Free Syncopes
Jul. 9th, 2005 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rejectomorphWhen I discovered the collection of old, public domain 78 RPM records that are available for download at the Internet Archive (which I posted about here), it occurred to me that there are tons of old piano rolls (and rarer rolls for other instruments of that mechanically-minded age) that are in the public domain, and might be digitized and made available for download. I finally got around to doing a Google search to see if there are any sites with piano rolls available already, and discovered Warren Trachtman's web site. (The site is undergoing reconstruction, so you might get an error page with a link you can click to get to the new location of the main page.)
It is devoted mostly to ragtime, and most of the rolls he has digitized are available only as MIDI files, but there is also a free download of a 25MB soundfont of a Steinway grand, and 40MB and 80MB downloads of larger soundfonts at five bucks (on the Amazon honor system.) I haven't downloaded a soundfont, being on dial-up, but the MIDI player that came with my computer isn't that bad, so I've fetched a few of the free files, which are digitized versions of rolls recorded by the likes of Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, James Scott, etc. They are quite enjoyable, and take but seconds each to download. There is one MP3 available of Scott Joplin playing Maple Leaf Rag, but everything else I've seen there is MIDI. The digitizations are copyrighted, but Trachtman allows them to be downloaded for personal use.
I went outside a while ago and I'm sure I heard a fox bark, not too near, but not far away. I haven't heard a fox around here for ages. I wonder if it likes ragtime?
Wow, I'm really late in posting tonight.
It is devoted mostly to ragtime, and most of the rolls he has digitized are available only as MIDI files, but there is also a free download of a 25MB soundfont of a Steinway grand, and 40MB and 80MB downloads of larger soundfonts at five bucks (on the Amazon honor system.) I haven't downloaded a soundfont, being on dial-up, but the MIDI player that came with my computer isn't that bad, so I've fetched a few of the free files, which are digitized versions of rolls recorded by the likes of Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, James Scott, etc. They are quite enjoyable, and take but seconds each to download. There is one MP3 available of Scott Joplin playing Maple Leaf Rag, but everything else I've seen there is MIDI. The digitizations are copyrighted, but Trachtman allows them to be downloaded for personal use.
I went outside a while ago and I'm sure I heard a fox bark, not too near, but not far away. I haven't heard a fox around here for ages. I wonder if it likes ragtime?
Wow, I'm really late in posting tonight.
