Quintron’s Drum Buddy makes rhythm visible as well as audible. A spinning optical disc, light and the player’s hand turn the beat into a performance surface, giving a handmade New Orleans instrument its own unmistakable physical language.Sources (10)
The machine in the record
Quintron / the machine as practice.
Quintron describes the Drum Buddy as part of his own performance and recording practice, rather than simply a device built for other players. There is no single-song claim here; the account is better as an artist and inventor keeping his own unruly machine in motion.
Read Interview With: Quintron & Miss Pussycat, part2 ↗More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
Quintron / Q Electronics: Drum Buddy Demonstration Record Vol.1
Quintron credited with Drum Buddy and vocals.
Read Q Electronics: Drum Buddy Demonstration Record Vol.1 ↗Quintron / Quintron performance and recording practice
A contemporary CMJ profile connects Quintron’s performance practice with the Drum Buddy.
Read Artist Spotlight: Quintron, p.5 ↗Rhythm that a player can see
The Drum Buddy’s optical system lets a performer interrupt light as the disc turns, changing the rhythm in real time. Quintron’s own material and contemporary interviews describe an instrument that sits somewhere between a drum machine, a small synthesizer and a kinetic object. The beat begins with a gesture.
A handmade instrument in public
Contemporary 1999 coverage caught Quintron discussing the Drum Buddy as it was reaching production, and the maker’s account later documents the 2007 Cypress Series. The New Orleans Museum of Art’s 2010 presentation places it in a public setting where its visual mechanism could be experienced as part of the performance.
An evolving set of series
The demonstration record, later Cypress material and Coral Series documentation show that the Drum Buddy remained an evolving handmade instrument. The surviving record is not a single frozen specification; it is a succession of physical versions whose controls kept inviting hands-on rhythmic play.
On record
- Quintron — Q Electronics: Drum Buddy Demonstration Record Vol.1. Quintron credited with Drum Buddy and vocals. Source ↗
- Quintron — Quintron performance and recording practice. Quintron describes the Drum Buddy as part of his own performing and recording life, as well as an instrument he built for others. Source ↗
- Quintron — Quintron performance and recording practice. A contemporary CMJ profile connects Quintron’s performance practice with the Drum Buddy. Source ↗
Sources
- Drum Buddy Demonstration Record Vol.1 liner notes and instrument offer
- Drum Buddy Island: Story of the2007 Cypress Series
- Parallel Universe: Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live at City Park
- Q Electronics: Drum Buddy Demonstration Record Vol.1
- Interview With: Quintron & Miss Pussycat, part2
- Ltd edition Drum Buddy USB, version II Coral Series
- Artist Spotlight: Quintron, p.5
- Quintron and Miss Pussycat Enter the Art Scene, pp.16–18
- Dancing with Mr. Q
- Quintron Drum Buddy analog synthesizer drum machine
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
Sources for images shown earlier (2)
- Quintron at work on an invention ↗
- Quintron — Q Electronics: Drum Buddy Demonstration Record Vol.1 ↗
Release date not stated on source page · Quintron / release artwork via Bandcamp · Official Bandcamp release-page artwork (Open Graph image)
Additional visual sources (3)
Original publications and related image sources.
- Cypress-series construction photographs ↗
Section labelled2007 · Maker website · Workshop, soldering bench and unfinished cabinets captions - CMJ Quintron Artist Spotlight ↗
1999-03-22 · CMJ · Printed and PDF p.5 - Quintron and Miss Pussycat Enter the Art Scene ↗
January2010 issue · Zack Smith, credited on p16 · p16 paired portrait; p17 Quintron at electronics workbench with can-based instrument at left; p18 Miss Pussycat among puppets