Kikkerland Make Your Own Music Box Kit, Siler

If any of you have tried to make a custom music movement before, you know how time consuming/expensive it can be! I didn't know how well this thing would work, but I figured it would be much cheaper and easier to do, and I was right! Actually, it works very smoothly and sounds beautiful. The hand crank can be a little annoying, but once you mount it (wood works best for amplifying the sound), it's not half bad! But let me also give you a cheat if you don't want to waste time fixing errors on your punching and trying to figure out what it will all sound like when you're finished: There's this WONDERFUL app I found called: "Music Box Composer" for Android and Google. It sucks they don't have it for PC because that would be SO much easier to work, but my boyfriend has an Android phone and I stole it from him to find this app. It is an exact replica (on the 15 note setting) of your music strips! You can move the notes around easily and play the song through your phone until you are content with how it sounds. Then you can easily copy the note placement from your phone to your music strip using the hole punch without making unnecessary mistakes. I'm so glad I found both this contraption as well as the app, and I look forward to buying more for my friends to enjoy! :)

With 15 notes and a small price point I didn’t know what to expect. The box sounds really nice. Warm deep and sentimental. Just like I would want a music box to sound like. I did not think I could have so much fun, plotting melodies and punching holes. It is a manual process and can be tedious if you look at it that way. But you end up making a product that is completely analog and mechanical. And there is something very special to me about that. It sounds so pretty and it is fun to make your own custom tunes. This is not chromatic, so the note range is very limited. But the constraints are good for creativity. I think. And I am practicing on a 15 note before jumping into a 30 note music box. I think I found a new hobby.

My son really likes this music box maker! It sounds high quality - I was worried about the sound being poor. If you mount it to a surface, or hold it tight to a surface - the sound is rich. Holding it in your hand while playing doesn't produce the desired sound. It was easy to use - and my son was able to create songs. We purchased some heavy weight paper for him to make his own music - which he did when the extra strips ran out. This was a good gift and worth the price. Do consider the fine motor skills of the user. My son is precise in his paper punching - so you may need an adult to help if your child is under age 12.

This a great thing to get if you want a fun craft project to make as a gift. The gear system is already all put together, but it’s so much smaller than I thought. Not a bad thing in the slightest, you just can’t make a cliche music box that girls in 90s movies have. Instead it’s closer to keychain size. The music is really, definitely worth the price. The gears are made of plastic, so it doesn’t feel like it will shatter in your hands, but if anything were to break it would be those gears. The sheets, where you hole punch into, are good quality (they are not gonna tear on you if lay a finger on them). But, even though they look long, you could probably only write the chorus of most songs on there. Also it has no bass notes, and the box is only tuned to major C. Otherwise it’s a great gift, and you can personalize it by making your own box.

I couldn't wait to try this little guy out when I got it. When you get this music box, take everything out of the little cardboard box it comes in, close the box and hold the music box on top of the box to play the Happy Birthday strip provided (and it's a lovely rendition of happy birthday too). If you play it just in your hands, you will hardly hear the sound. As anyone who has ever taken a music box mechanism out of a jewelry box knows, you need the box to make the sound resonate. It's a lovely, high but mellow tone. Not twangy or tinny sounding. It's ready to use right from the box. I'm going to rig a cigar box to work as it's main body when I get the chance. The hold punch I received needed a little filing as the punch wouldn't go through the hole, but that was easy to fix. I'm going to get more of these for Christmas gifts this year!

