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MMD > Archives > June 2002 > 2002.06.09 > 04Prev  Next


How To Make A Musical Box - Alternatives
By John Farmer

Ramon,

Some additional thoughts about your quest.

1 - There are some companies who still make cylinder boxes, Reuge is, I
believe, one of them.  Perhaps they could arrange a visit to their
factory (in Geneva, though).  This might give you an insight into their
methods.

2 - What about a disk box, rather than a cylinder.  The mechanisms are
usually somewhat simpler, and you have the advantage of being able to
have one box and many tunes.  Again you will have to read up on them, -
Graham Webb also did a Disk Music Box Handbook.  The disks might be a
bit of a challenge though.

3 - On the disk theme, there are some companies who make disks (for
example Renaissance disks in UK), but I'm not sure if they can create
new tunes, or just copy existing ones.  If they can create disks to your
music, you could buy a good antique disk box and get disks made (or buy
one that needs restoring - easier than building from scratch, but still
interesting !).

4 - Have you thought about the alternative of a player piano - lots of
them around, and people who can cut rolls from MIDI files.

If you go down the disk or piano route, others could also appreciate
your music on their instruments.

I have no experience of doing these things, but they seemed alternatives
worth considering.
Good Luck :-)

John Farmer
UK


(Message sent Fri 7 Jun 2002, 20:03:51 GMT, from time zone GMT+0100.)

Key Words in Subject:  Alternatives, Box, How, Make, Musical

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