Roll Emulation
Once a piano roll has been scanned, may it be an optical or a pneumatic scanner, the data can also be used to emulate the music piece to either produce an audio file or a midi file to be used on a midi instrument. Doing an e.g. Welte-Mignon roll emulation aims at producing an audio or midi file, that sounds/plays the same as would be heard on a Welte-Mignon instrument.
Peter Phillips surely is one of the -if not the most- knowledgeable expert in piano roll emulations. He has given many presentations on this subject, recently during GPRM Online Prelude #7 on new findings about the emulation process of Welte rolls. To produce a really good emulation it is necessary to perfectly understand the quality of a scan, to know the design and mechanism of the respective reproducing instrument, as well as to be a musician minded to understand the miracles of the piece and the interpretation. This job is getting close to what the best editors did, at that time at Welte, Hupfeld, etc..
Why is roll emulation such an important aspect? For a variety of reasons. It allows to reproduce the roll data with all its functions to other systems, like a midi instrument. Peter Phillips is convinced that he is able to edit and emulate roll scans for his Yamaha Disklavier Pro in a way, that the best possible result can be heard, even better than with the best original instrument. The opening Concert to the 3rd GPRM was an impressive demonstration of this attempt. Emulations can provide very good audio files that can be heard and analyzed in absence of a reproducing instrument. This allows students to play and study the roll music at any time / place in the world. But not only students, anybody can enjoy this music now, which is wonderful. Emulations can help to transfer from one reproducing system to another, like e.g. from Ampico to Welte etc.. In doing so, it is possible to make all roll repertoires available to all player systems.
To further improve the know-how with emulations, a couple of experts (e.g. Peter Broadwell, Koos van Kruistum, Herman Gottschewski, Niels Pfeffer, etc.) presented their research and approaches aiming at the best possible emulations at the 3rd GPRM. To get there a distinct expertise on reproducing pianos is required, to emulate the actual intention of a roll.
Will emulations replace original instruments in the long term? In the end, it is a question of personal taste whether a perfected Disklavier reproduction is perceived as being more beautiful, or the best possible reproduction on an original reproducing instrument. In any case we need to maintain the rare original player instruments as an irreplaceable authentic source also for future generations and research. Some prefer the unique character and tone of golden era instruments and love even the imperfections. Some don’t. Great to have the choice.