While the Buddha Machine 3 may be quite limited, its iPad counterpart gives you six simulated machines to play with (each with 18 loops). Its slick and simple interface allows for simple creation of ambient soundscapes.
[Listen | Purchase] For those unfamiliar, the Buddha Machines by FM3 are small cigarette pack size sounds machines preloaded with a handful of loops. While previous two incarnations were loaded with textures and drones, this time out FM3 have opted to use loops produced on the Qin (a Chinese classical stringed instrument). The four loops presented are very sparse and are sprinkled with background tones. I personally found these to be not as sonically interesting as the drone loops presented in previous models. In fact, one of the loops was quite grating as the sound of scraping against the strings can be heard after several of the notes. The options for sound manipulation are limited to pitch, so unless you are interested in circuit bending your Buddha Machine, you are going to have a very limited set of sounds.
I tried using the Buddha Machine 3 in a couple of meditative settings and found that it was decent in that aspect. I will say, however, that in one instance, my cat joined in with its own purring drones and made a very interesting composition against the Buddha Machine’s loops (FM3 if you are reading this, you really should make your next machine loaded full of cat purring loops- they are quite good for meditation!).
While the Buddha Machine 3 may be quite limited, its iPad counterpart gives you six simulated machines to play with (each with 18 loops). Its slick and simple interface allows for simple creation of ambient soundscapes. I tried mixing its various loops at the same time and every loop seemed to mesh very well the others. At $1.99 in the Apple App store, it’s a bargain and I would recommend it over the new Buddha hardware version for those who are iPad enabled.
Buddha Machine III is out now on FM3. [Listen | Purchase]
