There is a simple way to read rolls real time. And I have had it
for years: a pipe organ relay with MIDI output.

Some time ago I connected part of a Wurlitzer Style 'R' residence
organ player to the 75-note APP/W165 tracker bar in the Ray Sioux
orchestration. I also created an AMI magnet board which replaced
one of the roll frames.

The Wurlitzer 'R' relay scans much faster than ordinary MIDI. Since
the roll is connected to the input (looking like a virtual console),
playing the roll is as simple as activating the spool frame motor.
The organ's relay does the note mapping to MIDI.

Pressing "Record" will capture the switch settings. The results are
not archival quality but they do play back sounding much the same as
when the roll was operated.

Julie Porter
Martinez, California