Having abandoned not only the concert stage, but also the income that went with it, Ornstein signed an exclusive contract with the Ampico label to make piano rolls. He made over two dozen rolls for Ampico, mostly of a nonmodernist repertoire; the composers he performed most often were Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt. Two rolls contained his own compositions: "Berceuse (Cradle Song)" (ca. 1920–21) and "Prélude tragique" (1924). Ornstein never recorded, in any format, even a single example of his futurist pieces which had brought him fame.