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Player Piano Roll Production Ceases

Posted by kdawson on from the day-the-music-died dept.

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."

7 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Video of piano roll production at QRS Music by Andorion · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3FTaGwfXPM

    Enjoy!

  2. QRS isn't the only place to get them! by I_Can't_Fly · · Score: 3, Informative

    List of currrent Player Piano Rolls and Equipment

    --
    Is this thing on? Check. Check.
  3. Still can be done by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's just MIDI data has replaced a paper roll. Yamaha makes a line of pianos called the Disklavier. They are real pianos (grand or upright) with control systems that read and record MIDI data. However you get a much better result than with a player piano. Player pianos only signal note on and note off with the paper. So everything is played at one volume level. MIDI pianos (good ones at least) record the note velocity, which is how hard the key was hit. So they reproduce the dynamics as they are supposed to be.

    So the magic is still around, for those that want it, it's just a better control system has come along.

    1. Re:Still can be done by dondelelcaro · · Score: 2, Informative

      Player pianos only signal note on and note off with the paper.

      Higher-end player pianos (Ampico, Aeolian, Welte, etc.) control the amplitude at which notes are struck, though no where near as accurately as MIDI (which controls velocity and can even modify the velocity after touch). That's why they have more than 89 holes in the tracker bar.

      That said, all of QRS's rolls that I'm aware of are 88 note, though they often have instructions for how to modify the amplitude printed on the roll, along with lyrics in some cases.

      --
      http://www.donarmstrong.com
  4. Production pauses by yogibaer · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you read the article carefully, it becomes clear that they will be trying to reestablish the production in a new location, but are a bit worried, that some of the ancient machinery will survive relocation. They still sell 50.000 rolls a year and have a stockpile that will last them for 1-2 years.

  5. Only older than 1923... by argent · · Score: 3, Informative

    The sites listed in the article only contain music that is out of copyright, from rolls published before 1923.

  6. Re:Remember, remember the 5th of January (2009)... by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Next time someone mentions a technology that is outdated. Like say... floppies.

    Ironically (?), the predominant distribution media for digital player pianos is STILL the 3.5" floppy disk.

    What was state-of-the-art when the first Disklaviers were released in the late 1980s is now hopelessly anachronistic, but as long as first-generation hardware owners continue to be willing to pay $30 for a handful of MIDI files, concessions to them will continue to be made.