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Player Piano
A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player piano gained popularity as mass-produced home pianos increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sales peaked in 1924 and subsequently declined with improvements in electrical phonograph recordings in the mid-1920s. The advent of electrical amplification in home music reproduction, brought by radios, contributed to a decline in popularity, and the stock market crash of 1929 virtually wiped out production. History The first practical pneumatic piano player, manufactured by the Aeolian Company and called the "Pianola", was invented in 1896 by Edwin S. Votey, and came into widespread use in the 20th century. The name "pianola", sometimes used as a generic name for any player piano, came from this invention. The mechanism of this player piano was all-pneumatic: foot-operated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welte-Mignon
M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832. Overview From 1832 until 1932, the firm produced mechanical musical instruments of the highest quality. The firm's founder, Michael Welte (1807-1880), and his company were prominent in the technical development and construction of orchestrions from 1850, until the early 20th century. In 1872, the firm moved from the remote Black Forest town of Vöhrenbach into a newly developed business complex beneath the main railway station in Freiburg, Germany. They created an epoch-making development when they substituted the playing gear of their instruments from fragile wood pinned cylinders to perforated paper rolls. In 1883, Emil Welte (1841–1923), the eldest son of Michael, who had emigrated to the United States in 1865, patented the paper roll method (), the model of the later piano roll. In 1889, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floppy Disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that removes dust particles from the spinning disk. The three most popular (and commercially available) floppy disks are the 8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks. Floppy disks store digital data which can be read and written when the disk is inserted into a floppy disk drive (FDD) connected to or inside a computer or other device. The first floppy disks, invented and made by IBM in 1971, had a disk diameter of . Subsequently, the 5¼-inch (133.35 mm) and then the 3½-inch (88.9 mm) became a ubiquitous form of data storage and transfer into the first years of the 21st century. 3½-inch floppy disks can still be used with an external USB floppy disk drive. USB drives for 5¼-inch, 8-inch, and other-size floppy disks are rare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetic Tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic tape can with relative ease record and play back audio, visual, and binary computer data. Magnetic tape revolutionized sound recording and reproduction and broadcasting. It allowed radio, which had always been broadcast live, to be recorded for later or repeated airing. Since the early 1950s, magnetic tape has been used with computers to store large quantities of data and is still used for backup purposes. Magnetic tape begins to degrade after 10–20 years and therefore is not an ideal medium for long-term archival storage. The exception is data tape formats like Linear Tape-Open, LTO which are specifically designed for long-term archiving. Information in magnetic tapes is often recorded in tracks which are narrow and long areas of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tracker Bar
Tracker or The Tracker may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Tracker (''G.I. Joe''), in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe * Tracker (''PAW Patrol''), in the animated television series ''PAW Patrol'' * Tracker Cameron, in the television series ''Degrassi: The Next Generation'' Films * ''Tracker'' (1987 film), a Soviet film directed by Roman Balayan * ''The Tracker'' (1988 film), a Western directed by John Guillermin * ''The Tracker'' (2002 film), an Australian film * ''Tracker'' (2011 film), a film from New Zealand * ''The Tracker'' (2019 film), a film with Dolph Lundgren Literature * ''Tracker'' (comics), a five-book miniseries * ''Tracker'' (novel), a 2015 novel set in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner science fiction universe * ''Tracker'' (biography), a 2017 biography of Tracker Tilmouth by Alexis Wright * ''Trackers'' (book series), a children's book series by Patrick Carman * ''The Tracker'', a 1978 book by naturalist Tom Brown Jr. Music * Tracker (band), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Roll
A music roll () is a storage medium used to operate a mechanical musical instrument. They are used for the player piano, mechanical organ, electronic carillon and various types of orchestrion. The vast majority of music rolls are made of paper. Other materials that have been utilized include thin card (Imhof-system), thin sheet brass (Telektra-system), composite multi-layered electro-conductive aluminium and paper roll (Triste-system) and, in the modern era, thin plastic or PET film. The music data is stored by means of perforations. The mechanism of the instrument reads these as the roll unwinds, using a pneumatic, mechanical or electrical sensing device called a tracker bar, and the mechanism subsequently plays the instrument. After a roll is played, it is necessary for it to be rewound before it can be played again. This necessitates a break in a musical performance. To overcome this problem, some instruments were built with two player mechanisms (referred to as a duple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automatic Musical Instruments Collector's Association
The Automatic Musical Instruments Collectors' Association (AMICA) was formed in 1963 by a group of collectors in the San Francisco area, committed to the preservation, restoration and enjoyment of vintage mechanical musical instruments that play by themselves, focusing on those made from 1885–1935.Reblitz, Arthur A.. Player Piano Servicing & Rebuilding: A Treatise on how Player Pianos Function, and how to Get Them Back Into Top Playing Condition If They Don't Work'. United States, Vestal Press, 1985. Typical examples include player pianos, reproducing pianos, player reed organs, player pipe organs, orchestrions, music boxes, fairground organs, etc. Music media includes paper music roll A music roll () is a storage medium used to operate a mechanical musical instrument. They are used for the player piano, mechanical organ, electronic carillon and various types of orchestrion. The vast majority of music rolls are made of paper. ...s, folding continuous cardboard music, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Museum, Brentford
The Musical Museum is a charity, museum and concert venue located in Brentford, London Borough of Hounslow, a few minutes' walk from Kew Bridge railway station. Its stated purpose is to conserve, preserve, and develop nationally important collections related to the history of music reproduction; inform, engage and entertain the public regarding the evolution of music reproduction; and conserve, preserve, promote and present the theatre pipe organ as an instrument with a significant role in the development of light music on radio and in the cinema and as a musical art form. The Musical Museum contains a significant collection of self-playing musical instruments, and one of the world's largest collections of historic musical rolls. The museum houses rare working specimens of player pianos, orchestrions, reed organs, and violin players. The largest exhibits include a fully restored Wurlitzer theatre organ (attached to a roll-playing mechanism and Steinway grand piano) and a 12 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
