Seeburg Style H Orchestrion plays Maple Leaf Rag 

Yes, and it is too fast.

Way too fast for a piece normally (composed and) played by a human on a piano...

@@walterpfannschmidt8449 not really as that was the tempo it was originally played when written a hundred years ago. It was slowed down when the movie The Sting was released.

@@johnnyjames7139 No. It's for dancing the two step for 20 year olds. Recall when you were 20. Look at scenes from "Dirty Dancing" to remind oneself of his age!

Same principle, the roll is just twice as wide.

It’s called engineering.

You did a fantastic job. The tempo is perfect. It's a two step for the young, not a funeral march.

It's way fast. If other performers play it that fast or faster, they're simply showing off. All because someone plays something fast doesn't necessarily make it "better". "Speed ain't nothin' without class" as they say, even the sheet music for this piece shows a tempo of 88 and I'll presume that that was the speed Joplin had in mind. Not to take credit from you, as this interpretation is still otherwise marvelous.

Yes, it IS in superb tune! Not surprising, given Mr. Reblitz' capabilities. Not every similar restoration is this well done. (I am a retired piano tuner/technician after 38 years in the business.)

Once upon a time, men built magnificent machines. Now we just mass produce crap.

One thing I found quite confusing about MIDI is the 7 vs 14 bit control changes. Because to keep things "simple" they required two messages to transmit 14 bits, using two different CC codes. ( I won't even get in to how limiting a 7 bit CC is, but anyone who's heard audible stepping on a filter sweep knows this well :)

O que oino

@@michaelbauers8800 ou o

@@michaelbauers8800 jj

I@@michaelbauers8800

I'd love to hear some of your arrangements rj! Thank you for helping us enjoy it more, by teaching us to listen to the syncopation. Soo cool! Again thank you rjmendlein.

gay

MIDI file player in 19th century's technology

Oh I totally AGREE! And I can't even begin to imagine at how hard it would be to totally disassemble all those delicate mechanical parts to clean paint and restore then put them all back together I used to work on and take apart pin ball machines but that was nothing compared to this

@@richardvg7670 And I can restore an upright piano, and have done so. But three ranks of organ pipes, and all those other instruments. Plus the little engine just plugging away. I am so in awe.

The faster it plays, the faster it collects nickels!

It's more fun and bouncy. How bout you not tell other ragtime fans what to like or not like..thanks. I know what Joplin said but Joplin has been dead for a while now. I don't think he'll mind.

I guess the composer of the tune didn't know how it should be played...

Steve Merkel Good point!

Just to tell you this is the correct tempo. On the sheet music it said "Tempo di Marcia" which is basically March tempo (that would be around 112 bpm).

Thanks on that I formation was wondering about all the different notes and how that would work didn't know that very helpful and informative

I"m with ya babe!!

you kidding me? i'd start dancing hahaha

Join a Face Book group that discusses player pianos. You will find people who know about your specific piano One of those groups is "Player Piano talk".

agreed

When the Mandolin comes in!

Totally agree. Just want to dance like a loon!

Great question. They're behind all the other stuff!