It's okay. But sort of a disappointment for me because the song I wanted it to play does not exactly work. I was under the impression it could play any song that falls in that 2 octave range, and is short enough to fit on the strips. But that's not exactly true. The problem I have is that consecutive eighth notes (of the same repeating note) do not play. It can handle eighth. But only if the note changes. For instance A-B-C-D is fine. A-A-A-A is not. Repeating notes cant be less than a quarter. Otherwise, it just sort of buzzes. Rather than a crisp chime. Unfortunately, my tune has a few of those conditions. And I was hoping to give this as a gift. So like I said, a disappointment. This is mentioned in the instruction booklet. But did not see this anywhere on the listing prior to purchase. I don't know much about music boxes in general. Maybe it's a common thing. Otherwise, hole-punching is a little tricky. Getting the hole lined up. I think I only messed that up once. Says I can fix with tape. I haven't tried that yet though. Also, don't care for the included Happy Birthday song. But that's not what I got it for anyway. All in all, it's alright provided you have a song that fits the conditions.

Works great. Here is a bit more information for those who want to compose some songs for this. First, someone made a printable sheet that you can use for regular letter-sized paper (8.5" x 11.0"). Just google "Kikkerland goodies sheet" and you'll find the guy's project. I used 110 lb paper but I hear that other similar sizes will work, too. I don't know why they made it so expensive, so if you print your own then you'll be set for life. You can also tape multiple music papers together for a length like the refills. If you really cannot get any cardstock paper for some reason, you can glue two or three pieces of regular printer paper together, and that will also work. Second, the gears have 4 little hooks that catch onto the holes. If you are trying to play a note twice very quickly, it might miss the second hole. Make sure they are about 8mm apart from each other. On the paper I linked above, that means that if you put a note on one of the vertical bars, you have to skip the next one before you can play it again. This is not an issue for different notes being played quickly. Also, this is just personal preference, but I feel that the happy birthday song they give you is spaced out too much. It feels like you have to crank like mad to get it to play at a normal speed. If you halve the distances, you run into the risk of the above issue, but you can crank at a leisurely pace. Third, if you don't have a wooden box for acoustics, you can just use either one of the two cardboard boxes that comes with it. It also comes with 3 little screws, so if you really want, you can screw it into place so it doesn't wobble so much. Fourth, yes, it is diatonic, which means it covers two octaves and no sharps or flats. CDEFGABCDEFGABC. Sometimes this is okay if you can transpose the song, but more complicated songs won't work on this. Get a 30-note music box for that or something larger. Fifth, someone already mentioned Music Box Composer for Android. It's $3.50 and works very well. The controls are awkward sometimes, but the sound quality is good and it has a cool 3D music box sharing option. If anybody can find a good way to store and share songs, that would be great. So far I haven't found anything.

**UPDATE** 9/15/2014: I've finally gotten another hole punch (I found it at a local craft store in just the right size) and I tell you what, the box still plays as beautifully as it did when I first purchased it. A long lasting gift in my honest opinion. I've read all the review about this product, but did I never find anything regarding the quality of the hole punch that is included with the kit. I got my music box, and was extremely satisfied with the product: the sound was beautiful, the gears never failed, the whole thing help up extremely well. So having spent 2 weeks composing songs using a piano as reference, i tried to punch out my own songs, and two things happened. 1) I noticed that what I had played on the piano was different for the music box (i played an E-F chord on my piano, which was equivalent to the F-G chord on the music box. Minor problem, not an issue to me.) 2) The included hole punch (which granted punches holes much smaller than normal hole punchers, so finding another is a pain) has holes on both sides of device, that, whenever the pin doesn't line up with the hole and you try to punch it through, it comes out the other side, rendering the entire thing useless. Many attempts and ideas to fix it ended up in failure. So to those who may end up with the same problem I had, I figured it'd be nice to post where you could find a replacement, or at least the size of the hole it punches as reference, assuming that all of them are made the same relative size. The diameter of the holes made from my hole punch is 2mm or 3/32" You can find Euro hole punches on here but they're METAL hole punchers, so I am unaware of their effective use on paper, but hey, then you can make metal strips. http://www.amazon.com/Euro-Metal-Punch-Pliers-1-8mm/dp/B003JD9VX2/ ----------- 1.8mm Metal Hole punchers http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Punch-Pliers-1-25mm-44158/dp/B003L7PLNK/ ----------- 1.25mm Metal Hole punchers (if you want smaller holes. just make sure your accurate.) http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-12-23508897-Punch-16-Inch-Circle/dp/B0001DT3YU/ ----------- 1/16" Hole Punch (a bit smaller holes, just be accurate) http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-12-23518897-Punch-8-Inch-Circle/dp/B0001DT3ZE/ ----------- 1/8" Hole Punch (slightly larger, be careful with holes that have to be close together) A long review, I know, I apologize, but I hope this helps someone else as much as it did me. Other than the hole punch, the music box kit was amazing, I highly recommend it, it looks amazing and sounds beautiful.

