Hello MMD readers!  Ed Chaban asked, "Who's making rolls, today?"

We are.  Artcraft began in 1982, my third attempt at running a business
of this kind, with earlier efforts in the late 1950s and the 1960s,
during which the focus was on our museum, The Musical Wonder House.
Rolls were made, by and large, for limited release at that time and
especially for the pianola concerts and guided tours under my auspices.

Orders today are coming in faster than I can fill them, as my patient
customers already know.  Half are for export, where there's still a
good appreciation of the piano and its music.  We have new releases
here, soon to be announced.  Several master rolls are in progress on
my multiple Leabarjan perforators at this point.

As you know, we make original rolls or re-master the old ones for 
a keyboard attack (striking effect) and pedal shadings which are up to
modern performance standards.  Artcraft is selling rolls, not pianos
as the old manufacturers were, so the emphasis differs.

Frankly, I don't mourn the "dying out" recuts of Armbruster, Milne,
Delcamp, Cook and the usual releases made by their formulae.
Disappointment at what was produced in the past is what got me started
with roll arranging in 1952, and publishing came along soon afterwards.
Granted, it's a depressing situation if one wants a piano for
"singalongs" (dead, now, in the 88-Note field) and "dinner music"
(the realm of many 'reproducing' piano libraries) or "dancing in the
parlour" (dead, also -- the last I can recall for this activity was
with a player in Oahu in 1948!).

If one has a player for a "soloist" -- a performer that commands
attention -- our roll releases more than fill that requirement, and
this in turn accounts for the ever increasing sales of Artcraft rolls.
We have a 10-year inventory in Maine and so have great faith in the
future of quality music rolls!  (The day of the droning formula-made
factory rolls is over, and recuts of them, also.)  Interpretive
Arrangements (our term for arranging with elements that suggest
keyboard performance) are "alive and well".

To answer Ed's question: We are here and we are not "dying out".

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