Format Wars: Boxes of Music.
May 7th, 2011 by Andy
Whilst some people might choose to release music on wilfully anachronistic media … as delightful and whimsical that music is, the choice of cassette as the distributed format will inevitably limit the number of people that can enjoy it (notwithstanding the ubiquitous youtube).
… or perhaps I have mis-judged, and audio cassette is the future. I am not the person to ask. In my continued efforts to shun all things modern I have invested in this…
Music Box
It’s a punch card programmable music box, and is shown loaded with my first composition for it (’Penelope’s Theme’).
The benefits of the format far outweigh the downsides as far as I can see.
- 1. Very cheap media. And cheap postage. People will just be buying bits of card.
- 2. Digital downloads: A .pdf to cut out and punch yourself.
- 3. Easy gigs: turn up with strips of paper, and not worry about forgetting the cards.
The limitations (diatonic tunes only within a two octave range, very limited length, restricted sonic palette, easy to bootleg) are small prices to pay.
For those without the correct playback system at home, this video will have to suffice.
Enjoy! Andy. X.
Andy, how do you ‘program it?
What a lovely lovely thing
John - you punch little holes in bits of card, and sellotape them together if you want the piece longer. This was a ‘one card’ composition.
I am also setting up a sideline as a confetti manufacturer.
How lovely xx