The Hero Journey: From Maker to Backer of a Programmable and Mechanical Music Box Project
The Hero Journey: From Maker to Backer of a Programmable and Mechanical Music Box Project
Siegfried (Belgium)
Best greetings from Belgium,
Dr. Feng and Dr. Tsai asked me to write my maker story to include it on their website. After a long and hard think I decided to make the jump although I feel it is a little bit too much honor:
I am not a professional musician (to my deep regret).
I am not a professor in sound acoustics.
I do not hold a degree in designing or machine engineering.
I am not a music box dealer.
I am not a music box historian.
(I see I am beginning to depress myself a little bit here)😉…
So before my Ego decides it is time to commit suicide, it is time to begin to explain who in fact I AM (and my own small “HERO” journey in the process) 😉.
1.My Call to Adventure
My hobbies include playing the mouth harmonica. I thought of it as a solitary amusement but that was without considering my cats Bigodie and Cartouche. They simply love the sounds that I create and have become my biggest fans.
I am not so sure what that tells me about the quality of my endeavors… But again, for my Ego’s sake we will not dive further into that topic. Long story short, my cats made me dream of a real life human audience!!!
2. The Refusal of the Call
Unfortunately, I am not gifted with perfect hearing. With a music sheet I am a great pretender, but without one I am completely lost! Jamming or improvising on the spot is just not possible for me and that is a big disadvantage. It is the reason why I can never join a music-ensemble or a professional band.
So I decided to accept my fate and be happy with my 2 Cat Fans. Life could be worse…
3. The Threshold Guardian (Beginning of Transformation)
As fate would have it 😉, I felt myself drawn to a musical instrument’s museum. And in a bright, shining light I saw for the very first time A MUSIC BOX. A music box that did not only have metal things, but also bells and a built-in harmonica!(You can see this special music box here: https://www.littledayout.com/the-singapore-musical-box-museum-pause-and-listen/)
This made me think…. If not one real musician wants to play with me… Why not create a musician that does not have a choice (* Evil laughter *)? What if I could create a music box that I can program myself? Around this time I bought this Kalliope disc music box. It seemed to be a good inspiration point.
This little bomb explosion is my hobby room (Yes , I am unmarried ! How did you know that ? 😉)
My closet of “projects to come”. I am in the anniversary clock phase. (You only need to wind it up once a year.) On the highest shelf you will find music box movements in every box
A successful anniversary clock restoration project ticking proud in my Hall😊
4. Challenge, Ordeal and Death
So I embarked on a (mostly digital) journey to collect as much information as I could about the design of a good music box. Over the years, I learned a lot about its history and evolution. How and why they progressed from a cylinder to a disc music box. The ideal dimensions, choice of wood, … What sound actually is, what the timbre of a musical instrument makes. Each bit of information I thought I could use was stored on my computer.
To me this was the first step. I knew how to make a good sound box. Now all that was left to do was learning how to automatise and program it. So during the COVID crisis, I enrolled myself on an online Arduino course.
Alass, The Arduino-dragon proved too powerful for me. It huffed, puffed and threw a flaming ball of incomprehensible bits and bytes at me that left me with some serious digital third degree burns.
For three weeks I was on life support… I needed to come to terms with the fact that this was a dragon I could not slay…
5. Atonement
Quite by accident, I discovered the old Muro Box-N20 campaign page on Indiegogo. It was a Hallelujah moment for me.😊 Someone else was making a digital music box and willing to sell it!!! I had no doubt in my heart and quickly subscribed to their N40 Email update list.
When they asked for input, suggestion and feedback on their ideas, I wondered if my “Failed Quest”-experiences could be of interest to them… So I imparted with them all the “wisdom” I had learned about the design of a music box and the theory behind it.
Since they are great people they were very happy with my Emails and asked if I wanted to share them with the entire Muro Box community. I saw no reason why not. But be warned! This document is a lot more difficult to read than this story. It explains quite a lot of musical theory…
6.The Return (Gift of the Muro God and Goddess)
As you can see, my hero journey is not yet complete. Just like many of you I am waiting for the release of the Muro N40, so that I can finally start my way back to the ordinary world 😉.
This document is my feedback for the Muro Box Team’s latest update about the new resonance box design. Feel free to let me know how other backers think about my suggestions.
I'm practicing playing the harmonica.
Since Halloween is not so long ago… This is me in “working clothes”
This is me, a while ago working on a music box movement from Lador (Brahms lullaby). Unfortunately, I completely ruined this one…
7. A new call to adventure
It finally happened! Joy to the world! My Muro Box finally arrived!!!
I can honestly say it exceeded all my expectations. The sound is spectacular and there are many beautiful songs available in the Muro Box app. My house is now continuously filled with beautiful melodies (and 2 lazy cats ).
But I can not deny it… I must be honest… A deep sadness is still residing in my heart. Since I never composed something digitally in my entire life I still can not use it as an accompanying instrument for my harmonica endeavors.
But what is that sound I hear in the distance? A new call to adventure?
I heard mystical tales about a dragon called Musescore residing somewhere very very deep in a musical forest. The myths also mention a divine fairy-queen called Hung-Yin Liu. Perhaps… With a little bit of luck… She will become my new Goddess, my new Light in the Darkness.
I hear she is always willing to give a helping hand to brave adventurers who dare to travel in these acoustic lands. ( https://murobox.com/en/how-to-unleash-your-creativity-in-arranging-music-box-melodies-en/ )
Now why that one
The honest answer: I had absolutely no idea what to take. I figured… If I want a song I could just write it note for note in musescore and transfer it to MIDI myself (Please take note that this was BEFORE i realized just how much work this is :-p)
But since it was part of the purchase I needed to give you something.
So what do you do in that situation? Just like every adult man in this situation, I asked my mom 😀
My mother remembered immediately that some years ago she looked at the movie “Miss Potter” and that she loved one particular melody.
When she said that to me I remembered it too since she, after just watching it, asked me if I could find the song for her on the internet because she wanted to hear it again. (That was the only time she asked me this in her entire life)
I found it a very good idea. Especially because it is a newly composed song that (probably) was specifically written for a disc music box to be used in “the romantic scene of the movie”. It did not exist before, they must have made a metal disc (like in the 19th century) for it especially for this purpose (or pretended the music box played it and generated it artificially with software).
▲N40 Sublime | When You Taught Me How to Dance
From the Movie “Miss Potter”
Muro Box: The Take-Away form Siegfried’s Feedback in Our N40 Design
We are very grateful to Siegfried for sharing a substantial amount of references to help us design the current Muro Box-N40. The following are what we have adapted from his suggestions:
1.The sound production principle of “Sublime Harmony” was first proposed by Mr. Siegfried, and we had the opportunity to implement it.
2.Wooden Box Design:
Mr. Siegfried provided documentation for calculating the optimal size of a wooden box. Although the calculated optimal size for the wooden box is one meter wide, which we couldn’t practically execute, the documentation included parameters such as a thickness of 6mm for the wooden boards and design details like wood grain direction. We incorporated these details into the wooden box design for N40. Siegfried’s greatest contribution was not just enabling us to create a flawless music box, but allowing us to make better design decisions within the constraints of real-world conditions, based on the experience and theory of designing instruments.
3.Our original circle-shaped sound port on the resonance box was proven to be less than optimal. Thanks to Siegfried’s references, we will propose a new resonance box design in accordance with the conclusions of the papers.
Once again, we want to express our gratitude to Siegfried for his support. If any of you have any design suggestions, please be sure to let us know by email/replying to the feedback form as Siegfried did!
