music_box_slowing_down.ogg

A small, mechanical music box plays, slows down and stops.
Synthesized sound with stereo light reverb effect. Duration 0'52".

Three turns of a wooden boxed clockwork mechanical key followed by a bright, nonsensical music box tune. As the tune plays, the tempo slows down - gradually at first but becoming profoundly slower towards the end. Tune ends on a melancholic note mid phrase.

Could be used as a standalone effect, or perhaps metaphorically as a cipher for the aging process and cessation of life.

The clockwork key effect is a rapidly repeating single mechanical clock tick filtered to sound box-like. The sound of the music box tines was created with NI FM8 using four sinewave oscillators, one of which feeds back on itself to produce a hint of metallic ringing.