The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I regret that I mis-remembered the spelling of that storied derby, which was a creation of the writers for the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durward_Ki ... references for the details. By the time I'd realized my error, I was employing this username in too many places to change it.

I am aware that others have rigged up contraptions to digitize piano rolls. I am sure a number of people including myself would like to know your approach.

My scheme involves a simple mechanism to draw the roll paper across a flatbed scanner, about 4" per scan. I take the resultant images (an example is attached) and use some software I wrote to stitch them into one file in the so-called CIS (Contact Image Sensor) file format. This format is something the early pioneers of rollscanning (Larry Doe, Anthony Robinson, Terry Smythe and Warren Trachtman) developed in the 1990s, and for which they wrote a number of utilities for editing and converting it to MIDI.

A video of my rollscanner in action can be found here. It's pretty boring. I was trying to do as little as necessary to achieve the desired result, so I'm afraid it isn't terribly spiffy. However, I've found that it seems to get good longitudinal step accuracy, which is a critical variable where roll replication is concerned. So there's that.

I use a day-glo background on the scanner lid to maximize contrast between the paper and the holes, such that I can get good hole-outline accuracy.

Spiffier rollscanners do exist, and the links at Terry Smythe's website should give you plenty to marvel at.

Hope this helps explain things a bit further,
Marshall

It took forever, but I finally scanned another roll with a nearly identical melody, and can now confirm that Unknown2 is in fact the 1917 "Somewhere in France is Daddy", a one-step which falls in the category of "WW1 propaganda".

KerwoodDerby wrote:I regret that I mis-remembered the spelling of that storied derby, which was a creation of the writers for the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durward_Ki ... references for the details. By the time I'd realized my error, I was employing this username in too many places to change it.

Oh, my: I dimly remember that reference from my early childhood, along with the "Anti-Anti-Missile-Missile Missile"..

Bill

Returning to topic, the second tune's second section sounds a lot like some school or college fight song (the first phrase would fit a text such as, e.g., "Hail, dear old Podunk U.", or "Fight, dear old Fogey Hi"), surrounded by a heavily ragtime influenced first and third strain (identical) in a slightly more dated idiom. But that's as far as I can go with that one. (I know it wasn't any school I ever attended!)

I wonder if anyone recorded "Somewhere In France Is Daddy"?Perhaps it was by a small company like Emerson or Pathé,perhaps Columbia.edisonplayer

Great rolls! I've always wanted to get a player piano, but currently just don't have the room.
Would you mind uploading the midi file for that first one?