Letter From Gerry Bay, recently posted to the MMD.

Recently, I installed the Spencer Chase/Gene Gerety MIDI system on my Steinway Duo-Art upright piano. Since this is a very new system, I thought that the MMD members might be interested in a report.

The system consists of a 16-valve block with the electronics required to operate the valves on board. I needed six blocks to cover the entire range. A MIDI controller drives the electronics and you can operate the MIDI controller with Cakewalk or similar software on your laptop or by a Viscount MIDI player.

The installation took a full, long day. Some of this time was due to the tedious requirement of teeing the tubing in parallel with the tracker bar. But a fair amount of time was spent playing with the software, etc., to get everything playing perfectly. It should be noted that mine was the first installation of this generation of device so none of this was a surprise to us. I had agreed to be the guinea pig to help them get this device going.

When we finished the installation and got everything working, the system played like a champ. It has played solidly for the past week with no problems whatsoever. I am thoroughly enjoying the wonderful music on my Steinway. Spencer has scanned some really incredible rolls. You can leave the piano on for hours and it just plays away. It is my belief that Spencer and Gene have developed a very reliable unit but time will tell.

... So having wanted a MIDI system for my piano for quite a few years, I must say that I am now just ecstatic about my new Chase/Gerety system. ...If you are considering going in this direction, I think you should give their system a serious look.

Gerry Bay