I also published an article in the COAA Journal, around 2004 or '05,
about hand-punching rolls for crank organs. I use my own program,
which runs only under Linux, and an old-fashioned dot-matrix printer
that can take continuous fanfold paper. I then cut out the holes using
a hollow center punch plus an X-Acto hobby knife.
One could use any of the PC composing programs, such as the bargain
priced "Noteworthy Composer", to enter the music with the mouse and
output a MIDI file which could then be edited and printed by Midiboek
or Rollook.
I agree that if you only want to make a few rolls for yourself, hand
punching is the best way to go. It is time-consuming, however.
I later built a MIDI interface into my organ so I could play directly,
and I haven't punched a roll in quite some time.
Also, there are people who will take your MIDI file and prepare
a professional quality roll from it. They usually make three copies,
so you have two spares to sell to other grinders.
By the way, I recently expanded my composing program to make rolls
for the Symphonia (similar to Celestina?) 20-note organette, but so
far I have made only a short test roll (itself a most useful item).
Mike Knudsen
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