Geert × Muro Box: 5-Year Friendship in Music
Composing Memories and Inspiration with a Programmable Music Box(Belgium)
Geert × Muro Box: 5-Year Friendship in Music
Composing Memories and Inspiration with a Programmable Music Box(Belgium)
Too long to read? We’ve prepared a podcast version so you can listen and follow Geert’s journey of composing with the Muro Box music boxes.
Overview of Previous Events
Geert, a music enthusiast from Belgium, has been expressing himself through music since childhood despite being visually impaired. He loves DIY projects, is skilled with his hands—able to repair bicycles and antique mechanical clocks—and enjoys assembling all sorts of things.
In 2021, he supported the Muro Box-N20 Standard during the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and wrote his user story about the N20 music box. In his article, he especially thanked the Muro Box team for making the app more accessible, allowing visually impaired users to compose music with ease.
Although Geert cannot see, he uses his keen hearing and sense of touch to imagine the appearance and structure of the music boxes. He has even provided our team with valuable suggestions for optimizing the app’s guided buttons, windows, and voice instructions, as well as feedback on product design. We are grateful for his hands-on experimentation and the excellent recommendations he has shared, which over more than five years have helped us make Muro Box better suited to the composition and performance needs of music enthusiasts.
In the following blog, we’ll share his experiences with the N20 and N40 music boxes, and how he uses them to turn life’s inspirations into personalized melodies.
First Encounter with the Muro Box-N20: Backing a Crowdfunding Campaign and Then My Music Creation Journey Started
Childhood Curiosity and the Birth of a One-Man Band
Ever since I was a child, I enjoyed recording my voice and numerous other sounds like the car, the piano, my father’s motorcycle. I also recorded my “singing” and tried to replicate elements from songs I heard on the radio.
During primary school, I took piano lessons and music theory. Later, I began recording my own versions of popular songs.
In high school, I stopped formal lessons and played by ear. Eventually, I was unknowingly creating full-band arrangements—drums, synths, piano, vocals—all by myself.
From Cassette Tapes to Digital Multitrack
In the early days, I used cassette tapes to layer recordings. The sound quality wasn’t great, but it was a start.
Once I discovered multitrack recording on a computer, everything changed. Though my first computer was too slow, a faster one allowed me to fully embrace digital recording—with effects, reverb, and voice distortion.
I also learned to play guitar and bought a digital piano with MIDI capability. This led me to explore DAWs and virtual instruments.
My First N20 Music Box Composition: "Kerstied" (Christmas Song)
In 2020, I backed the Muro Box-N20 on Indiegogo. To me, music boxes symbolize something forgotten yet miraculous. Their simplicity contrasts with their charming sound.
Even before I knew about the Muro Box, I started seeing music boxes as a symbol of something inferior and forgotten, yet miraculous.
Some people seem to judge music boxes as something of the past, not suitable anymore in this digital world and even children’s toys seem to be more and more digitized when it comes to playing tunes. And on the other hand miraculous, because, even though a music box is nothing more than a comb and a cylinder with pins plucking the comb, it is almost unbelievable that this setup can generate such a lovely and charming sound.
If you ever remove the comb from a music box (which I did back when I was a child 😊 ), you never forget how simple the removal is (it only takes one or two screws) and how difficult it is to replace it and have the music box play its tune flawlessly again.
This idea resonated with the story of Jesus’ birth—rejected by society, born in a stable, yet seen as the savior.
I composed a Christmas song inspired by the Muro Box. I wrote a modernized nativity story titled “De muziekdoos en de stal” (“The Music Box and the Stable”), inspired by my work with people from diverse backgrounds, including those recovering from addiction.
The junky and the dealer in the story are a way to modernize the story a bit, but I also included these personalities because that same year, I started working as a bike repairer in an organization that employs people having all kinds of pasts (including drug addiction) and so I see them as the modernized shepherds in the original story.
It really was very nice to make up the story and I titled it: “De muziekdoos en de stal” (which translates to “The music box and the stable”).
