Hello from Maine,

I noted the following words, in the MMD, recently, about the German
Welte-Mignon recording system:

 [ Ludwig Peetz wrote in 030927 MMDigest:

> The carbon rod was dipping in mercury, the deeper the harder (and
> faster) the key was depressed.  This resulted in a varying resistance
> and varying electrical current: the deeper the key was depressed the
> higher the current was, which acted on an electromagnet.  Forced by
> the electromagnet, a sharp-edged rubber disk printed a line on a
> running paper roll during the time when the key was depressed.  The
> harder the key was depressed, the broader the line was.

While I'm certainly no expert with piano actions, but can understand
how mercury could make the electrical contacts for the inked markers,
the fact remains that the piano key has a _fixed_ travel distance.
When played softly or with the full thrust of the pianist's fingers,
there will be no change, since the key can't go deeper, by the very
nature of its design.

Granted, variable currents could make highly generalized dark/light
smudges on the moving paper, but these wouldn't help when trying to
ascertain the Mezzo Forte hook, crescendo on/off and the other features
which were arranged into the T-100 rolls.  Marking the notes in a
questionable fashion is about the best one could expect.

I have had decades of experience with roll marking, and have even
cut into paper some of the recordings made on the Melville Clark piano,
now on display at QRS in Buffalo, New York.  These were rhythmically
"off" between a 16th and a 32nd of a note, usually a variable
irregularity in between those two limits.  That's why the old
QRS-Autograph rolls had such a ratty rhythm, something which was
shared by the bulk of the T-100 roll library, in my opinion.

It's my understanding that the spark chronograph used by Ampico in the
late 1920s (under the auspices of Stoddard and Hickman) was the first
to record dynamics as the artists played.  Even so, the cost of
transcription and the irregularities in the process soon led them to
abandon the process after only a small group of rolls were actually
produced by this method.

One must consider the naivete of the public then, and the piano
marketing methods of the past which were largely unrestricted.

Things done "behind closed doors" don't fascinate people as does
"magic", as they did, in the old days.  You see photo after photo of
the Welte-Bockisch recording sessions, with a stiff pianist at a grand
piano.  The recording device (kept closed) is next to the artist.
Then the roll appears, as if everything were 'recorded'.

Aeolian committed the same crime of misinformation and innuendo through
the Duo-Art era.  One should consult [the book], "Music Appreciation By
Means of the 'Duo-Art' and 'Pianola'", by Percy Scholes.  There are
English and American editions, with text differences, by the way.

In the back of this book, there is a long explanation of 'recording'
sustaining pedal effects on rolls, with a one-liner about the Themdoist
(solo) melody being "similarly recorded".  I have test Masters from
1927, which show that the accent holes were crude pen knife cuttings
(by hand), often a trapezoid shape, in appearance - hardly 'recorded',
during the original performance!

Both Ampico and Duo-Art used an expression which said that the "artist
'played into' the Ampico" (or Duo-Art), as if that were a singular task
-- equating the Pianola to the gramophone, of course, which meant more
sales potential for the instruments.

Again, I don't wish to negate the research on the T-100 subject, but
see a lot of "fuzzy" things in the scientific-sounding subject,
starting with the inking of the Master rolls, for dynamics.

For one thing, a repeating note might not be re-inked, so fully, and
then give a fading line, which could skip accents, as in a Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsody.  Notes, rarely used, during a performance, might be
darker-than-normal, having sat on the ink roller for a long period of
time.

I'll credit Welte and Bockisch for 'marking' what notes the pianist
played (even though I'm certain that irregularities abounded),
something Aeolian did earlier, along with other player action
developers.  As for 'recording dynamics', I'm not convinced.

My favourite Welte rolls are the 'brown box' series, made by Howard
Lutter, under his name and others, during the last seven years of
the Autopiano/Kohler ownership of the American company.  These were
mathematical in nature, but his thematic material and expression scores
just soared in most cases, even with that tacky line on the boxes
and leaders: "The Master's Fingers on Your Piano."

Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, Maine 04578 USA
http://wiscasset.nnei.net/artcraft/