Thanks CFFJR.

This takes more time than I expected, and often for reasons I hadn't predicted. I imagined that the manual labor of punching out all those holes would take forever, but so much more effort gets spent on the incorporeal aspect of arranging the music.
You're limited in a bunch of different ways with this machine and you have to plan out what you're doing. For instance, the music box itself possesses only 2.5 octaves of notes in the key of C. There are no accidentals provided, so any tunes you want to render have to first be transposed into that key. If there are still a few sharps in there after transposition, you have to figure out what notes to substitute that best maintain the feel of the original song. That takes time.
You also can't adjust the volume of individual notes -- so not only do you have to cut things out if too many musical lines obscure the melody or otherwise muddle the piece, but you have to figure out which parts are expendable and which are essential to the tune's spirit.
You're even limited by the mechanics as to how often notes can be subsequently struck, and how fast the piece can be cranked. It's a thrilling puzzle.
I cut one major corner by starting with accurate sheet music. I use midis from vgmusic.com and convert them into notation pages and work from there, instead of doing everything from the beginning by ear.
CCFJR wrote:Also, I'd bet the Star Light Zone would sound really nice done this way.
I've considered this, but I can't remember why I had doubts. I can guarantee you I'll be looking into it in the future to really try to work it out though, because you're right: Starlight certainly lends itself to being played on this instrument.