But I also enjoyed playing the music for it. In fact, the music started out as a Muro Box-only melody I uploaded onto the app some weeks before I had the above idea. This Muro Box-only version is still available; if you look for “Kerstlied” in the app (“Kerstlied” is Dutch for “Christmas song”), you should find it.
(If you’re interested in the lyrics Geert composed, please check the video above of the Muro Box N20 performance. The full lyrics are included in the YouTube video description. Since Geert is unable to record videos himself, he entrusted us to upload his composition to the Muro Box YouTube channel on his behalf.)
https://murobox.com/en/online-music-player-v3/slug_9da7276ee54a44e8ae6f31ce43e84b72/
(Note: You are welcome to use the online web version of the music library above to listen to Geert’s composition of Kerstlied.
The three music box models in the live player each produce different sounds. Feel free to click on the model abbreviations to switch between them and compare:
N40: N40 Standard, N40SLM: N40 Sublim, N20: N20 Standard)
So, when I was going to work out this story (as described above), I found that the melody of “Kerstlied” was very suitable for this (because the verse is a simple and short fragment that could be repeated over and over again to simulate the nature of a traditional music box).
So, I loaded the exact same midi file into my DAW and edited it a bit so that the verse fragment was repeated 5 times and then I added some other instruments (vibraphone, church organ, church bells, choir sounds and guitar) and my vocals to the song to shape the spirit of my story.
And then the magic happened when I connected the Muro Box N20 to the PC and let the DAW send the midi info to it. I had to make the midi track play a little bit ahead to compensate for the delay the Muro Box obviously has (as it is a mechanical process to pluck a tooth of the comb) so that the Muro Box played in sync.
After that, it was almost miraculous how Muro Box played along live with the vocals and the other instruments! To be able to have the Muro Box sound in the final audio file, I recorded the sound to a separate track and included that audio in the final mix.
And even listening to that final mix, it amazed me how well the sound of the Muro Box blended with the other instruments and vocals and so I was very happy with the end result where the music box blended into the story as well as into the music!
Melody-Making as a Blind Composer
Unlike most users, I don’t use the app’s graphical compose interface. As a blind person, I rely on my digital piano to record MIDI.
I save the MIDI to a USB stick and import it into the app. I’m grateful the team made this possible.
Every time I hear my melody played by the Muro Box for the first time, it’s pure magic.
Continued Creation and Community Sharing
In some European countries (including Belgium where I live), we have this tradition of Saint-Nicholas being all good children’s friend and bringing them sweets, chocolate and toys on December 6th every year.
So, there are a lot of children’s songs out there that they sing when this day is coming along. That’s why I couldn’t resist making a little playlist with Muro Box versions to a lot of those songs I made up as they bring back memories to my own childhood.
The playlist is called “Sinterklaas” (which is Dutch for Saint-Nicholas) and it is still available in the Muro Box app.
Back in 2021, when I made up those songs and put them into this playlist, I made an audio recording of the N20 playing this playlist so that I was able to send an mp3 file to an ex classmate of mine who also loves the sound of a music box.
She said to me lately that, whenever she feels down or has some difficult times, she plays this mp3 file imagining the smell of freshly baked cookies and instantly feels better.
On December 6th 2024 in the morning, I knew a friend of mine was coming around my house. So, I bought her some chocolate and baked some cookies and surprised her when she came along.
And while she was still amazed, I told her that I had to go to the toilet. That wasn’t a lie, but what she didn’t know was that I also took my smartphone with me and secretly started the Saint-Nicholas playlist. So to her, while she was alone in the living room, it seemed like the Muro Box magically came to life and started playing all those little songs she knew from back when she was a child.
When I walked back into the living room, she was even more amazed and wanted the Muro Box to play the songs again. Later she said to me: “Geert, it was such a nice morning; I was as amazed as a child who just received its Saint-Nicholas goodies.”
Tinnitus and the Gift of Simplicity
For the past 10 years, I’ve suffered from tinnitus. On bad days, I can’t enjoy making music with my one-man band.
But composing for the Muro Box remains enjoyable. No complex mixing, no effects—just pure melody.
Even on difficult days, the Muro Box allows me to create something beautiful. For that, I’m deeply thankful.
