Luke Myers asks whether this has been done before [160514 MMDigest].
Well, sort of! Last year members of the Musical Box Society of Great
Britain visited Stowe Maries Great War aerodrome in Essex, UK, where
they use a "push-up" piano player to play an electronic keyboard.
Also, some years ago, a member of MBSGB demonstrated his rare 36-note
disc operated piano player with an electronic keyboard.
Using a push-up piano player is the most straightforward solution
to Luke's problem, although you do need an 88-note keyboard (65-note
minimum) for it to work first time on an unmodified push-up. Push-ups
seem to be quite cheap or even free these days so this should be an
inexpensive option and easier to cope with than a full player piano.
Using an orphaned player action presents a number of problems. First
you need a framework to support the action, spool box, roll motor,
tracking mechanism, and the pumping mechanism. Then you have to figure
out and build a means of reversing the output from the note pneumatics
which usually push or pull upwards, since you need a downwards action
to operate the keyboard. Not a simple task, I suspect, but good luck
to Luke if he decides to take on such a project.
Best wishes for the UK,
John Farmer - MBSGB
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