Lidsong

Turn a tune you hum into a music box gift. Add a personal message and send a link, a video or a .lidsong file. Hum a tune, sing it on "doo" or whistle it. Lidsong listens on your iPhone, finds the notes and punches them into the paper strip of an 18-tooth music-box comb, with a bass note and simple harmony. Then the box plays it. The steel comb, the pinned cylinder and the governor are modelled in code, so every note is plucked by the mechanism, not played from a recording. Wind the brass key and lift the lid. The tune starts as the stop lever lets go, muffled at first and brighter as the lid opens. Close it mid-phrase and it stops on that pin; open it again and it carries on. When the lid is open, a goldfinch automaton sings in the mirror. SING IT - Hum, sing or whistle for up to 20 seconds and watch the strip punch itself. - If your notes run together, tap along once per note while you hum. - Lidsong finds the key and tempo and moves the tune to fit the comb. THE WORKSHOP - Punch, remove or move holes by hand. - Change the tempo, transpose, and turn harmony or the chord fill on or off. - Switch between the 18-tooth tuned comb and the 30-tooth chromatic comb. GIFTS - From November 20 to December 24, choose from three holiday gift-tag messages, then edit the words to make them your own. - Write a message and your name on the tag and send any box as a link. On an iPhone with iOS 27 or later it opens in an App Clip, so the person you send it to can wind the key and lift the lid without installing the app. - Or send a 9:16 video of the box playing, or the .lidsong file. THE BOX - Three tunes to start: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Brahms' Lullaby; Silent Night. - One full wind plays for 2, 6 or 12 minutes. - Night mode: after 30 seconds of playing untouched, everything but the goldfinch dims. - Haptics you can feel with each note, or turn off. IPHONE DUO On iPhone Duo the phone is the box: the outer screen is the inlaid lid you wind, and opening the phone lifts the lid. LIDSONG UNLOCK One purchase, no subscription: all 24 library tunes (lullabies, carols and occasions), the 30-tooth chromatic comb, two more lids (lemon blossom and olive), as many saved boxes as you like and gifts without the maker's mark. Shared with Family Sharing. Without it you keep the box, the three tunes, the thistle lid, unlimited singing and one saved box. Paid tunes, the 30-tooth comb and the extra lids show a lock until you unlock them. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no ads, no tracking. Your singing is turned into notes on your iPhone and the recording is deleted as soon as the tune is pinned. Gifts carry the notes and the words on the tag, never audio.