Hello MMD members!  Nicholas Simons wrote, "One should never convert
any mechanical musical instrument from one system to another."

There are indeed "unashamed" purists among our dear members who
are even upset when a screw in our instruments is added that was
not there originally.

When I got the pieces of the Frati Hymnia Orchestrion, some twenty
years ago, they were to be thrown away because the people who owned
it discovered that woodworms were eating all the wooden parts and
they wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Now, after a tremendous amount of work (with pleasure), and with
the generous help of Richard Vance, Professor Johan Liljencrants,
John Nolte and others, this instrument is playing better and better
and its musical performance is preserved for generations to come.
What's more, in some respects it's playing better now than it did
when it came new from the Frati Company of Berlin.  Let me explain:

The big bellows pneumatic for controlling the sustain pedal was far too
slow in coming up and releasing to follow the musical interpretations
punched in the roll.  This big pneumatic is actuated by two primary
and secondary valves in parallel: two deliver more power and speed.

Yet it was very slow.  After inspecting the unit in more detail
I discovered that the outlets of the two secondarys were merged together
into one rather small hose leading to the sustain pneumatic.  This was
literally the bottleneck.  (You cannot rapidly fill and empty a bucket
of water via a small hose.)

 [ That's why we drink cold beer from a large mug (or a small pail)
 [ and not from the bottleneck!  ;->  -- Robbie

I removed this part and drilled two bigger holes in the bottom side of
the sustain pneumatic in order to connect each secondary valve outlet
to the bellows separately.

I was so pleased with the improvement that as a bonus I added a spare
valve sitting beside the two mentioned before.  So the pneumatic is
now connected via three hoses to three more-or-less independent valves.
The final result is that the sustain pedal is working as if Robbie
himself is pedaling the sustain.  It can now follow the rapid changes
punched in the roll.

Let me give you another example:

The piano of the Frati had been thrown away so I bought a secondhand
piano from a local piano dealer.  By the way, he told me, with a smile,
that his father butchered orchestrions in order to sell the pianos.
The rest was thrown away!

Having seen and heard other pianos installed in orchestrions, I am
pretty sure that the piano that I adapted for the Frati is a better
piano than the original.

In order to get the Frati play as soon as possible, I decided to insert
fiber optics in the tracker bar and I built a simple electronic circuit
to activate relays with light shining on the holes of the trackerbar.
These relays lift the primary valves that were previously activated by
the pouches underneath these valves.

When cleaning the holes of the trackerbar I found several holes
completely stuck and it was difficult to remove this cement-like stuff
without damaging the holes.

With the parts of the Frati came also a big V-shaped bellows with
handles, the type you use to stir up your fireplace.  I keep this as
a silent witness of the struggle against dust!

For a description in more detail and pictures see:

  http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Authors/Aut1854.html

Later on I implemented MIDI control to this unit, so now playing a roll
is done as it was before but reading the holes is done by light shining
on the paper roll.  People who are listening are still attracted by the
light shining on the holes of the paper roll passing by.  Meanwhile,
when this roll is playing, I can record the data of these punched holes
into MIDI format data.  After this is done the saved MIDI file can be
played back and sent back to the Frati.  The Frati understands this
data and plays the same music as it was played with the music roll.

Indeed it's not as attractive as seeing punched holes scrolling over
the trackerbar, so I do this merely to archive the rolls and to play
the MIDI files via the soundcard of the P.C.  Rolls that I can borrow
can also be archived and given back to the owner.

There is another application that is possible now.  My eldest son is
a gifted classically-educated musician.  He studied the violin and the
organ (not the Hammond B3 ;-) in the conservatoire in Utrecht.  He now
is a violin teacher and plays Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.  He always
was bit of skeptical toward his dad's aspiration of restoring the
Frati.

In 1998, during our annual Christmas family meeting, my son played
children's songs on my Yamaha keyboard, making nice chord alterations
and modulations while the three grandkids sang along.  I secretly
pushed the record button and saved his performance in MIDI format.

Last Easter we were together again and after a while I sent this
MIDI file to the Frati.  My son jumped up and with a smile he shouted,
"Mom!  Listen!  That's _me_ playing!"

So I am pleased that the Frati can play rolls more reliably than it did
before and that it understands the language of MIDI as well.  I could
have done much more to the Frati in terms of musical performance with
MIDI but I am afraid I am getting boring.

Finally, I want to thank Richard Vance, Professor Johan Liljencrants
and John Nolte with their help during the MMDigest subject thread of
"wind supply and pressure regulation" (April 2000).  Making the wind
machine, and regulation for pressure and suction as well, was the most
difficult part.  Thanks also to Robbie and Jody for editing and keeping
MMD alive.

Kind greetings from the Netherlands,

Willy van der Reijden

P.S. See the Frati-Hymnia cramped between the walls of my hobby room.
The wind machinery stands outside in an old cabinet.

 [ Thanks for the nice story, Willy.  I will place the photo of
 [ your hobby room with the article, "MIDI Control for Frati-Hymnia
 [ Orchestrion", at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/mvdReijden.html
 [ -- Robbie