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Guitar Hero and Rock Band make loud noises and sell big, but there’s a quieter brand of music application bubbling under: the ambient sound creator. Disquiet traces the idea back to the GameBoy game Electroplankton, which allowed players to create sounds with a stylus, but it became prominent (among music nerds, anyway) with FM3’s Buddha Boxes, and the genre now encompasses Brian Eno’s iPhone app “Bloom.” But what is the artistic value of such sonic wallpaper, at least if users are supposed to be creators in some way?
As Disquiet points out, the great strength and weakness of these applications is that they create sounds, not songs. This makes them much easier to use, but is it a performance to just hit play? When the creators are the ones doing the hitting, sure. But as an instrument, it’s unclear of their utility beyond just novelty. Still, laptops are now entirely accepted as music-making devices. There’s no reason iPhones can’t be, too.
Best of 2008: 10 Albums, 10 Downloads, 8 Processes [Disquiet]
FM3 Buddha Machine Wall [Zendesk]
My Buddha Machine was freaking out a co-worker in a nearby cubicle for nearly a week; she kept saying, “Doesn’t anybody else hear that?” Finally I told her what it was; she thought it was someone’s cell phone and was getting very claustrophobic and jumpy as a result of the repetition.
I love the Buddha Machine iPhone app. That and Bloom (which I have decided is basically a “make your own Weather On The Ones music” app) have really helped me in my 2009 resolution of chilling the f out.
The new Buddha Machine II is less of a novelty since it allows users to alter the pitch of its sounds and cause users to actively experiment with sound instead of simply listening to it.
@unperson: My cat was absolutely terrified of my Buddha Machine. There’s something in the tones that freaked him out.
There is a difference between creation and art. Art involves some sort of conceptual intent. I’m not arting my lunch right now.
@K-Rex: Well, my sandwich is a commentary on the last 20 minutes of Bachelor Party, starring Tom Hanks. The mustard is Adrian Zmed.
On a similar but different note: All music geeks who own Nintendo DSs should acquire the KORG DS-10. Endlessly amusing.