[ Randy Hammond wrote in 070308 MMDigest

> It really is a shame to have a nice Duo-Art and then being relegated
> to playing 88-note rolls.

Oh boy, Randy, did you ever strike a nerve...  I just placed an order
for a single roll with Julian Dyer in the UK.  I probably should have
bought more, given what the shipping costs are, but the power of the
UK pound already made it expensive enough.  Julian was kind enough to
hear my plea to recut the Cortot version of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody
No. 2 for Duo-Art which was only released in the UK.

I don't think Keystone has cut a roll in 10 years.  David Saul has
said Duo-Art titles are in Precision's future, but so far no sign.
Play-Rite cut a few Duo-Art titles for me back in the 1994-95 time
frame and have done a number of jobs for Doug Henderson at Artcraft.
Rob DeLand at BluesTone sometimes contracts with the Tonnesens who are
reluctant to take on more business.  So far as I know, Rob is the only
person with new Duo-Art recuts available anywhere in the states.

No, the sad fact is that the supply of new perforated paper has pretty
much dried up in this country.  I attribute it to what John Malone and
Ray Siou told me back in the early 1990s: the products simply don't
move.  The economics and mechanics of the perforators are such that
making a single copy of a roll is cost prohibitive and having [unsold]
rolls sit on the shelf is insane.

The only solution that exists today is to invest in expensive solenoid
valve interface and buy data from the scanners.  Of course that leaves
something to be desired as far as authenticity is concerned.  At that
point you might has well own a Disklavier, QRS Pianomation or PianoDisc.

I was hoping someone would build a fast, possibly laser operated,
perforator and cut single rolls to order from the vast library of
titles that have been scanned over the years.  So far it hasn't
happened.  I'm still holding my breath.  It's gonna kill me ;-)

Ed Chaban