Yes, actually Seeburg made a variation of the style G orchestrion called the style "U" which had extra pedals to play the drums, a special "neutral" mode on the roll frame so the pumps can be switched on without turning the roll either direction, and special register control switches to turn the pipes, mandolin etc on and off to play from the keyboard. I think these were not commercially successful as only one Seeburg style U is known to exist. One reason is that (besides limited cabaret use), these hand played orchestrions were likely sold to theatres to be used for accompanying the films, and tall and ornamented pianos were a big distraction to the picture in the theatre, plus needed to be placed to one side of the screen in order to not block it, yet still be close enough that the musician playing could see what was going on. This is as opposed to the "photoplayers" which were built long and low, and with plain cases, so as not to block the screen or distract from the picture, yet be centrally located right underneath. Speaking of which: The IDEA of totally hand playing an orchestrion was thought of as far back as 1910 by the Van Valkenburg brothers of California who came up with a device (intended for accompanying silent films as a one man orchestra) that they called the "Fotoplayer" which combined an 88-note home player piano (with two tracker bars for quick roll / scene changes), with a small tubular-pneumatic Romantic style pipe organ (flute pipes, violin pipes, and diapason and vox humana on larger models), and suction operated orchestrion-style bells, xylophone, and drums and traps, plus mechanical and pneumatic sound effects. This instrument can be played entirely by hand (from the keyboard) as well as with rolls. The Fotoplayer started really catching on commercially in a huge way around 1912 and by 1913 and 1914 both Wurlitzer and Seeburg were jumping in on the "photoplayer" bandwagon and rolling out their own lines of theatre instruments, which Wurlitzer called the "One Man Orchestra" and Seeburg called the "Pipe Organ Orchestra" ("Fotoplayer" was by then a trademark of the American Photo Player Co. of California, although it quickly became generic in the way of Kodak, Xerox, Hoover, etc). It's thought that around 4,500 American Fotoplayers of all models were built between around 1912 and 1926 or so (the big heyday), of which around 50 complete or more or less complete ones are known extant today (and a number of gutted pianos for them in Craftsman style cases). There is a large American Fotoplayer, restored, on display in its own room in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, where it is sometimes used for accompanying showings of silent pictures there: www.silentcinemasociety.org/category/academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences/ Wurlitzer built probably something around 2,000 photoplayers of their own from around 1913 through the mid to late 20s, of which I think probably 30-50 are known to exist today (I haven't counted), plus some additional gutted former pianos for them around. There is a style U Wurlitzer photoplayer in use (hand played, or roll played) as entertainment in the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue in Glenwood Springs, Colorado: www.yelp.com/biz/glenwood-vaudeville-revue-glenwood-springs-3 There are also a number of a Wurlitzer photoplayers (styles D Duplex, SF, G, and U) on display at the American Treasure Tour museum and collection in Oaks, Pennsylvania: americantreasuretour.com/ Seeburg is thought to have built around 1,000 photoplayers of which there are probably a dozen to two dozen or so complete (or mostly complete) ones known to exist. Oddly, I have not yet seen a gutted piano for one. Three or four Seeburg photoplayers (styles S, R, and other models) are on display at the aforementioned American Treasure Tour in Oaks, Pennsylvania, and are sometimes demonstrated on tours. Another important maker was the Marquette Piano Co., builder of the Cremona, of which I don't know how many photoplayers were built (500? 300?) but about 4 or 5 are known today, including one in long continuous public (hand played) use in the Virginia City Opera House in Virginia City, Montana, accompanying the live drama of the Virginia City Players troupe: www.virginiacityplayers.com/ There were other makers of photoplayers in the USA (Gulbransen, Niagara, North Tonawanda, Operators, Peerless, Rhapsodist/Symphony, Watson, and possibly others), but their instruments were originally sold/produced in such small numbers that either none or known to exist, or only one or two are known to exist, today. I would love to hear from anyone who has a photoplayer of any make today since they're rare and cool, especially an unusual one. Perhaps if you visit these public places, you'll be able to get permission to try out one of these public photoplayers, which is the closest most of us will get to hand playing an orchestrion! Good luck!

Andrew Barrett woah, thanks for writing this man!

You're not the only one...

According to the experts this is the correct speed and it sounds great, it really shows off the machine

Billy Mayes Experts be damned. It is far too fast.

@@johnnyjames7139 nope

wurly164 The late Bill Coffman said " rags are to be slow". The important thing is the musicality and this rendition is to damned fast period. My opinion is just as valid as yours.

@@johnnyjames7139 again...nope

Progress is inevitable. They said these things would hurt or replace live music at the time. Music teachers hated home player pianos. It's taken a century but hearing the the roundup of the hits of '23 (2023) on the radio today makes the twentieth century predictions so true. What a difference 100 years make, half of that time with hip-hop.

It moves as one unit

I suppose it has to be that way for synchronization.