Regarding Randy Hammond's note about the availability of Duo-Art rolls,
I think it was evident that Keystone had little real interest in the
Duo-Art. I bought heavily from them for a while and watched as quality
seemed to get worse and worse, not just missing or in some case slurred
(two feet long) sustaining pedal holes, but mis-labeled rolls as well.
Having a large library I was able to compare my new replacements to
what I received: wrong titles, wrong roll numbers, wrong Opus numbers,
sloppy perforating. You never really know if the label has anything
to do with what's in the box, unless its a Milne medley. I think it's
good they've stopped punching Duo-Art rolls; the wide-spread consensus
seemed to be that their disinterest in the Duo-Art was what killed the
market for their sloppy Duo-Art rolls. I would certainly agree.
The Powells [Klavier] and Frank Adams [A.M.R.] developed recutting
quite admirably from what Larry Givens gave us when he began. But
I wouldn't knock what Larry did -- he was truly our white knight.
I think we all were happy to have anything back then: I still have
a bunch of what we used to call "Given's cut-rite" when he was punching
on that lovely orangish Glassine stuff. "They crinkle when they play."
I too am shocked that nobody is cutting real Duo-Art rolls, except
perhaps Julian Dyer. But his output, though impeccable, is still quite
limited. David Saul has been talking about his new Duo-Art perforator
for years now, and I'm certain if he produces Duo-Art rolls they will
be of the highest quality.
I punch a lot on my Lebarjan and can see how often the coders at
Aeolian moved notes just slightly enough to grab a note out of the
middle of a chord using the snake-bites. Size really does matter
a lot. I have heard the difference between rolls with tiny snakebites
vs. rolls using regular size punch holes. It is real. It is a fact.
Given the prices Duo-Art rolls are getting on eBay, one would think
that the operators of the perforator that's putting out new copies here
in the States would be kind enough to Duo-Art owners to out-rig proper
theme holes, so that they could make Duo-Art rolls we could all be
proud to own. The technology is there, so is the market. The only
real question is why.
Bruce Grimes
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