
future be removed without damaged the piano.

Thoughts of others?

Regards,

Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
http://www.mts.net/~smythe