the buddhist echo box

[andy_wheels]

i'm rather pleased with this thing. it's worked out pretty well. i've built it for use in my live set although i'll need to secure it all together before travelling anywhere. at the moment the bits inside are all loose.

it's based on a tiny buddhist loop machine (available on ebay from hong kong for a couple of quid) which feeds into a 'maxsound' echo circuit board i pulled from a megaphone toy (50pence from a car booty). you can also use the echo part of the box with an audio input by flicking a switch. i've housed it all in a very old wooden first aid box.



yes, the patch bay is a little bit of overkill... hehehhe. but hey, it works! there are a lot of possible bend points on the circuit board. filtering, noise, feedback, glitches....

inside:



the above photo shows the buddhist part of the box. it's a very lofi sample playback device which cycles between loops via a button. groovy old chinese vocals. you can also buy a buddha box with loops from the electronica outfit fm3 but for this project i wanted the original sounds. it's a tiny little circuit board but there are bends to be found. the two knobs in the buddha tweak section of the controls are both pitch bends. low or high, the circuit does not seem to want to crash .

now the echo part:



the soldering made me go a bit crosseyed but it seems worthwhile now! it sounds great!

the little echo board is 9volt powered. seems a bit high for something so tiny don't you think? it's a bit like a guit fx pedal... as a comparison, the buddha box runs off 3volts... hmmm. could it be because the echo circuit contains a little amplifier chip on it? maybe that draws a bit of juice... it seems to amplify the incoming signal and which then gets routed through the echo. because of the amp/echo combo the feedback you get is really warm and dubby and some of the patch combinations cause a total collapse of the high end resulting in a lovely rumbling effect.

i'll get some sound clips posted up soon if anyone is interested. i've not had any time to record with the machine yet and i know it will suck me into a music session for hours.

now a question... i might try and add a wet/dry mixer knob for the echo. is this as simple as i think it will be? i'm thinking i need some sort of double pole mixer pot? any ideas?

[Circuitbenders]

WOOD! we like a bit of gratuitous wood around these parts (anyone know where i can buy those daft wooden end cheeks for my yamaha promix?) 
That looks like a cool machine, the envy of many a scientist crazed by a lust for world domination. I'm not sure i actually care what it does  Get some cold cathode tubes on there and you'd be laughing, but you have to find a 12v source with a shitload of milliamps to run them.

That looks like the kind of soldering that makes you go blind. Or at least the kind of soldering that makes you regret you used all the same coloured wire. I want to hear what this bastard can do!

Theres a load of simple mixer circuits at the bottom of this page  http://www.all-electric.com/schematic/simp_mix.htm . I'd say it would be better to have a wet signal level and a dry signal level. That way you have more possibilities than an 'either/or' type wet - dry knob.

[andy_wheels]

i agree that two knobs for wet and dry are probably a better idea. it's a plan...

i have eyed up a few cathode tubes at car boots but decided i didn't want to steal your thunder. i love those crazy drum machines you do. 

i see an afternoon of tea drinking and buddha twiddling coming on. rock n roll!

[Circuitbenders]

i see an afternoon of tea drinking and buddha twiddling coming on. rock n roll!

Budda twiddling on a sunday!

thats got to be asking to be struck by lightning.............

[andy_wheels]

here's the result of my afternoon. the first three mp3's are using the internal buddhist singers.

be careful of budbox_03.mp3 - it's a bit noisy 

http://www.andywheels.f2s.com/budbox/budbox_01.mp3

http://www.andywheels.f2s.com/budbox/budbox_02.mp3

http://www.andywheels.f2s.com/budbox/budbox_03.mp3

and a couple using the audio in.....

http://www.andywheels.f2s.com/budbox/hinhon_budbox_01.mp3

http://www.andywheels.f2s.com/budbox/sa1_budbox_01.mp3

time for a beer!

[the_zombiest]

Sounds divine...




pun intended 

[Signal:Noise]

Dude, that's amazing.

[ne7]

anyone know where i can get me one of those buddah boxes cheaper than 10£ ?
just wondering...
thanks!

[MagpieIndustries]

I love the knob labelled 'buddah tweak', heheh.

On the subject of buddha, I've a little buddha statue at home. I drilled a hole through his head and stuck a rubber tube in from behind so it comes out his mouth. I then put it into my aquarium. On the other end of the rubber tube is an air pump from some technic lego kit. When I give it a few pumps the buddha blows bubbles, and my fish have learned that this meens feeding time and come over and circle around the statue :-)

[Griffin]

Wow - I just drooled on my keyboard. this is an amazing machine, andy. This is the kind of stuff that can inspire....
any chance on giving us a tutorial on this bad buddha?

[andy_wheels]

Wow - I just drooled on my keyboard. this is an amazing machine, andy. This is the kind of stuff that can inspire....
any chance on giving us a tutorial on this bad buddha?

cheers dude. the buddha box was a fun project and i've used it plenty of times in live sets.. those aliasing buddha chants are hard to resist... 

i dont think a tutorial is possible due to the randomness of the box. it was experimental and i didn't take any notes... i'm happy to answer any questions about it though if that might help you...

[Pehr]

it's based on a tiny buddhist loop machine (available on ebay from hong kong for a couple of quid)

like this one?

[andy_wheels]

that link is for the 'fm3' version of it. created by a chinese/french electronica group. my version is one of the originals.

like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Chinese-Electronic-Praying-to-Buddha-Machine-2_W0QQitemZ120089908285QQihZ002QQcategoryZ19269QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Pehr]

Even better! 

What a beautiful little box! and it's golden! 

But I guess it isn't a lot of room inside it for switches and pots, right?

[Griffin]

I just bought that one yesterday, she's got several more available.