(Note: The song title “Zie ginds komt de stoomboot” is Dutch, translated as “Look, there comes the steamboat”. This is the opening line of a traditional Dutch Sinterklaas song, depicting Saint Nicholas arriving by steamboat, full of festive and playful charm.)
N20 Music Box Game: Guess the Song’s Title
Throughout the years I owned my Muro Box N20, I uploaded a bunch of songs onto the app my parents like. So every time I uploaded such a song, I asked them to guess the song’s title whenever they were around my house. And it became a little game every time where they sometimes are able to guess it.
And from time to time, my father looks at the Muro Box while it is playing and says: “What a beautiful movement, it is nice to see it working, they must have spent a lot of time to make such a precision movement work correctly.”
Also at New Year’s Eve 2024 I played the game of letting people guess the song’s title. I invited 2 friends of mine to celebrate together; they prepared the meal while I prepared a musical quiz.
So after we had dinner, we sat down and did my musical quiz. For 2 questions, I asked them to try and guess song titles based on Muro Box playing some songs.
For my parents as well as my friends, It seems quite difficult to guess the title as the Muro Box version of a song is not always exactly the same as the regular version. But it is always fun to hear people go like: “Oh, what’s this?” and then: “Oh yeah I know what it is.” And then again: “No, I am wrong, it is something else.”
Building a Cross-Border Friendship Beyond Customer Relations with the Muro Box Team
From my first contact with the Muro Box team in 2020, I noticed dedication, passion and customer care in a way I don’t see that often nowadays. Because, with some companies out there, I even doubt if they really care about the products or services they sell or develop anyway.
And so, even though that turned out totally the opposite with Tevofy as they immediately made their app accessible for use by blind people like me and answered all of my questions dedicatedly and very friendly.
I remained sceptical for a while knowing how things often go with other companies. So I couldn’t help thinking: “Well you know what? They are trying to get as many customers aboard as possible and once they have them, they won’t care about them that much anymore, right?”
But, my thoughts prove to be totally wrong more and more, the longer I have contact with them. Even 5 years on from 2020, the care for their products and customers even grew towards appreciating customers.
To take myself as an example: they have heartfelt appreciation for the little things I do to support them such as adding melodies to the Muro Box online library, reporting about bugs in the app or things that may not be quite as usable for blind people as they could be …
You know, they value those small things and instead of seeing me as “that blind guy always asking strange accessibility stuff”, they appreciate that and they make me aware of that every time they contact me.
As we have been sending mails back and forth for about 5 years now, the writing even became kind of like friends would write to each other. So that’s why I keep on being attached to this company, rather than just buying the wonderful product they happen to have and be done with it.
Whenever they have some difficulties or things that didn’t go quite well, I just cannot resist sending them an email giving them my supportive feedback. And even that is very much appreciated by them even though my little email doesn’t change their issues or situation at all.
KIKK Belgium Exhibition: Experiencing the Magic of the N40 Music Box
In October 2025, I even had the chance to meet them at the KIKK festival here in Belgium! And also this meeting was warm and friendly even though I am not that great in speaking and expressing my deepest emotions in other languages. But I definitely was very welcome at their booth.
They happily let me touch their newest models and told me how they work etc etc … It also was very pleasing to see that they incorporated some suggestions I made some time ago about the placement of the power and MIDI connectors so that I could plug in cables more conveniently.
Annick, my friend who assisted me during that meeting, said afterwards: “Geert, it was amazing to see how their face cleared up as soon as they realized that you were around!”
And even though I already knew they care a lot for their products, I now was able to see in person how their products are almost seen as their children. I was (and still am) very deeply impressed!
So, to conclude all this … Maybe, this kind of customer support and product care is regular in Taiwan, I don’t know, but here in Belgium (where I live), it is just such a relief to see how this company handles their customers and cares for their products.
It is not the first time I say this and it won’t be the last time either, but I really wish every company would do it like Tevofy!
My First Impressions with the N40 Sublime Music Box
After Using It for about 4 Days
Packaging
This is by far my most favorite way of unpacking! I first of all like the idea of the resonance box also being the packaging box; because the resonance box is a large hollow box and you might as well use that space to safely pack the music box and all its accessories.
