It is very encouraging to see a posting like the one from Randy Hammond
today in MMD.  This is actually the dominant opinion that I have run
into while doing the Violano rollscanning project.  Opinions like the
one I described in my last posting are fortunately very rare, but they
do exist.

Because the sharing and archiving opinion is dominant, I have had the
opportunity to scan approximately 700 different Violano rolls so far
(which is approximately half of the late style rolls), and many of
them appear to be only [surviving] copies.  This represents nearly
3500 different songs, which should be an adequate library for anyone.

My ultimate goal is to end up with an archival scan of as many of the
3121 roll made for the Violano as possible, although the early style
rolls appear to be very difficult to find and frequently have no
identification.  Any scans I make are available for recutting for free,
and will soon be made available to anyone with a MIDI interface on
their Violano for a modest fee per scan.  My primary goal is to save
this musical heritage from oblivion, which is why I have put
approximately 2000 hours so far into this project.

Jack Breen