Hello everybody, I'm Matthew Sebring.  I am extremely new to mechanical
music though I am interested and eager to learn all that I can.  I'm no
collector by any means and, while I am interested in antiques, the
ability to tinker on a project is what really appeals to me.  I guess
that qualifies my as an "amateur hobbyist."  I have three questions for
the forum here and I would appreciate any response they might generate.

First, has anyone built and tried the British all-cardboard 'Affordable
Organette Kit'?  So far I have heard good things about it and I plan to
try it out for myself but I would like to hear from anyone who has
actual first hand experience with it.

Second, has anyone here built and tested the plans found in 'How to
Build a Barrel Organ - Adventures in Plastic'?  Once again this project
really appeals to me though I plan to build the organette kit first.

The factors I am most interested in are (a) How did construction go,
(b) how readily available were the materials, and (c) what was the
overall project cost, although any information whatsoever will be a
huge help.

My third question pertains to WAV files and sheet music.  Are there
any utilities available (preferably for download) which can strip notes
from WAV files?  I imagine it is possible as it's all a function of
frequencies but I haven't found that it has actually been done yet.
There is a particular organ tune that I have always loved, but due to
the nature of it's source (a movie soundtrack) I don't think the sheet
music is available.

The tune is the barrel organ piece found in 'La Cite Des Infants
Prods' or, 'City of the Lost Children'.  It was written specifically
for the movie and so has been impossible to find except for the sound-
track itself.  I am also all but tone-deaf and it is simply beyond my
ability to pick out specific notes in the complex harmony.

Matthew Sebring
Cincinnati, Ohio

 [ Welcome to MMD, Matthew.  I don't know about the organs, but
 [ if you want sheet music from an audio recording, about the
 [ only practical method is the human ear!  See the discussions
 { about "WAV" and "Wav-to-MIDI" in the MMD Archives at
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/KWIC/W.html   -- Robbie