I wish to comment on Ingmar Krause's posting [171102 MMD]. I can
relate to what he said. I'm familiar with both band organs and player
pianos. I know first hand how tunes with too many notes in the
arrangement can cause the organ to go "wow wow wow", instead of the
organ playing all the notes cleanly.
I have seen this happen on some of our rolls played on the Wurlitzer
146B at the Burnaby Village Carousel. An example of this would be when
I put on classical rolls that have many notes playing at the same time.
When I turn off the trumpet pipes, the notes then play cleanly.
Similarly, when I play an ordinary 88-note roll on my Recordo player
piano using the electric motor, the vacuum [flow] cannot handle playing
arrangements with many notes. But as soon as I switch to using the
foot pedals, I am able to pump hard enough for all the notes to play.
I agree with Ingmar that arrangers must be aware of this problem and
know the capabilities of the instrument whether it be band organs or
player pianos.
George Karpel
|