But what I like even more is that I have to unscrew 8 screws to be able to take the lid off and unpack everything; and then, when I want to use the resonance box, I have to put the lid back on and screw all 8 screws back in again. That’s wonderful; I like to deal with screws!
Apart from all this, everything is extremely well packed and protected; very tight, very safe, no chance of being damaged in transit. And it is the kind of packaging that can be easily reused to pack up the music box if it ever needs to be shipped or transported again so I’ll definitely keep all packaging materials!
Assembling the Resonance Box
More screwing action required to put on the feet of the resonance box, so more joy for me! Setting the sound post to the correct length also is very convenient and easy to do and being careful, putting the lid back on without making the sound post fall over is easy too.
The only very little suggestion I’d like to do here is either fixing the little metal shock absorbers onto the feet or designing them in such a way they can be attached and detached from the feet. Because now, they just sit underneath the feet and whenever the resonance box has to be moved even the slightest bit, the absorbers just fall off. In normal cases however, they are very good.
It’s also a very good thing that the feet can be adjusted in height to compensate for imperfections in the table or desk surface the resonance box is placed on!
The Music Box Itself
This is one piece of very solid machinery, just like my N20 is. The first improvement I noticed is the placement of the knob at the front of the music box; this is much more convenient and I guess it also makes the music box look more like a traditional music box having a winding knob.
Also, the USB-C ports at the back are somewhat deeper into the housing and so plugging in some cables is much more convenient. What I also like very much is the kind of switch at the back for switching midi receival via the 5-pin connector on and off. If you were to do like most companies do nowadays, you would have implemented a momentary switch that, when pressed once, turns the midi receiver on and, when pressed again, turns it off and then a LED indicator would have shown the on or off status.
Fortunately however, they chose to use a good old switch that clicks in when pressed and clicks out when pressed again; simple and accessible for everyone.
And … YES, even more screws at the corners of the transparent lid!!!! And when unscrewed, 2 metal strips and … THE LID came off!!!!! What a great idea; it is a real revelation for me to finally touch the mechanism underneath the lid. Being technically minded, this is one of the most favorite improvements for what the design is concerned about!
And by the way, WHAT A MECHANISM!!!! WHAT A QUALITY!!!! This is something you don’t see very often anymore nowadays! I LOVE IT!!!
Listen and compare:
How does the same song sound when played on the N40 Sublime model music box versus the N20 music box?
Below is a video of the N40 Sublime music box in action, recorded at Geert’s home at the end of October 2025 by his friend Annick.
Below is a video recorded by our team in May 2021, using the N20 music box available at that time, after receiving Geert’s composition file. The current N20 Standard model has further improved sound quality—feel free to visit the official product page to hear more recent recordings.
The Sound
As you know, I was a little sceptical about the sublime harmony sound. The reason for that is the fact that, at least in my mind, a music box should always sound like a children’s music box, so without the sublime harmony.
Maybe this is because I never owned some antique music boxes also having this sublime harmony sound. So that’s why I thought I would like the sublime harmony sound a little less in comparison to the N20 I already own and the N40 Standard. But, the longer I spend with this music box, the more I grow familiar with this sublime harmony thing and after only 4 days I already realize it’s just wonderful and almost heavenly.
It also seems to me you placed the combs slightly further away from the cylinder so that the teeth of the comb are plucked a little bit softer? So the sublime harmony combined with this softer plucking just makes it sound almost like velvet or maybe like something very volatile.
And it doesn’t matter how careful I try to listen: there is no single bit of unwanted resonance in the sound! Even in cases where multiple notes at the same time are played, it never sounds too busy or too “choppy”.
Anyway, it is a very pleasing and relaxing sound that I like very much! Apart from all this, I also notice how the handling of quick passages in melodies has improved over the N20 I own; the N40 Sublime plays every single note and it plays them most of the time very fluently and in-beat. Now, my N20 is an earlier iteration (The Indiegogo version more specifically), so I guess the current N20 also improved in the meantime.
