NEW PIANO ROLLS from JULIAN DYER

For Duo-Art and 88-note player pianos

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New rolls let you choose the music for your player piano and buy it when you want it, not just make do with what turns up. New rolls don't have the damage and decay that old rolls suffer from. Buy your new rolls here!

Below are the catalogues of rolls for  standard 88-note player pianos and automatic Duo-Art instruments. Not sure what rolls your player piano can use? Have a look at the page on compatibility. If you know what you want, you can order directly.

Duo-Art rolls

These are special rolls needed to operate Duo-Art pianos that automatically reproduce the performance of the pianist. The copies here are exact replicas of original rolls, containing each and every punch in the original roll, all in the right place and of the right size, so the new rolls perform exactly the same as the original rolls. This is quite unlike the majority of roll copies, where the new perforations only approximate the originals, to the detriment of the music. For the specification of these new rolls, see The Anatomy of a Piano Roll.

A brief description about how the Aeolian Company made the original Duo-Art rolls can be found in the page about the Duo-Art recording process. If you want to know more about how Duo-Art pianos work, have a look at Understanding and Regulating the Pedal-Electric Duo-Art.

Standard 88-note rolls

Most player pianos use 88-note rolls, with the operator (or 'Pianolist') adding all timing and expression. Some instruments have an extra accenting mechanism to highlight certain notes, and the rolls here have accenting when this is appropriate. They will play perfectly on any standard 88-note player piano. The catalogue has a mixture of replica and new rolls, including titles newly arranged by Adam Ramet to play in a way that only the player piano can!

Special recut orders

I can only offer a fairly limited list of rolls off-the-shelf, but there are huge numbers of other rolls that could be recut. Ask for the titles you want: you may well not have to find an original because there are libraries of electronic scans that can be perforated to order! Anything obtainable can be cut for bulk purchase, where the buyer takes the entire perforator run of four copies. I don't copy rolls less than 50 years old, or copy older recuts.

Custom-cut new rolls

I can cut new rolls from MIDI files, as long as the MIDI file is provided in a form ready for cutting - I can check a file to assess how suitable it is for making into a roll. New rolls are supplied only in batches of four copies; it's not practical to supply single rolls or proof rolls, although I can provide examples of how the MIDI will sound once it's been cut into a roll. I cannot create MIDI files for you, so if there is something you want you'll have to find somebody to create it for you, and I'll then happily cut it for you.

What's new?

December 2022 -  New titles

• A brand-new performance of Florence Price's Fantasie Negre No. 1, recorded specially for the Duo-Art in 2022 by Allyson Devenish. The first of the composer's compositions to be issued on roll. Made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the North West Player Piano Association in the UK. This new roll has been transformed directly from a MIDI recoding, preserving all the performance timing and has Duo-Art expression created directly from the recorded dynamics.

March 2022 -  New titles

• The lively Tarantella from Liszt's Venzia e Napoli, played by Josef Hofmann.
• Mozart's beautiful Fantasia No 1 played by Alexander Raab
• The only two rolls jazz pianist J Russell Robinson recorded for Duo-Art, 'Loving' Sam' and 'Tomorrow'. He was popular in the UK because he played in The Original Dixieland Jazz Band for their 1919 London residency.
• Some of the better dance rolls of the mid-1920s: Lehar's 'Gigolette' played by Osborn & Wren (a rare UK-made dance roll), Friml's 'Rose Marie' played by Milne & Erlebach, 'Bottoms Up'played by Muriel Pollock, the ever-popular 'Doll Dance' played by Constance Mering, 'Dancing tambourine' played by Pauline Alpert.
• A 1930s dance version of Richard Rogers' 'There's a small hotel' played by Adam Carroll.

Replica Duo-Art rolls - list updated 25 July 2023

Bulk orders: take 10% off the listed prices if you order 10 or more rolls, or 5% off for more than 5 rolls.

Replica 88-note rolls

New 88-note rolls

Ordering information, terms and conditions

Ordering is simple: just email the list of the rolls you want, or write to me (address below). Give both roll number and name. 

Please include a delivery addess and a delivery phone contact. I only use this data for the delivery, will not use it contact you except regarding an order, and will not pass on any data to others. Except for Royal Mail, I cannot book delivery without a phone number.

You must tell me if you want tracking and insurance: see 'delivery options' below.

All prices are in UK pounds sterling. There are discounts for larger orders: 5% for 5 to 9 rolls, 10% for 10 or more rolls. When the rolls are ready and delivery costs known I will issue an invoice including payment details. Delivery and currency-conversion fees are additional to the listed prices for the rolls. 

Import duty and taxes: Buyers outside the UK are reminded that their local import and sales taxes may be due in addition to the roll and shipping costs. Rates and thresholds vary greatly between countries so not all roll orders will incur a charge. These taxes are mostly collected by the parcel firm before they will deliver. Some shippers to Europe now offer an option to pre-pay the taxes as part of the shipping, which I will do if appropriate. As a small business I am not VAT-registered so there is no 'duty-free' reduction for exports.

Payment may be by PayPal, bank transfer, cash on collection or cheque (in Pounds Sterling, drawn on a UK bank). PayPal is the easiest way to convert to Pounds: its conversion fees will be in my invoice unless you wish to pay by another method. I do not accept credit cards, but you can setup a PayPal account using a credit card.

Delivery options

All orders are posted from the UK, or may be collected by agreement. I invoice for postage at cost, but there are many options that affect its cost. The services I use are:

• In the UK up to 2 kg, Royal Mail 'small parcel' second class. Above 2kg, a parcel service selected from those available on parcel2go.com - you can check these yourself.
• Outside the UK up to 2 kg, Royal Mail 'International economy' (always the cheapest option but relatively slow and not tracked). Above 2 kg, or for a faster or better-tracked service, I will agree with you a parcel service selected from those available at parcel2go.com or similar comparison sites. 

Insurance: All services include some default level of 'compensation' for loss or damage of parcels, and I will purchase delivery with this default level of cover. If you want extra cover for the full value of the ordered rolls there is an additional charge of 5% of the roll total. You must request this. If it is not requested and paid as part of the invoice, recovery is limited to the default cover provided by the chosen service. 

Tracking: For Royal Mail, 'proof of postage' is included but subsequent tracking is an additional cost, and must be purchased when the service is booked: you must request this so I can buy it. Services obtained from parcel2go.com vary in the amount of tracking: typically, the cheaper options are handled by different companies for UK, international shipping and final delivery and the tracking may be sporadic or non-existent. The larger parcel companies that manage all stages of delivery have more effective tracking but may cost more. If you want a fully-tracked service this must be request this so that I can buy a suitable service for you.

 

Julian Dyer, 5 Richmond Rise, Wokingham RG41 3XH, United Kingdom

mail: enquiries <at> pianorolls.co.uk (using @ instead of <at>)