Buddha boxes or Buddha machines are (for the uninitiated) electronic meditation aids from the far east. They are essentially mini sample playback devices containing drones / small snippets of Buddhist music / chanting to aid in meditation and prayer. Each one tends to be a box with a nice friendly button on the side for switching 'chant' - the chant will then loop seamlessly for ever until you hit the button again, moving to the next... The units themselves are quite simple electronically and do not feature high fidelity sound - but that kind of adds to the joy :)

Also a group of artists called 'FM3' came up with their own bespoke Buddha box called the Buddha Machine a couple of years back which was rather grand and even other artists like Throbbing Gristle have got in on the act releasing their own take on the design...

Anyway...Obviously they also sound rather cool :) here's some samples from 2 different Buddha boxes (of the loads that I own) that I managed to dig out of my archives here :O) enjoy!

- Andy

PS do be aware that it isn't wise to use these in commercial work as they are almost certainly (c) to the performers

PPS The piccy on this track is actually one of the boxes I sampled... I had to unscrew it and solder on an output as it had no headphone jack *grin* they are TINY inside, this one is especially fab as it has a wonderful mini light show via the mandala to accompany the sound <3