Anyway, this allows for making up songs with more complex accompaniments and melodies and still having them sound great when played on the N40 Sublime.
The App
Well, the app is well-known to me and as you already know, I love to have a fully accessible and usable app which this one definitely is. But now that I have 2 Muro Boxes, I was able to test the “Switch Muro Box” feature and I am very pleasantly surprised! This works very fluently and so in no time, I can choose to control either of my Muro Boxes as I desire.
The only suggestion I’d like to do is:
Maybe it is a good idea to display some kind of warning whenever I am about to play an N40 melody while the N20 is connected to the app at that moment. Or maybe N40 melodies should be left out completely when the N20 is connected?
Because an N40 melody that is played by the N20 can sound quite horrible as the N20 doesn’t support sharps and flats. People who have no idea what N20 or N40 means may find it unappealing to hear a poor playback like that?
(Thanks to Geert for this suggestion. We have planned to add a reminder message so that users who are connected to the N20 music box will be aware that if they select an N40 version song from the app, some notes may be missing and the piece may not play correctly.)
Listen to My N40 Music Box Compositions!
1.《Aan het Noordzeestrand》(English translation: “At the North Sea Shore”)
This one is called “Aan het Noordzeestrand) (which translates to “At the North Sea Shore”) and this is what I wrote in the song’s description when I uploaded it onto the app:
“As we celebrated All Souls’ day today, we remembered our deceased friends and family members. So at a certain moment, this memory of my grandmother joining me as a kid while I was playing some 78RPM records on my gramophone came into my head.
One of those was this Flemish song by Jan Verbraeken, a 50s hit out of the time when Flemish recorded music was still quite young.
My grandmother always sang along as she knew this song very well from when she was younger. As a child, I didn’t realize, but now that I grew up, she must have enjoyed this very much I guess.”
2. The Day Before You Came
This of course is a well-known song by Swedish group Abba. It has been an idea in my head for many years to do something with this song as I think this is a very beautiful song. In my head, I’d slow it down a bit and strip it down quite a bit and maybe alter the lyrics here and there … But I never made all those thoughts happen …
Until today when I suddenly thought: “Right, this is it, I am going to make up an N40 version of this song.” So, as I am writing this little song description, I didn’t hear my N40 play it yet, so I hope it will turn out right. 🙂
Anyway, apart from the fact this is a very beautiful song, it also takes me back to my time as a little child when we used to go to Knokke-Heist where my aunt and uncle rented a nice flat at the time. I still remember hearing this song on the radio there, being fascinated about the musicality of it.
3. Everyone’s Gone to the Moon
This is a 60s hit by British artist Jonathan King and it triggers quite a few memories in my mind.
The first one is me playing it back when I was an internet radio DJ from 2011 to 2014; I never got to know it until I was composing the playlist for my radio broadcast in those days and it soon became one of my favourites.
The second memory is me making my own version of it with my one-man-band in 2023; at that time, a friend of mine just died after fighting Leukemia; he also loved 60s music and I still don’t know why, but doing this made me think of him. I remember recording the sound of my washing machine centrifuging to then use that at the end of the song for replicating the sound of a rocket going to the moon.
The third memory is me performing this song live that same year during my hiking holidays. They always plan this free podium on the last evening there and since someone brought along a digital piano, I felt like doing this song and reworked it a bit to better suit a piano only performance.
I wasn’t aware, but when I heard the playback of someone who recorded my live performance afterwards, I found that it sounded horrible: no emotion in my singing, singing quite out of tune, voice gliding all about … And so right at that moment, I decided to never again do some live performances anymore. Because, the fact that I didn’t notice the horrible singing while I was doing the song made me realize the problem had to be my tinnitus preventing me from hearing what I needed to hear.
But after all, this decision doesn’t make me sad or something like that; I am glad to still be able to do some music with my one-man-band and, not to forget, to make up some melodies for this great music box called Muro Box.
4. The Young Ones
It’s called “The Young Ones” by British singer Cliff Richard. I thought it could sound nice on the N40 Sublime and as Annick is a big fan of Cliff Richard, I also thought of her while playing this on the piano.