Custom made music boxes to play any song

[beatle]

I'm thinking a nice preset for my girlfriend would be a music box that plays one of her favorite songs. She's always has this thing for David Gray's "Please Forgive Me" which, as expected, doesn't show up in any music box manufacturer's songlist. I've googled for it, but I'm not turning up much. It seems like a midi file or sheet music could be converted into a music box mechanism. Licensing issues aside, :roll: I think this would be a cool present, even if it cost a fair amount. Does anyone know of a company that makes custom music boxes that I could commission to make one?

 

[Toki]

very cool idea, but i too have never heard of such a thing.

 

[Zugzwang152]

very doubtful you can get those. the licensing is what screws it up. if the record labels can't turn a decent profit, they won't allow music box manufacturers to produce. If you bought the song, and then made your own music box, that may fall under fair use...

 

[Wanescotting]

Man, I googled the HELL outta the subject, but I got nothing.

 

[chiwawa626]

buy a cheapo mp3 player and make ur own?

 

[chuckywang]

She's gonna get ideas of why she needs to forgive you.

 

[HermDogg]

Custom-made music boxes, if you could even find a place to do it, would be EXPENSIVE, emphasis on the $$$. Each Music box is run by a movement, which is quite intricate and unique to each song. If you really wanted to do something like this, I would suggest a do it yourself with a circuit board and light sensor. Or, and this is much easier, buy a tiny little 64mb MP3 player Example and rig it up yourself. Lots cheaper, it'll actually be the song, and you can use more than one. Hope this helps.

 

[beatle]

An mp3 player doesn't have the character that a music box does (listen to me, I sound like a sap). Plus I already bought her an mp3 player for Christmas.

In regards to licensing. I know Mazda had issues with people making aftermarket parts and using the Mazda or Miata logo. There are still a few independent places that make the stuff, but no large-scale items. I was hoping there would be some "underground music box" shops around somewhere.

 

[beatle]

I realize they'd be pricey, but they ARE just a metal drum with little bumps and a set of tines that correspond to certain notes. People spend thousands on jewelry, which she's not a big fan of, so why not give her something that nobody else has?

 

[Aimster]

The Music Box Company?

 

[Aimster]

http://themusicboxcompany.com/disk_music_boxes.htm

I have no idea if you can just swap out what they use to play the music with something else.
GL

 

[dighn]

take the drum out, file out the bumps, make your own bumps with solder or something... lol....

 

[beatle]

The disk music boxes look promising, in that they have recent songs, not just classical and public domain songs. It's probably worth firing off an email to see if they'd do a one-off.

 

[TitanDiddly]

I bet that if you bought one for another song, you could rekey it with a LOT of work.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: dighn
take the drum out, file out the bumps, make your own bumps with solder or something... lol....

The problem is you'd have to find an existing box that used the same set of notes.

There are two components to this:

1) The wires that actually make the different frequencies and
2) The "recording"

If you found an existing box with a compatible set of notes it would make life MUCH easier, leaving you only the recording to produce.

Viper GTS