The concept of operating a player or reproducing piano with electric valves connected into the tracker bar tubing originated in the late 1920s. Several manufacturers, most notably Welte and Aeolian, made a remote roll changer device. The associated piano had small electric valves and was connected to the remote roll changer by a large multi (100+) conductor electric cable.

The roll “reading” in these devices was done pneumatically by utilizing pouch activated electric contacts for each hole in the tracker bar. At the other end of the large cable, the contact closures completed the circuit to the corresponding magnet valves.

The VirtualRoll is a modern adaptation of this original concept. The principal of the operation is essentially the same. The roll data is converted to electrical signals which operate magnet valves to provide the “tracker bar” signals that control the player action. The difference is that the rolls have been optically scanned, the roll punch data stored and then further processed to become e-roll files.

The output of the VirtualRoll’s valves when playing an e-roll file is functionally identical to the tracker bar signals when playing the actual paper roll.

Bob Hunt, a highly regarded player piano restoration specialist, developed the VirtualRoll in early 2001.
System number one is still here in my shop and functions as it is intended. Many improvements have
been made since that first system, such as making it more compact and quieter.

I met Bob in 2011, when I installed my first system and was so impressed I went to visit him in Maine. Bob eventually asked me if I would like to take over the manufacture of the VirtualRoll. He was facing a health challenge at the time and wanted his idea to continue. I agreed and spent many weekends throughout the next year learning all I could about the system. I took over in the summer of 2013 when Bob passed away.

There are 2 of us now working to manufacture the Virtual Roll System which can be installed in almost
any instrument that runs on bellows and uses paper rolls. The systems have been sold all over the world,
including England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.