J’ai été séduit par le concept, et pas déçu ! Nous avons passé 1 heure avec mon fils à composer chacun notre morceau... Ca marche vraiment bien, et c’est excellent pour la pédagogie musicale ! A recommander aux musiciens en herbe (en revanche : non musiciens, s’absetenir, des bases musicales sont nécessaires)

Ich habe dieses Produkt als Zeitvertreib gekauft. Persönlich habe ich keine musikalische Erfahrung, aber zur Rumprobieren schien es mir ansprechend. Nach ein paar Versuchen kam ich zum folgenden Schluss: Positives: - Die Papierstreifen für die Noten sind wunderbar. Die Darstellung mit Notenlinien macht die Übertragung von Noten ein Kinderspiel. - Es liegen Schrauben mit Kreuzkopf dabei, falls man die Spieluhr irgendwo anbringen möchte. Neutral: - Das beigelegte Anleitung ist nur in englisch und französisch. Es gibt keine deutsche Anleitung. - Die mitgelieferten Streifen sind etwas aufgerollt. Sie sind daher etwas unhandlicher beim Stanzen und Abspielen. - Der mitgelieferte "Birthday Song"-Streifen scheint etwas verändert zu sein. Das Anfang und Ende klingt anders, aber der Mittelteil ist was man erwartet. > Achtung: Die Uhr kann keine Noten spielen, die nebeneinander gestanzt sind. Noten müssen bei gleicher Tonlage eine Achtelnote voneinander entfernt sein. Ansonsten werden sie übersprungen. Am Ende bin ich zufrieden mit dem Produkt. Das Problem mit dem Nichtspielen nebeneinander gestanzter Noten ist zwar ärgerlich, aber technisch unvermeidlich. Aber für einem Einstieg ins Selbstkomponieren von Spieluhren finde ich es absolut ausreichend. (Zum Einstieg eignet sich das Video "How to program a Music Box" vom Youtuber Wintergatan)

I bought this as an experiment, as I'm looking to make a music box with a tune I can't find on standard music boxes, and I've been very pleasantly surprised at how good it is. The quality of the sound is excellent - much clearer and louder than I expected. For my project I was considering using a normal music box and making a customised barrel for the tune I need. But having watched a couple of YouTube videos of people who'd tried that (and they were far more skilled craftsmen than me) this product seems much easier to use, and the sound quality is much better than they achieved. I would definitely recommend using this if you need a music box with a rare tune, rather than trying to make your own drum/barrel. The unit itself is pretty solidly constructed, not as fragile / plasticky as it looks in some photos, and the mechanism that translates the holes in the paper into plucks of the comb is more substantial than I thought too. It will serve as a long-term mechanism and I imagine the punched paper could easily be replaced with something stronger like a thin strip of metal if you needed something permanent.

L’ho comprato per un amico e non nascondo che prima di regalarlo…diciamo che ci ho giocato un po’ 😁…ero scettico ma è perfettamente funzionante e molto semplice e divertente…regalo piaciuto molto

Muy buen producto, le realicé una melodía especial a mi novio. Si no tienes conocimientos de música es un poco complejo entenderle al inicio. Hay que pasar las partiruras a Do mayor (pueden usar la versión de prueba de musescore, muy buena app con la que puedes convertir las partiruras).