In 2003, Spencer Chase and Gene Gerety developed their MIDI valve system, which can be installed in any pneumatic piano. This system, like the PowerRoll
allows a pneumatic piano to play from a MIDI signal. |
Some of the pianists in the collection Classical Clarence Adler William Axt Wilhelm Bachaus Harold Bauer Alexander Brailowsky Ferruccio Busoni Teresa Carreno Alfred Cortot Erno von Dohnanyi Leopold Godowsky Vincent D'indy Mischa Levitzki Josef Lhevinne Arthur Loesser Benno Moiseiwitsch Mieczyslaw Munz Elly Ney Erwin Nyiregyhazi Leo Ornstein Sergei Rachmaninoff Artur Rubinstein E. Robert Schmitz Artur Schnabel Marguerite Volavy Popular Victor Arden Roy Bargy Eubie Blake Adam Carroll Zez Confrey Rudolf Friml George Gershwin Ferdie Grofe Vincent Lopez Frank Milne Phil Ohman Ralph Rainger Richard Rodgers Lee Sims Pete Wendling Vincent Youmans Click to close list |
The player piano goes back to the 1800s, but like today, the technology of the time
sought to improve the listening experience. In 1905 German company Welte & Sons
invented a player piano that played with expression. That is, the piano roll
included extra information to tell the player system how loudly or softly to
play each note. |
It may seem incredible that you can now hear full fidelity recordings of pianists of the early 1900s on your Disklavier or PianoDisc, but read on... |
This invention spawned a huge industry that soon saw a range of other reproducing pianos, including Ampico and DuoArt. The companies made their money from selling rolls,
which at the time were very expensive. Eg, a Welte roll in today's money would
have cost over US$1000. |
Reproducing piano manufacturing ceased in the mid 1900s, leaving us with a legacy
of digital recordings in the form of piano rolls of most of the important pianists of the day, including Rachmaninoff, Paderewski — even Gershwin, to name a few. |
Then came the computer age. In the 1980s I developed a system of recording Ampico piano rolls in electronic form, using a complex recording machine
of my design. I also developed an interface to fit into any Ampico piano
to allow that piano to play from a computer. |
During the 1990s, US developer Larry Broadmoore patented the PowerRoll, a detachable
device that fits onto a pneumatic piano (like the Ampico). It operates from
MIDI files of piano rolls. |
These developments and the surging interest in mechanical MIDI pianos like
the Disklavier meant I needed to convert my roll scans to a format these instruments
would play. After all, I had nearly 1500 excellent recordings and by now,
a PianoDisc... |
Phillips-Ampico system For details download document About the erolls. Briefly... Regarded now as the first computerised system to operate a piano, the Phillips-Ampico system was based on an Apple II computer with roll scans stored on 5.25" disks. The system was marketed in Australia during the 1980s, and featured a large library of Ampico roll scans and a means of testing all aspects of the Ampico. See our Photos page for more information. |
Reproducing piano This is a mechanical piano capable of reproducing a performance with expression. In the '20s, these were vacuum powered (eg, Ampico, DuoArt, Welte etc). Today they are electric, with the keys operated by solenoids (eg, Disklavier, PianoDisc.) |
MIDI valve system See our Links page for the website address that gives more information about this system. |
Background to the PA erolls |
Another development was a program called WindPlay, which displays an image of the
piano roll during playing. This program can also be used with any electric MIDI
piano, such as a Disklavier or PianoDisc, offering a number of advantages over
a typical MIDI sequencer like Cakewalk. Click here for another page with more information about WindPlay. |
Chopin Study Op.10, #5 |
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