June 24, 2007
The Buddha Machine/Box: Such Potential Yet Disappointing
There's been a lot of press and radio lately about FM3 or FM-3 (a duo, not sure of the spelling) and their "Buddha Machine", which is a great concept and something I really love the idea of, and am happy to have received as a gift, but am very much disappointed with in so many ways. Funny, that.
First off, it does bother me, and in a petty way I'll admit, that suddenly FM3 is suddenly getting all sorts of press and attention for basically taking a thousand year old idea and practice, and on top of that not even basing it on that but simply an existing modern version of it, and making their own version and cashing in heavily on it (trust me, the cost of these suckers to make is nothing compared to what they're selling for.) And their one claim to originality is that the sound loops in their Buddha Box/Machine is that the loops are ones they supposedly came up with themselves - which really doesn't make sense, in that even if they supposedly listened to each loop of the nine loops total "non-stop for 15-20 days each, tweaking them until they were just right" (from a Public Radio "Studio 360" interview) - well, why would you do that when the existing sounds from the Buddhist versions of the same exact device they're selling are based on those many hundreds of years of development?
This is a great example of something that piques people's interest after they read raving review after review and you figure you want one. Expect to pay a lot more than this thing costs to make, as while it's simple enough it should be fine, it's cheaply made.
For starters, it's hardly environmentally friendly ("green"), coming with batteries manufactured by a Chinese company with a terrible environmental track record. And as they run out, you'll be adding double AA batteries to the landfill at least once or twice a week if you use this as intended, although I doubt you will.
It's simple enough to operate: a dial for volume for the built-in cheap speaker and line output plug; an LED to show it's on, the possibility of plugging in a power supply which is unusual and will cost as much as this box but it cheaper than batteries in the long run, and a switch to change loops, because contrary to what another reviewer wrote, this does not play random loops, it plays the same nine loops (2 to 42 seconds in length), in the same order and requires you to push a switch to change the loop. A "random play" mode would make this much better, although you can also avoid loops that are the most annoying, although they all are at some point. Again, this does NOT play loops randomly nor change them without your direct interaction.
The biggest disappointment is just how much talk they put into having the Buddha Box/Machine made, and how much trouble it was, etc. etc. The truth is that they're manufactured for cheap in China, and are build like crap. The built-in speaker can't handle the frequencies of their sound loops if you turn it up even more than 25% of full volume, and the line output is even worse - it's extremely noisy, not just hum or hiss but random, annoying noise, if you try to plug it into an amplifier or powered speakers - you need to keep it turned down to about 10% of max. volume to get a signal that's not distorted and full of noise - which in my mind, defeats the entire purpose of having soft, soothing, repetitive sounds.
I guess I had some pretty high expectations of it considering the cost, but really it's just cheap crap that's very hard to get to a reasonable volume out of without distortion and noise. Fortunately, to their credit, they make the loops available in uncompressed format on their Web site, so I'll simply read up or figure out the timing, and make a CD with the sounds that can be played on repeat, at any volume, without the annoyance of noise, hiss, him and distortion. If I had known this ahead of time, I'd just have done that in the first place.
Which does lead to the question of whether or not this is a based on "buddhist principles" - it does make you live in the "hear and now" because I find myself having to get up to change the loop in every 2-5 minutes because they start to become so repetitive they're annoying. The loops are static, and do not change in any way. There's really nothing "organic" about this, it's purely mechanical. If it's meant to create at atmosphere for relaxation or meditation, then it fails, as you cannot really work towards either when you're thinking all the time about changing it, unless, as another reviewer put it so well, "you want to hear the same five second sound 120 times in a ten minute period."
I love the music of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Brian Eno and the idea of process music, but their works change over time no matter how repetitive they seem. They're not static, which is all you can get from this box, and that static is more like the so-called "Chinese Water Torture" in the way it doesn't vary in the least amount, which at some point starts to become torturous, not relaxing.
It also gets my goat that in many ways they're promoting this as something new to Western culture, without any recognition to the same exact concepts and execution that is the foundation of Minimalist Composition, in particular the early works of Steve Reich, as well as Glass, Riley and LaMonte Young. Riley, in particular, drew inspiration from this same exact concept, so in my mind, they don't deserve all the "originality" points they seem to be earning.
