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Hello,  I am a musician/artist who has been working with automated
instruments over the last few years.  I'm working on an art
installation with the hopes of using a player piano as part of the
piece.  The only problem is that I would like to use a player piano
that plays a continuous stream of music.  I spoke with somebody who
mentioned that there was a Link piano that allowed for this to happen.

Even though I will be receiving grant funding to complete this project,
I'm not sure I will be able to afford to buy a continuously playing
piano as I assume these are rare and therefore expensive.  Instead,
I'm hoping I can modify a normal vacuum pump player piano so that it
continuously plays a short loop of paper.  (Unfortunately an auto-rewind
piano won't work for me here.)

If any one has any suggestions or thoughts on how best to achieve this
I would greatly appreciate it.  The main issue is that the paper won't
move unless it is attached to the bottom take-up reel.  And, because
I'm trying to make a loop, it can't be attached to that take up reel.

What I've tried so far is to use a third roller pressed against the
bottom take-up reel to add pressure to the paper and drive the loop so
that it flows continuously, essentially like a tape loop.

Another way I was thinking of doing this was to somehow perforate the
paper on the edges like a film strip and add something to the take-up
reel so that it can pull the paper through that way.

I realize these are clumsy explanations, and I apologize for that, but
hopefully you get the idea.  Perhaps someone with an existing Link
player can tell me how it is set up?

Thanks in advance for taking the time on this, any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Ethan Rose
lifeofbirds@hotmail.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]