Buffalo Convention
In the Buffalo Convention of December 10, 1908, the American manufacturers of piano rolls for self-playing pianos (English pianolas ) agreed on a standard . They agreed to only use two roll formats with different perforations of 65 and 88 tones, but the same width of 11 1/4 inches = 285 mm. This partly put an end to the chaos of the sound carriers that was prevalent in the booming market for automatic pianos and in most cases allowed third-party products to be played, although in some cases with the loss of individual company-specific functions.
This format became the quasi-world standard.
The piano roll, which had been manufactured for orchestras since 1883, had become a mass product due to the market launch of the pianola in 1898 and competing instruments, although almost every manufacturer had used its own roll format.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Music Trade Review, New York, NY, Vol. 47, No. 24, p. 31, December 12, 1908.
literature
- William Braid White: The player-piano up-to-date: a comprehensive treatise on the principles, construction, adjustment, regulation and use of pneumatic mechanisms for piano-playing: together with a description of the leading mechanisms now in use and some hints on the playing thereof . New York, Edward Lyman Bill, 1914. ( Incorrectly gives 1909 for the convention ).