This study presents an experimental setup designed to read, by means of optical techniques, the music inscribed on automatic organ cylinders. We describe the acquisition principle based on images taken by a CCD linear camera, and the various digital signal processing techniques employed to retrieve the music from the images. Preliminary results show that this original method is a relevant choice, since on our test cylinder about 90 % of the notes are correctly identified, with only 14 % of false alarms. However, for realistic estimates of the actual music, some improvements are still necessary, both in the experimental setup and in the way individual note positions are converted into music.

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