Even though there is a large repertoire of music in midi format from manufacturers such as Yamaha, Pianodisc and QRS, for us the real value of these modern self-playing pianos is that our work enables the great masterpieces of the early 20th century to be played so beautifully.
We digitize valuable original piano rolls by well-known pianists and composers from the Golden Era 1900-1940 and, in collaboration with leading experts, create professional editions, i.e. particularly extensively processed emulations that can achieve precise and very authentic results, especially on the newer Disklavier and Pianodisc systems.
Details on the digitization of music rolls and the creation of Midi emulations can be found in our article 'From the roll to midi and more'. You can find details on deciding between an old or new self-playing piano in our article 'Self-playing piano, Welte or Disklavier?
In collaboration with the world's leading expert in music roll digitization and emulation, Peter Phillips (AUS)We offer emulations for owners of modern self-playing pianos (e.g. Yamaha Disklavier, Pianodisc). These files can be played back on any standard midi instrument. The Midi files are divided into a Premium Midi Edition and a Professional Midi Edition. Peter Phillips has been offering the Premium Midi Edition for years in very affordable packages on his website petersmidi.com. You can also order these premium midi files from us if you prefer to communicate in German. If you need examples of these midi files for testing on your instrument, we can provide you with some free of charge.
We do offer the Professional Edition in individual titles and small packages only here at our website. It contains particularly rare and time-consuming emulations of early music rolls (especially Welte red, Hupfeld DEA, Philipps DUCA etc.) that are not part of the Premium Midi Edition.
We have already prepared well over 1,500 pieces of music for the Professional Edition. This naturally includes music from the most popular and best-selling music rolls of the time. At the end of the 1920s, Welte published a list of 214 pieces of music that were considered worth recommending because they were the best-selling - or maybe were still on the shelf.
We analyzed dozens of collections and were able to compile a list of the most popular pieces of music on music rolls at the time based on their frequency. These titles tended to come from the middle to higher price categories.
Of course, contemporary tastes have always changed, so we also offer specific pieces here that were rarely bought at the time. Our range is much larger than shown here. If you are interested in specific pieces or collections, please contact us. Hupfeld has also published a list of selected 'Top 500' for the Tri-Phonola, for example.
Premium and professional are always difficult terms. Premium means premium - we are talking about wonderful music that is emulated in a first-class way. Professional means that these emulations are specially - but not only - developed for the Yamaha Disklavier and Pianodisc Pro systems with even more expert time, with the aim of achieving the best possible results based on the reproducing piano rolls we have digitized.
Even if we don't like to talk about it, let's talk briefly about the prices. The cost of the Professional Edition Midi pieces is significantly higher than the prices suggest, as they are created individually and by hand with a great deal of musical and technical expertise. You'll be able to hear many a famous pianist live in your home. We offer round prices, e.g. 5.00 instead of 4.99. And as we do not have a circulation of millions, we are happy to receive a contribution towards our investments. In doing so, you also support our continued work in searching for, digitizing and preparing so many more treasures. Our aim is to inspire you with this special music on your piano. If something is not to your satisfaction, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will see together what we can do.
