Nostalgia Upgraded – The Muro Box brings a fond childhood music instrument into the future with App Support and MIDI Connectivity
The second you hear a music box, your mind is taken to a fairytale land. Music box sounds have been used in cinemas to transition to dream sequences, showing exactly how rooted the sound of a music box is in childhood nostalgia. In the past, most of these mechanical musical instruments were found inside toys like snowglobes, jack-in-the-boxes, or other wind-up toys. You can still find music boxes today, although most of them just play fixed tunes like your odd nursery rhyme or Happy Birthday (some novelty stores even sell music boxes that play the Harry Potter or the Game of Thrones theme)… but the folks behind the Muro Box are doing something absolutely unusual. The Muro Box is the first customizable music box that can play pretty much any tune you want it to play, thanks to app connectivity and a MIDI interface. You can use Muro Box’s app to either compose your own tracks or browse through a library of pre-composed tracks… or better still, hook it to a MIDI synth and play music directly from your keyboard onto the Muro Box. The result is a charmingly nostalgic rendition of pretty much any song. Whether it’s a Christmas Carol or a Slipknot song, it’s sure to sound positively delightful and just incredibly dreamy!
Designer: Muro Box Global
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The way most music boxes worked was simple. Each box would come with a rotating cylinder that had studs on it, and a metal comb placed strategically near said cylinder. When the cylinder would rotate, the studs would ‘pluck’ against the comb, creating notes. Based on the cylinder’s pattern, you could play elements of any song. The problem with the music boxes of the past, however, was that A. You couldn’t change the song and B. The drum’s limited circumference meant you could only play a small portion of the song over and over again, which would become a little annoyingly repetitive after the first few times. The Muro Box solves both those problems thanks to a patented dynamic cylinder that can change while it rotates. This game-changing innovation allows the Muro Box to not just play different songs, but also play ENTIRE songs.
While the Muro Box is built to be a treat for one’s ears, its beauty starts with that gorgeously nostalgic design, echoing the steampunk aesthetic of the good old days. The mechanical parts of the box are surrounded by gorgeous brass detailing, sitting on top of a single-piece maple or acacia wood platform. Zinc-alloy components help create a warm, pleasant sound, while the acacia platform comes with an acoustic chamber that amplifies the music box’s sound. A glass enclosure seals the Muro Box’s internal components, preventing dust, dirt, or fidgety children from toying with the box’s delicate assemblies. Quite like the Muro Box’s sound transports you to a simpler time, its design is a hallmark of the simpler years before electronics, circuit boards, and internet connectivity.
That being said, the box itself has some seriously impressive tech underneath its hood. It’s designed to be entirely programmable, which means you can choose what to play, thanks to a variable cylinder design that can pluck on the resonating comb in a variety of ways. The box connects to an app that allows you to either choose from a library of songs, or design your own melodies using a MIDI-style interface (think Guitar Hero, but with more notes). A single-button interface lets you twist to toggle between songs in the app’s playlist (left for previous, right for next), and pressing the button toggles the play/pause feature. If you’re looking to push the Muro Box to its absolute limit, a MIDI port on the back lets you connect your Muro Box to a synth or a laptop running a DAW, so you can play more complex melodies directly off music production software.
Most users will be more than content with running the Muro Box off its app. The vast library contains user-submitted tunes from all around the world, featuring classics, latest hits, and even local/regional tunes. Pick a tune and the box begins emitting a gentle whirr that’s punctuated by the melodious clinks of the cylinder’s studs hitting the resonating comb. The Muro Box’s different variants come with single, double, and quadruple-comb arrangements, allowing you to play simple tunes or even incredibly layered musical compositions.
The Muro Box comes in three variants, ranging from simple to complex. The catalog starts with the N20 Lite, a redesign of the company’s first N20 music box from back in 2020. The N20 Lite comes outfitted with one 20-note music comb, limiting the number of notes you have to play with. Designed to be smaller than its siblings, it also ditches the MIDI feature for app-only control, and comes with a battery-powered design that lets you carry your music box with you, unlike the larger models that are wired.
The next step in the Muro Box journey is the N40 Standard, with two 20-note combs, giving it a total of 40 notes. This allows the N40 to cover more notes and more octaves, allowing you to play more complicated songs with a lower baseline and upper melody. The final music box in the series is the N40 Sublime, a more complex version of its standard sibling with four 20-note combs instead of two. However, instead of offering 80 different notes, it sticks to 40 notes, but has duplicates for each note. This makes each individual note sound richer as it’s played twice, creating more resonance. The phenomenon is called Sublime Harmonizing, and the best way to understand the difference is to think of a solo singer versus a choir.
Both the N40 variants come with a DIN 5 and USB-C MIDI input, and there’s even a 6.5mm (1/4 inch) audio output with a transducer pickup system. The N40 Standard comes with a Maple box, but you can upgrade to the high-quality Acacia for an extra $90. The N40 Sublime, on the other hand, is outfitted with the acacia-wood box and even has a laser-engraved metal plaque that you can customize with a message of your own.
The Muro Box starts at a commendable $299 for the N20 Lite, going up to $996 for the N40 Standard or a hefty $1,826 for the N40 Sublime. It’s difficult to put a price on nostalgia but the Muro Box definitely doesn’t make things cheap! The music boxes are all made in Taiwan, and ship globally as early as December 2023.
Click Here to Buy Now: $299 (Ships Before Christmas) Hurry! Only 7 Days Left!
