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Ok, just so I have this right, the machine plays 1 of these sound files over and over and over until you say, “Hey, I’d like you to play another one instead.” Then it plays that ones over and over until, etc, yadda yadda. Right?

Or does it play them all in a random order, nonstop?

Or does it play more than one at the same time, randomly? That flash app alludes to this behavior.

I have two - one for work, one for home. Love ‘em.

Even though you could theoretically download the mp3’s from FM3’s site, it’s just not the same unless you hear the cracks and pops of the crappy little speaker on the box itself. One review I read somewhere called it the anti-pod for just those reasons: Deliciously analog, completely non-upgradable, and the warmth of a real speaker.

Die-hard fans might like to purchase Robert Henke’s CD, “Layering Buddha,” which is ambient music composed solely with the Buddha Machine. Eerie, but cool. There’s also the CD “Jukebox Buddha” (available on iTunes), which is much the same concept with a more postmodern feel.

Cool idea … my latest version of FlexTime, with iTunes export support would be pretty ideal for turning those downloadable sounds into a custom “meditation to go”…

I have one. There’s been lots of talk about what it means as a piece of ambient music, but I don’t know if it’s best to think of it in that way. What it is is a way of presenting music that’s quite special, and it forces you to approach it differently, just like you (well, at least I) are forced to interact with a record as opposed to mp3s or even CDs. With a record you have to pull it out of the sleeve, smell the vinyl, and place the needle on the record every 25 minutes or so. This has a lot of inherent flaws, but I enjoy it, even though I listen to MP3s 99.9% of the time. The Buddha Machine is another way, and it’s a very worthwhile artistic endeavor. The hype has been a bit much, I think, but if you approach it as a special album to buy instead of a gadget, you’ll get the most out of it.

Plus Christian Viraant and Zhang Jian (the two guys in FM3) are good folk.

Kevin Kelly’s cool site Cool Tools reviewed the Buddha Machine a while ago:

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/cat_aural.php

There is a link to a flash presentation that allows you to try it out.

I have one - I love it, I put it on when I’m going for a bath, and just sit and relax listening to the drones. It was also handy when my laptop broke and my Pzizz naps took a walkabout!

Apparently Brian Eno is a big fan - he bought 9 of them and used the drones for an art exhibition he was curating.

I have one. In the beginning I used it but now, as with any cool new toy, it is replaced by other new things. My best continuous use for it is as a present to people who want to relax (or should) like someone going on maternity leave. So if you get one, get more then one right away and make other people happy!

We’ve had one for about a year and we love it. And we’re not alone:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/132939886_0af84a8d2a.jpg?v=0

I got one of these in 1998 from a dude at college who had a box of them. I paid $6 for it.

Top five things to do with the Zen Box (what we called it): 1. Drop behind people’s chairs when the tv was on and loud. When they turned off tv, left them listening to eerie chanting.

1. Turn it on when construction work is going on outside. This changes the perception of the slams into gongs.

2. Turn in on when roomies are droning on about something. Get’s the point across

3. Turn in on while someone is playing a video game in another room but you don’t want to hear that. Turns it into techno-budda chants.

4. Just sitting in a quiet house with the chants on.

I picked up two of these in Guangzhoua while back, at a store near a temple, for less than a buck each.

The Brown one worked sporadically, had an a-b switch for two different chants - it’s currently disassembled with intent of circuit bending. The Yellow one was the champ - we played it for our baby in the womb - it’s a short, droning chant about 10 seconds long. Now our daughter is four & she still likes the yellow box.

My friend has one. He likes it. I played with it a bit, really interesting. He used to put it in his shirt pocket and play it while grocery shopping.

Seems like it would get monotonous just looping the same track… then again, kinda a nice antithesis to a 80GB ipod.

Contemplating the Buddha Machine sends me into an existential tailspin. What would HH say?

Is this spiritual materialism?

or is it more like a High Lama crashing a sports car into a Joke shop?

Will a live Buddha Machine’s disassembly reveal its true Buddha nature? (Webcast anyone?) If you see Buddha on the road, kill it…. but what do you do with this?

Despite the artistic brilliance of the effort I still can’t shell out $25 for the Machine….$12.50 maybe…. but I’m still considering the t-shirt.

Nomadman

Yeah. Buying a product to achieve Nirvana seems perfect for our culture. Ohhhmmm. Ohhhmmm. Ohmygod Walmart’s having a sale!

…i actually have one of these…not this company but one close to it…i use it all the time…it seems annoying at first..but can get pretty peaceful if u get into it…the sound starts to settle into the background…gives the room a chillout feel…-steveo-

Has it ever occurred that a product’s price has been given, and not a single soul has piped up with:

“Cool idea, but $x? No way. But I’d totally buy it for $x/2”

Interesting. I could see having multiple ones could be interesting. Get yourself a dc adapter and plug a few of these around the house in hidden places. So you end up having “soundscapes” as walk around your house. I listened to the loops you can download and a lot of them would indeed make good background music. Hopefully the actual machine doesn’t have the slight pause like media player classic’s auto repeat does :)

I could see something like this getting scripted… take several of the drones at random and mix them around automatically. Never the same tune twice.

Garage band can loop without any pause. Overkill maybe.

These are great little things. You can see a video interview I did with FM3 about the Buddha Machines here.

I have one and game them out as Christmas gifts. Everyone is very confused with it at first but then they are amazed that such a thing exists and also they are amazed they have one. Most people don’t feel cool enough to posses such a thing.

I gave one to my aunt for Christmas. She was less than enthused, but I totally dug it. I should have kept it for myself.

I’ve had a couple for a few years now. One from a temple in London, given by a friend, and one sent by a student in Taiwan after she returned home from University here. I also have one with the Quan Yin chant on it. Lovely for when you are quietly engaged in something.

I’ve had one for a couple of years, and remain surprised at how much I use it, especially when a deadline is looming and I have to write quickly - I can’t stand silence, but conventional music or Radio 4 are too distracting.

It’s also great fun to assemble a wee orchestra of them, add a few delay pedals and avant-bore an audience.

Ah, see there’s two kinds. There’s the original budhha machines which are loaded with Buddhist chants, and then there’s the FM3 Buddha Machine, which hsa nine loops of ambient music on it. So the FM3 machine is the remix version in a way…

I have an FM3 Buddha Machine - it’s great. They are releasing new machines now with different loops.

To get rid of the pause on windows media player you can set up an option to fade in the new track. Its what DJ’s do and the like. Sounds flawless with a little tweak.

As someone who, while living in China, saw about 40 things a day and thought “Man, I should buy those here for $0.03 and sell them online for $30”, but never got round to it, I admire FM3’s (at least relative) ability to transmute thought to action to cash. I always get stuck in Phase 1. Gah.

The Buddha Machine is great - I bought mine about a year ago. The music is effectively tape-loops and it can be very mesmerising listening to the same loop over and over. Quite beautiful, in its own way. The only problem is they use a dirty little chip and so the sound quality is very poor. I know they say that this is intentional, that they like its low-fi sound. It’s quite a cool idea but… unfortunately, I haven’t quite grown out of the wish to listen to high quality sound and it grates my ears too much. It would help a great deal if I lived in a spacious, minimalist loft-apartment…

I just got mine today. It’s typically flimsy, but it works fine. I downloaded the mp3s the other day and play it at work as kinda-white noise. It’s really relaxing while I’m hacking php code.

I’ve recently started using mine again to calm the newborn in the house during diaper changes. It’ll be a gateway for future listenings of Charlemagne Palestine, complete with the stuffed animals.