Two breakthroughs in making tapes

Tonight I successfully made a tape using just a laser printer and 110lb paper. This is the thickest paper that works in my HP laser printer using the auxillary paper feed tray. It is like card stock. This paper is lighter than music box paper. I printed directly from MusicBoxManiacs using 100% scale. I cut the paper using a new blade in a utility knife (an Exacto knife would work just as well), a metal ruler, and my wife's sewing cutting board. The cutting board is large and has long lines marked on it which make good guides for lining up each strip of paper. For my test I taped 4 strips of paper together (before punching) using 3M Scotch Box Lock shipping tape. I put one piece of shipping tape on each side of the paper at the seams. Because of the way this web site prints the strips, they have to butt up against each other square - no diagonal seam. But they work pretty well. I don't expect this improvised music tape to last as long as real music tape, but after playing the tune 7 or 8 times it's great for prototyping. Since it's thinner, the music box doesn't grab it as tightly as the official tape.

My second breakthrough is in marking some real music tape. I have a lightbox I use for photography. I printed a page music from this site and put it on the light box. Next, I put the music tape on top of it, lining the two up perfectly. The light box is bright enough to shine through both pieces of paper. I can see the little blue Xs from the printed page through the music tape. I then mark the music tape where I want to punch. Next, I punch. It helps if you mask off the part of the light box you aren't using to avoid glare in your eyes. I used aluminum foil to do this, and taped the foil down. It is easier to do the marking in a dim room. While the width of the printed music and width of the official music tape are the same, there is a slight spacing difference in the time direction. This means you need to slowly slide the official music tape a little bit over the printed music as you make marks. I sent a request to musicmaniacs to see if this geometry difference could be fixed. I used the long spool of music paper tape, not the individual strips. I assume they are the same type of paper, but in case they are not, I thought I'd mention it.

I accidently punched a few wrong holes because of the stupid extra hole in the hole punch. I accidently lined up the paper with the extra hole instead of the correct hole. The holes are about the same size and easy to confuse. I put a piece of electrical tape over the bogus hole and never made that mistake again.

After punching hundreds of holes, my tendons are getting sore. I might sand down the two sides of the metal punch near the hinge so it takes less force to punch holes. If I do this I will report the results.

I did my experiments with the Phillip Glass Openings piece and Tokyo Ghoul from this web site. These both sound awesome.