Talk:Player piano

message: While I'm totally ignorant about player pianos (hence reading the article), I do know there's something wrong with this sentence:
"It cost $250 (£65) - a large sum of money at the time." $250 is far more money than £65. The exchange rate is about 2:1 at the moment, and I'm not aware of any time the discrepancy has been as great as suggested here. The thing is, I can't rightly change it since I don't know which price is correct! (or when "the time" is for that matter) 86.131.147.6 (talk) 18:50, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Early Cost

message: I'm no expert on these pianos, but from what I understand there is a difference between PLAYER piano and REPRODUCING piano. Does anyone know enough about the two types to perhaps edit the article to reflect that? --Wolf530 04:56, Mar 22, 2004 (UTC)
There is indeed a difference between the player piano and the reproducing piano. The player piano uses a roll with programmed nitches that correspond to notes on a piece. A reproducing piano on the other hand is programmed via a live performance. The method used today is by digital means, although, reproducing pianos were common by the dawn of the twentieth century. The old method of recording the live performances is not to my knowledge and was in fact what I was looking for on this edit page.
12:30, Aug 27, 2006. 
:I agree. In the U.S. at least, the words "player piano" conjure up tinny heaps of junk in cowboy movies, or still seen today in novelty general stores. By contrast, I just heard on the radio this morning a piece by Felix Mendelsohn recorded using the "Aolian company Duo-Art process" for the "reproducing piano", which was fantastically precise and nuanced and marvelous sounding!  I suspect that many/most readers of this article will be equally ignorant, equating player pianos with the movie stereotype; this stereotype should be mentioned and then demolished. linas 14:23, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Player vs. Reproducing

message: thumb|right|closeup
Should a close up of a pneumatic player piano be added? There could start to be too many images on the page.
Pic is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pianola_closeup.JPG MxAesir 06:08, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pneumatic player piano close up 

message: Arent' these also called Nickelodeons?
A Nickelodeon is a nickname for a coin operated player piano in a public place. It also was a term for a small movie theater (The word means "Nickle Theater")--Saxophobia 18:12, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Nickelodeon

message: I'm at a loss.  The entire section on The Yamaha Disklavier reads like an advertisement, but at the same time I don't feel it appropriate to remove the section in its entirety.  If anyone thinks they can salvage it, please try. Mlzg4
If you thought that was an ad, read one of MichaelIsGreat's edits. He struck 8 times on this article and 8 times on the Bösendorfer article before he was blocked. Each time after one of his edits was reverted, he would come back, making the obvious ad even more obvious, and using insulting edit descriptions (The mad people who delete my postings, GO BACK TO YOUR MAD HOUSE!!!). If you want to see what he did, look through the edit history, and click the date and time link next to MichaelIsGreat's username. SupaStarGirl 17:36, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yamaha Disklavier 

message: I've just edited the paragraph on McTammany, saying that he claimed much credit towards the invention of the player piano, rather than that he deserved it. In both his books, McTammany is not above ignoring the achievements of others, and I think posterity has so far swallowed his own opinion of himself a little too uncritically.
There were many other important inventors in the field of roll-operated musical instruments, and in my view it is not right to single out McTammany. However, his paragraph stands until someone gets time to write up the achievements of all the others.
Pianola 21:15, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  John McTammany 

message: The references for this material are all in the linked articles. --Zeamays (talk) 13:01, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Flight trainer

message: ..., inventor of the famous Pianola, yet to write for a hero of the wikipedia and knowers of the reed organ and the piano.. .. Most needed hints here: http://www.pianola.org/factsheets/votey.cfm -- AxelKing (talk) 21:48, 27 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: To me, your complaint about Votey's significance appears to be a minor viewpoint. Whether Aeolian was successful because of capital and marketing or because of quality product does not change the fact that they were successful. Votey rightly deserves credit for achieving what he did. Binksternet (talk) 14:38, 29 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Edwin Votey]] 

message: I don't think it is clearly stated in the article whether a pianola can usually (or always?) be played as an ordinary piano as well as a player-piano. I was curious because the singer Imogen Heap, who is a good pianist, has a Steinway Duo Art pianola which she frequently uses as a regular piano (see various videos on YouTube, e.g. here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVPtJ13f4Wk ).  Is this a standard feature of pianolas?  The article does say that ordinary pianos were at one period often converted into pianolas, and it would be odd to do so if this prevented them being used as pianos.  Maybe the answer is glaringly obvious to pianola experts, but Wikipedia articles are aimed primarily at people who are not experts in the subject concerned!109.157.151.84 (talk) 19:35, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dual usage 

message: I did a little research and found a few likely sources for some sections of the article that are heavily lacking in sources.
The 'Antecedents' and 'Development' sections seem to have been copied from this article: The History of Player Piano
The 'Preservation and restoration' section seems to have been copied from this article: The AMICA Bulletin - Stacks are the Stanford
I hope this is helpful in some way.
SebYB67 (talk) 00:01, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unsourced sections