Hi, my name is Jake Davies and I'm from London.  I am in New York
at the moment, making a record, and the artist I am working with has
written a song for a music box.  We are trying to find the best way
to get a music box sound for her composition.  Does anyone have any
suggestions about the options available to us?

The disc style systems seem to have more appeal at the moment, but that
is partly visual as well.  We know one place in the UK that have disc
players but do not know where to get a disc made up.  Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Jake Davies
New York City

 [ Editor's note:
 [
 [ Jake, the fastest way to realize the sound you want _for an audio
 [ recording_ is to use the music box sound synthesis program called
 [ MusicBox15, which simulates the sounds of a 15" disc-playing
 [ music box.  A fully-operational free demo may be downloaded at
 [ http://www.gdae.com/  I recommend that you contact the author,
 [ Jack Perron <jackkper@top.monad.net>, for additional information
 [ and license to use the technique for a commercial recording.
 [
 [ If the MusicBox15 simulation creates the sound you like, and you
 [ need the wide chromatic scale of the big 15" music box, discs for
 [ this popular instrument can be custom-punched for you by
 [
 [ Dwight G. Porter Music Box Co.
 [ RR2, Box 27A, Sunset Hill
 [ Randolph, VT 05060, USA
 [ Phone: (802) 728-9694
 [ Fax: (802) 729-9699
 [
 [ If the song can be adapted to play on the diatonic scale (key of
 [ 'C'-major), then you can have fun creating your own punched paper
 [ strip for the Sankyo 20-note paper strip music box.  See the articles
 [ indexed at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/KWIC/S/sankyo.html
 [ The inexpensive movement and program cards may be purchased from
 [
 [ Nancy Fratti - Panchronia Antiquities
 [ PO BOX 210 - Whitehall, NY 12887-0210 USA
 [ tel. 518-282-9770  or fax: 518-282-9800
 [ E-mail:  musicbox@sover.net
 [
 [ In 000619 MMD Hauke Marxsen reported on cylinder music box
 [ movements now manufactured by MAP S.A. in Switzerland; see
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/200006/2000.06.19.02.html
 [
 [ Best wishes for your recording project!
 [
 [ -- Robbie