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Player Piano Roll Production Ceases
boustrophedon writes "The Buffalo News reports that QRS Music Technologies halted production of player piano rolls 108 years after the company was founded in Chicago. QRS continues to make digitized and computerized player-piano technology that runs on CDs. 'We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for pianos that play themselves. It's just the technology that has changed. But I would be lying to say [the halting of production] doesn't sadden me,' said Bob Berkman, the company's music director. Piano rolls can last for decades, but not forever. Volunteers at the International Association of Mechanical Music Preservationists build piano-roll scanners to scan rolls optically and convert them to MIDI files. The IAMMP archive and others contain thousands of scanned rolls."
There goes my backup strategy.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Don't shoot! I'm only the piano programmer!
Westerns won't be the same...*sigh*
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
'We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for pianos that play themselves.
Piano Porn?
"...halted support for COBOL 108 years after the language was founded. We continue to provide support for Cybernetic Linux. We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for machines that help humans. It's just the interface that has changed. But I would be lying to say it doesn't sadden me..."
So, any bets on whether the above statement will be a reality??
Or the alternative version in 2109...
"...halted support for Windows XP 108 years after the language was founded. We continue to provide support for Windows Vista. Windows Vista is a great enhancement to the user experience, and we really really really hope that people will get over it and stop asking for XP. Really, we mean it this time, NO MORE XP SUPPORT. No... Really..."
Dear Self:
Don't be ridiculous. The conversion of downloaded digital data into sound in the air, or flickering light on a screen, is relatively inexpensive. A few watthours of power. Mere dollars.
The conversion of digital data into a physical essence (food) is something entirely different. According to Einstein's E==mc(squared) formula, you would need a small Star Trek-style warp drive to accomplish that goal. Clearly we don't have that kind of power available in the year 2009 and even if we did, you couldn't afford the million-dollar electricity bill.
Signed,
your other personality
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
And thank Heaven for that. These vile owners of player pianos are stealing the bread from the mouths of our hardworking musical performers. I say to you that the player piano is to the American musician and the American public as H.H. Holmes is to the woman home alone!
Telegraphs have been dispatched, and intrepid agents of the RIAA are even now speeding cross-country in their horseless carriages! Tremble, law-breakers, for your time is now at hand.
This kind.