Granted, I have a personal beef as well - I reissued a CD by a group in Portland called Austere that was released almost 10 years ago that is very similar in concept, although far less static and repetitive and more in the vein of Minimalist composition, and it not only saddens me that they've never gotten any real attention or credit for writing music in this style long before the Buddha Machine but long after it had been abandoned by Reich and the others, in an attempt to keep the flame alight and to carry that torch into the 21st Century. But I guess it all comes down to who you know, and if you can catch a wave of attention and know how to ride it, you can get quite far.
The band is milking it for what it's worth: a limited edition "black" version for 50% higher price (if you want black, it's easy enough to spray paint one.) They also have a brass pin you can wear, and their performances have tons of tapestries with the Machine on them, and the rider for their "live shows", which is basically them setting up a couple of them and letting them play for 35-45 minutes, is worth downloading from their Web site for a laugh. Not quite as ridiculous as the old Van Halen rider expecting a bowl of M&M's (tm) with all the green ones in a separate bowl, but close.
In the end, I guess as I said my expectations were very high, but I know clearly how this could have been correctly - soothing loops that are all longer, with not only some way to set how often they change, randomly or in order, and with a random amount of quiet added between each loop, just to vary it. The potential for something really great was here, but it falls far short of what it could have been. Buy a Steve Reich or Brian Eno CD instead, and put it on a quiet volume on repeat, and you'll be much more likely to find the ways music can help one relax or meditate. Like Public Enemy said, "Don't, don't don't - Don't Believe the Hype!"
June 20, 2007
Restoring an RE-201 (v2 model)
Here's some photos of a recent clean & restore with a new tape on an RE-201, with some other photos to be taken, and others still perhaps retaken on a later project, since they were out of focus (damned digital cameras + flash + close-up shots!)
Here's a shot that only hints at the graphite flaking build-up near the feed-out area of the tape chamber (the dark stuff)
Graphite buildup all cleaned from chamber base, felt pinch guides, metal and post guides, and caster, with a new tape creeping up on it.
Dirty, worn, and out-of-alignment tape heads. The leftmost is the erase head & write head, the rest are just read heads. Alignment problems are part of the reason the Echo effect sounds warble-y and terrible.
Deguassing (demagnetizing each head, three times each, up & down, left & right, back & forth. Sound plugged in so I can hear if the head doesn't respond and is dead.
Here's the tape chamber with cover removed and old tape, and the tape head guard removed to aid cleaning and alignement.
Brand-new graphite-backed military-grade tape loop sneaking in the load "door" in the tape chamber!
Unit popped open, and plugs into the spring reverb tank. You can also see the motor and fuse. In the v2 model, the spring reverb is a Fender amp model - you can tell my the RCA jack plugs. Earlier versions used a Roland made spring tank that sounds like crap to me but some people prefer over the Fender - sound, like food and drink, is purely a matter of taste!
Spring reverb tank with plug and the cooling vent, which is why it's best to play these propped on their sides if you're not in air conditioning - there's no fan, just a vent.
Here's the motor, which Roland stopped making in 2005 (we have one NOS one left in stock), the fuse, and the pinch roller retractor (or in reality, whatever the opposite is.) The hole on the bottom should make adjustment easy but on this one the nuts on the rod were frozen, so had to go in on the side with needle-nose pliers. Usually it's easy but these took about 20-30 minutes to get right. Don't want the roller too tight, so adjust & test, adjust & test, lather, rinse, repeat.
Close up of the fuse, tested resistance to make sure it was OK. Motor also tested electrically correct, and the ole "squeeze it while it's on" test showed it to be as strong as new! Good news!
More photos showing pots and other work soon, or on another restore, since the photos were blurry and didn't think to check them before sealing this baby back up.
Glow-in-the-Dark Steampunk Ouija Board T-Shirt
Introducing: the INTER-NETS Glow-in-the-Dark Steampunk Ouija Board T-Shirt
A company that makes some pretty cool stuff (although I've decided I'm currently at 200% of my capacity of cool stuff) has come up with a very reasonably priced "Steampunk" style Ouija / Talking Board (technically, they can get sued for using the trademarked term "Ouija" although at this point it's probably moot, since you lose trademark rights if you don't defend them.)
Anyway, they have a great tee-shirt, and also a tote bag and mouse pad with the same design:
Shirts are $18 (!!) - which is super-cheap for American Apparel shirts and glow-in-the-dark, totes are $16, also decently priced for solid canvas bags, and the mouse pads are $12. As much as I don't really need another tee-shirt, I think I'm going ahead and ordering one - it's got the "LOL Cats" and says "AL GORE Magic Thinking Box" above the title, "Internets", and a bunch of other total geek humor.
Check them out here: