Disklavier

On 10 Nov 2003 at 13:06, John Gewartowski wrote:

> Just so I understand - a piano roll surely can capture note
> and length of time played, but it can't capture volume level
> played, correct?  Is each note on a roll the same volume?  

In the early part of the century, some very clever people within 
the short lived player piano industry developed a method of 
recording the legenday masters of the piano, for production 
music rolls capturing faithfully the spirit, intent and dynamics 
of the original artists.    These music roll recordings were 
aimed at "reproducing pianos".     

With these reproducing pianos in restored condition, it is 
possible to invite the likes of Paderewski, Rachmaninoff, et al, 
into the warmth and comfort of my living room to come back to 
life for a very personal, very emotional concert.     

At the time, their music roll recordings in that era were just 
yet another contractual business relationship.    Little did 
they know they were preserving their piano stylings into 
perpetuity.    

There is nothing quite like listening to their performances on a 
real piano.    The finest electronic simulation pales in 
comparison to a real reproducing piano.    Must be something to 
"feeling the vibes".

Conventional pumper player pianos typically operated with 88-
note rolls, which do capture note and duration, but not 
dynamics.     This latest batch 7 of my roll scans were all of 
this type - note, duration, but no dynamics.

My earlier batches did contains scans of reproducing piano rolls 
made at the turn of the century by Aeolian (Duo-Art) and the 
American Piano Company (Ampico).    Here in North America, these 
were the major competitors, followed by Welte, Artrio-Angelus, 
etc.    Europe had these and many more competitors in this niche 
market.

Conventional pumper player pianos dominated the short-lived 
player piano market, easily 95%.    Reproducing pianos were few, 
quite expensive, and typically ended up only in the homes of the 
rich and famous.     Few survived through to this day, but those 
that have survived are either restored or can be restored.    
For those interested, see:

http://www.amica.org
http://www.mbsi.org
http://mmd.foxtail.com

and the links off my personal website lead to a host of other 
related web sites:

http://www.mts.net/~smythe/links.htm

Hope this helps a little to understand the distinction between 
conventional pumper player pianos (88 note/65 note) and 
reproducing 
pianos (Ampico/Duo-Art/Welte/Artrio-Angelus etc).

I'm hopeful that my midi files, emerging from a home-made roll 
scanner, are providing a whole new library of music not 
previously available to midi driven pianos.    If that be true, 
wonderful!

Regards,

Terry

Terry Smythe                     (204) 832-3982
55 Rowand Avenue                 smythe@...
Winnipeg, MB, Canada   R3J 2N6   http://www.mts.net/~smythe