I’m curious what you paid, if you are open to sharing such information.

You should see the engineering that went into a reproducing piano, where the loudness is varied by varying the level of the vacuum according to certain perforations in the roll. There are separate regulators for bass and treble divisions. There were several different brands with totally different systems for doing this.

wow! it really is a testament to human ingenuity. given the tools and technologies they had at the time, it's remarkable that they were able to create something like that!

@@8546Ken does the roll take into account how hard/long a key is pressed, the pedal, etc?

@@darfoz8807 The length of a note is controlled by the length of the slot in the paper. In common player pianos, the loudness of each note is not controlled by the roll. All notes play the same. The person playing the piano can control the expression or loudness by how hard they pump the pedals. Sometimes the roll has printed notations indicating how it should be played. But there is also a more expensive piano called a "reproducing piano", usually built as a grand piano. These had an electric air pump. These were much less common, and require special rolls. These have a separate set of holes to control the degree of vacuum, separately for the bass and treble. There were also separate holes to control the expression pedals. There were at least three companies building reproducing pianos - all incompatible with each other. Ampico, Duo-art, & Welte-Mignon Reproducing piano rolls were often recorded by well-known pianists using pianos that could record in real time. Many of these rolls have been transferred to MIDI files, so you can hear the music played almost exactly as it was played by the original artist 100 years ago. I actually restored one of these pianos 32 years ago.

But the question is, how do you define the intensity with which a note is played on a roll?

@@microsoftice6498 As I understand it, At the time of playback, a typical piano roll requires someone to "interpret", by means of hand controls. On certain more sophisticated systems, this is automatic (Duo-Art, Welte-Mignon), and is encoded in the roll. With the exception of Welte-Mignon, it's not clear if it was ever possible to directly "record" the original pianist's dynamics. With Duo-Art, a roll editor would add the dynamics later.

You'd think that the creators of the video would have noticed the same thing.

The most fun 1920's Karaoke machines that like older computers, can "run/play" NEW software. Not obsolete devices. As modern as the music rolls that you play on them! So much fun and interactivity! Great exercise by using the original "player pedals" rather than just turning them on using aftermarket mini vacuum cleaners called suction boxes. Still noisy vacuum cleaners by another name! Boring music when simply played this way.

it's quite sad really, it's a forgotten art that not many people know about

What ornery companies exist still?

The piano by far is way cooler

@@sallielancaster5511 yeah but they both are cool

Those rolls transcribed by the famous musicians were a special type of roll played on a special piano called a "reproducing piano" - usually a grand piano.

Dude you saw a whole Apple IIe running the whole punch works. I have no idea how they would find parts for a 30 year old computer should it break down.

Michael Lee I just said the same thing lol

Back in the late 1980's, my sister worked in a knitting mill that tracked their baskets (of fabrics/garments) with punch cards.

Michael Lee Dude did I see an Apple 2

theR1ddle no kidding. We have two pieces of equipment at my work that are run off a frigging PDP-11! It recently malfunctioned and the machine techs had quite the time getting it back in running condition.

Much more fun and interactive than boring electronic keyboards hand held devices with ear buds!

The modern paper they use now is more durable. Some old piano rolls used more acidic paper, which is now very brittle. Luckily, there are some people who scan piano rolls, and convert them to MIDI files. Thousands of rolls have been preserved this way, including many that are too fragile to play. I grew up with a 1914 Starck player-piano. Today, I have a 1915 Lexington player-piano. And about 200 antique and modern piano rolls. I recently bought some from QRS, and several antique ones on eBay.

@@OofusTwillip New QRS rolls are being made in Seneca, PA at their facility today. Up to date music such as Frozen, Titanic theme, Lady Gaga songs, Billy Joel tunes, Dolly Parton, Travis Tritt, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and broadway and Christmas music ALL easily obtainable on used or new piano rolls that are fully interchangeable for all types of player pianos!

I absolutely noticed that. I wonder how the audio got swapped?

Sam Akechi they still do to this day! Why change it if the method still works?

+Sam Akechi I used to work at a company that has some very old and very high precision boring mills. To start the machine, we have to run a punch tape code through the machine's computer to get it to start up. (It's what was used before floppy disks) To retrofit to a modern computer would cost $25,000. So, until the machine quits working, they are not planing to upgrade.

At our local university we still use an old IBM 386 computer running Windows 3.1 to control a CNC machine...data transfered via a 3.5" 'floppy' disk. Cost to replace proprietary computer (the card inside really) and software, multiple thousands of dollars, cost to buy USB floppy disk for modern computers, about $10 or $15 from eBay. You pick.

In North Korea maybe

The US Military

His very last rag too.

That would be the video's editor fault. Don't know what they're really looking at ....

Also Meliora and Artcraft music rolls still fully available offering great music rolls today!

There is no need to 'encrypt' the sustain pedal - they just hold down the keys as long as they want the sustain to last. The only reason you have a sustain pedal on a piano is so you can free up your fingers to play additional notes while you hold the already played ones. A player piano can hold more keys than a human have fingers.

Di Grine Cuzine.

Di Grine Cuzine.

Yeah,the script got swapped probably

That was covered in the video, but not n detail.

yes, they do. You can order them from QRS (still in business for over a century), or other small manufacturers

QRS manufacturing is currently (10/15/2018) is now a one-man operation, soon to be discontinued.

So, will we be able to order rolls from the inventory?

Yes. Check out the QRS Music Technoogies website.

Just talked to QRS and they said they are not going to be discontinuing manufacturing. Do you think they will just continue to sell inventory and not make any new rolls?

Di Grine Cuzine.

@@rafriedman, THANK YOU!

+IndisputableAttitude Sounds A-OK, Now if I can talk somebody into making a You Tube demonstrating Collision Based Computing using Brush Bots. Patent 672256.

Hope soon somebody makes a You Tube using brush bots to demonstrate Collision Based Computing. Even better, maybe a swarm of drones!

Di Grine Cuzine.

guess what is used for nukes in the us

Yeap, and for good reason. Don't have to worry about old computers not connected to the Internet being hacked into. Wouldn't want someone messing around and launching our nukes (though when I think of that the movie Wargames comes to mind...)

yeah, so what?

Why would they all sound the same? They're different pieces of music,

Sounds the same not the same work of music. Rap all sounds the same or you could call Dolly Parton a rap act.