It has been a while since I have updated MMDers about the progress of
my Violano roll scanning project.  Last week, after three years of
effort, I passed the milestone of scanning 1000 unique, identified
rolls, with an additional 150 or so that have been scanned but not
identified.

This means that I am roughly at the one-third point for gathering all
of the 3121 rolls produced by the Mills Novelty Company for the Vio-
lano.  While it is unrealistic to believe that all of the rolls will
ever be scanned and archived, I am doing what I can to gather as many
as possible.  In 2006 I conducted a workshop at the AMICA convention in
Chicago about the project and the process of scanning rolls.  In 2007 I
conducted a similar workshop at the MBSI convention in Minneapolis.

For those who were not able to attend either presentation, the slides
from 2006 are available on my website (http://www.violanomusic.com),
along with pictures of the scanner I use.  In addition, when released,
members of the MBSI will be able to borrow a DVD of my 2007 workshop
presentation.

As might be expected, it is becoming more difficult to find rolls that
have not been scanned yet for the project.  Based on my analysis of the
dozens of collections that I have had access to for, I have come to the
conclusion that there are fewer copies of each roll in circulation than
had been previously thought.  If any two collections are compared, there
are only a handful of duplicates, even when collections of several
hundred rolls are involved.  This just adds to the urgency of finding 
and archiving rolls before they are lost to the ravages of time.  It is
far easier to scan a roll before it is shredded by a feeder than after!

One of the aspects of a project such as this that gives me personal
satisfaction is to reach some of the intermediate goals that I set for
myself.  I am getting very close to two of those goals and am here
requesting your help to reach them.  There were nineteen late-style
all-waltz rolls produced by Mills Novelty Company.  To date, I have
located and scanned eighteen of them.  If anyone has a copy of roll
2736, I would like to borrow it to complete this roll subset.  In
addition, there was a recut compilation roll of just waltzes, which
included the waltz from roll 2839, which I would like to find at some
point.

The second goal needs a little more explanation.  Early in the roll-
scanning effort, I came across a number of rolls which had partial
songs on them.  As the project has progressed, I have been able to find
replacements for many of these incomplete tunes.  Combining two or more
incomplete rolls results in a complete roll that can then be used to
produce recuts, if so desired.  Two rolls that have eluded capture are
2144 and 2166, each of which had one partial tune on the copy I did
find.  I would like to borrow copies of these, if they have the tunes I
am missing, since those tunes are ones that I very much want to hear.

For those who are not aware of it, in return for the loan of a roll to
the project, I review every square inch of it and make repairs as
needed.  If a roll is unidentified and I am able to determine its
identity, I attach a roll label with all the known information about
the roll.  Finally, if the owner has a Violano with a MIDI interface, 
I provide copies of the scan that can be played on their machines.

About a year ago, I began a collaboration with the Mills Novelty
Company to merge the scans I had been doing with their scan library.
As part of this agreement, Mills is marketing the scan files to owners
of their MIDI interface system.  The current library has more than 5000
tunes available, making it possible to select the music you want to
hear and to play it in the order you want to hear it, without having to
load rolls and suffer through four songs you don't want to hear while
waiting for the one you do.  The list of available MIDI tunes can be
found by using a link on my website.

On a related subject, the Violano rollography is filling in nicely.
However, I still have not found any list of the tunes on roll 3108 that
started the whole effort nearly ten years ago!  If anyone out there has
a copy of this roll, I would like a photocopy of the label for the
rollography.

Jack Breen
Southborough, MA