In the 06.09.24 MMD Roger Wiegand wrote:

> In thinking about the best way to add a MIDI interface to a keyed
> fairground organ, it seemed to me that one of the easiest, most
> transferable,   and most sympathetic means would be to make a "mini-
> Vorsetzer" that would clamp on to the keyframe in place of the
> pressure bar and play the organ by operating the keys just as the
> book does, rather than by introducing additional plumbing downstream.
> This would keep the keyframe "exercised" (which I am told is a good
> thing), and would be much simpler than other means of MIDI-fying a
> typical pressure-operated keyframe.  I wonder if anyone has made such
> a thing and how it worked?

I built a keytop player using parts from a used built-in type Pianocorder
system for playing my piano.  You could easily do the same for an organ
manual.  Used Pianocorder systems are plentiful, relatively inexpensive,
and very durable.

All you need is Mark Fontana's Winamp Plug-in for Pianocorder and you
will be able to play MIDI files from your computer on your organ.

Roger says further:

> On a related note, it seems that most MIDI systems I see use
> relatively archaic systems for data storage and transfer (like floppy
> discs or proprietary ROMs).  How hard would it be to make the organ
> (or piano) an Ethernet network device with a wireless card so that it
> could be run off a remote laptop, perhaps displaying an electronic
> piano roll version of the music, a la Cakewalk?

The Winamp plug-in features a realistic piano-roll view of the music
as it is played, and can also display lyrics, if embedded in the MIDI
file.  Mark also sells a wireless system with remote control for the
Pianocorder.

The Plug-in has controls for tempo and transposition along with many
other features.  See:

  http://www.pianocorder.info/

Depending on the layout of your organ, it may be possible to use the
existing Pianocorder Vorsetzer, thus saving you the trouble of creating
a specially designed unit.  The advantage to this would be that you
could also use it on your piano.

Tom Lear
San Francisco, CA