I would like to echo the other people posting about the Chicago AMICA
Convention.  It really was a good time and a fantastic experience.
I met a lot of very warm and friendly people who were as enthusiastic
about their instruments as I am as well as experts who were more than
willing to share their expertise and experiences.  You do not have to
have museum quality, one-of-a-kind instruments to fit into this group.
I met people who had just plain basic 88 note players as well as those
who had the rare and exotic museum quality instruments.  If you have
never attended one of these, I would encourage anyone who has a love
of these instruments to do so.  The Chicago Chapter did a fantastic job
putting together this program.

We have been discussing roll scanning/archival and there were several
workshops that were extremely interesting.  With the current market
being in a slump, we are all worried about the future of our
instruments.  I am one who is barely technologically literate but I saw
a couple of workshops that really have great potential in terms of what
the future could be for our instruments.

It is unbelievable what can be done with a Chase e-Roll system and
the proper software which can be installed on any of these instruments
without harming or damaging the existing instrument.  It appears to
be far more than just a playback system.  Someone who has musical
ability as well as technical smarts, can actually modify or create
new arrangements for instruments.  The scans can be converted to
conventional rolls etc.  This means that the potential is there for
lots of new music, things that QRS would never cut.  Regional artists,
unique arrangements, and styles etc. could all be made by someone who
knew what they were doing. Old rolls could have expression coding
added.

As an Ampico and Duo Art owner, this means that there is potential for
a new library of music for my instruments.  These systems are going
to change the roll business as it has been done for the past 100 plus
years but it has the potential to bring lots of good things to those
of us who really treasure and enjoy our instruments.  I firmly believe
that anything that we can do to save these instruments needs to be
done.

People are always amazed at just how well these instruments can play
when they are properly restored.  I think that one of the big problems
has been the lack of a music library after 1941 (and before for Welte).
I really like the current library but to new owners or a younger
generation, they may not have those same tastes.

To all of the pioneers working on this, keep up the good work!  You may
end up saving a lot of pianos in the long run.  Again, I do not even
begin to pretend to understand all of the technology stuff but I do
understand the potential for what it can do.

Randy Hammond