Teveofy Technology recently introduced the Muro Box, a electro-mechanical music box that can play any melody, because you can customize what it plays using a mobile app. A MIDI input port is also available as an option, so the Muro Box can be used as a MIDI-controlled instrument.
Here’s a video demo of playing the Muro Box using a MIDI keyboard:
And here’s an example, via Mark Steiner, of the Muro Box being played with the NuRAD MIDI controller:
Pricing and Availability
The Muro Box is available now, priced starting at $375.
And today in synthopia’s recurring segment ‘useless but cool’…
I get why you’re saying this but I strongly disagree. As a musician who tries to incorporate the liveliness of real recorded music boxes (rather than just triggering a bunch of sample libraries and continually having to ask myself “Does this sound real? Have I fooled them?”), I find this super useful. Plus the real music boxes I’ve found are always limited to a particular key signature, so this is truly rad and useful insofar as I don’t have to build a track around the music box’s key signature.
IMHO this is way cooler and more useful than *yet another* synth plugin or even hardware analog synth. I realize I sound very wooey in saying this, but I’ve found through the years that recording real instruments transfers a certain organic energy, liveliness and dynamism into a track that you simply won’t get with sample libraries. Even if that energy is just a manifestation of my own excitement and intrigue and sense of being inspired, it’s real and it’s undeniable.
Cool but expensive
i can see a certain niche being quite happy to buy this
but yeh, it’s definitely a niche product
Clever design here. I would seriously consider it if it was under $150.
I’ve got one of those paper tape drive ones though that was much less…
Is it just me or is the music box in the demo rather out of tune?
You mean “analogue” 🙂
There could be a way that a MIDI controlled music box could do some semblance (first time I’ve ever typed that word?) of velocity.
If we split the production of each note into two functions: a pin pulls the tine down, and then releases it. Soft velocities release the tine after a very small amount of downward pull, and hard velocities would pull the tine down further before releasing it. It would be the equivalent, I suppose, of having shorter or longer pins on the barrel.
I’d much rather use really well-recorded samples, but this is super charming and clever.
i would literally have purchased this BUT no flats or sharps. deal breaker. with something like this you have to able to play mysterious melodies.
Try Phrygian and Locrian mode
White keys only at that price? Really?
Come on do an effort and make a chromatic version!
I am pretty sure buying an almost $400 music box would end in my divorce. =-(