Oh also, there is a Mac Mini controlling the display. The next phase of the project is to install key scanning hardware that would detect key presses. So it COULD in theory act as a regular keyboard as well. The music would be pretty random though, but interesting.
The small clips I recorded don't really convey the connection as well as when you're standing right in front of it. You see the connection between the keypress and the visualizer much better when it all works as one.
Good point. I probably could have done more research on that. The little that I DID do placed the piano roll at late 1800s. I'm not a historian. ;) I absolutely find all these ancient systems remarkable.
That's interesting. I'll look into adding fresh ones back in, but the existing ones were definitely getting in the way of the action, probably because of age. I'm not sure what the sound is like without them, but the whole system still sounds pretty good.
Since the original player piano mechanism doesn't support force there was no need to incorporate it into my design. Many of the original QRS piano roll scans don't even have that information. Although with further work and a switch out of the solenoid to a pressure control valvle I might be able to control the pressure of the key stroke.
