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3. Violano Virtuoso Tracker

Mills Violano Virtuoso Tracker Bar Data

Author: David Back, May 2015 - Updated April/May/June/October 2024.

Roll

Tuning

Data

Tracker	Midi	Finger	String	Data
Hole	Note
0				Coin Drop
1				Vanish, very slow bow
2				Bow Action, very fast bow
3				Staccato, bow leaves strings
4				Rolls < 1750 Tremolo. Later rolls: activates rosin relay
5				Loud, bow fast
6	74	12	D	Next Lowest
7	69	7
8	64	2
9	71	9
10	66	4
11	73	11
12	68	6
13	63	1
14	70	8
15	65	3
16	72	10
17	67	5
18	62	Open
19				Reverse (Rewind)
20				Soft, bow slow
21	76	Open	E	Highest
22	83	7
23	78	2
24	85	9
25	80	4
26	87	11
27	82	6
28	77	1
29	84	8
30	79	3
31	86	10
32	81	5
33	88	12
34	95	19
35	90	14
36	97	21
37	92	16
38	98	22
39	94	18
40	89	13
41	96	20
42	91	15
43	93	17
44				Very Early: Piano soft bypass resistor active. Later: Soft hammer rail solenoid.
45	55	Open	G	Lowest
46	62	7		2 Wire
47	57	2
48	64	9
49	59	4
50	66	11
51	61	6
52	56	1
53	63	8
54	58	3
55	65	10
56	60	5
57	67	12
58				Very Early: Piano loud relay active. Later: Loud hammer rail solenoid.
59	81	12	A	Next Highest
60	76	7		2 Wire
61	71	2
62	78	9
63	73	4
64	80	11
65	75	6
66	70	1
67	77	8
68	72	3
69	79	10
70	74	5
71	82	13
72	69	Open
73	83	14
74				Rolls > 1750 Tremolo. Earlier rolls use 4
75				Auto Cut Off (End of Tune)
76	41	Piano		44 Notes in Order, Low F to High C
77	42
78	43
79	44
80	45
81	46
82	47
83	48
84	49
85	50
86	51
87	52
88	53
89	54
90	55
91	56
92	57
93	58
94	59
95	60
96	61
97	62
98	63
99	64
100	65
101	66
102	67
103	68
104	69
105	70
106	71
107	72
108	73
109	74
110	75
111	76
112	77
113	78
114	79
115	80
116	81
117	82
118	83
119	84
120				Piano Accent, early rolls only
121				Sustain pedal on, Damper lifted
122				Very Soft hammer rail solenoid (if present).
123				Damper On 

2. Tremolo: This has to be turned on in short bursts as otherwise it will weaken the paper roll. Many of the later rolls do not use it at all. Usually it is permanently engaged by users.

3. Violin bowing: There are 5 levels of bowing speed 1..5. The default speed is level 3.
Note selection and bowing both begin and end at the same time unless staccato is applied.
More than one level is often simultaneously applied - either by design or error.
Experimentally:
If slow and very slow are on simultaneously, very slow overrides slow.
If fast and very fast are on simultaneously, very fast overrides fast.
If slow and fast are on simultaneously the speed is very slightly faster than all speed controls off.

4. Rosin relay: Early Violanos automatically applied rosin on rewind.
For later models, rosin was liberally applied while playing when signalled by the rosin relay.
Between about roll 2800 and 3121, the rosin relay applied rosin before playing each tune.

5. Piano Accent and Piano Mute: Used in early violanos only. Piano accent is active on and off all the time an early roll is playing and is believed to be the early implementation of the sustain pedal. Piano Mute is just a brief signal which is assumed turns the piano off. Neither are used in rolls after about roll 1950.

6. Piano Loud and Piano Soft:
(Very Early violanos only) Piano loud activates a relay which applies maximum current to the piano note magnets. Piano soft bypassed some of the magnet current and produced a softer note. When neither is activated a medium current is applied (the default). It is doubtful if this method was ever successful.

(Hammer Rail Control) The Hammer Rail solenoid (58) moves the hammer rail to the loud position or Hammer Rail solenoid (44) moves the hammer rail to the soft position. If present, Hammer rail solenoid (122) moves the hammer rail to the very soft position. The hammer rail stays in the position it has been moved to until moved again. Rolls generally set the hammer rail to the loud position at the end of a tune. The very soft position is very rarely (if ever) used.