In 1976 I believe, I bought a 20in Zildjian mini cup ride cymbal. About two years later it blew out of the back of my pickup truck. I was setting up when I noticed it was gone. So I headed back down the highway to retrace my route and I found lying on the shoulder. I had a couple dings on the edge and was turned inside out. I stood on it to pop it back into shape and dusted it off and I’m still playing it today.
Loving this new series. I’m sure this is coming up-B20 vs B8 vs other alloys? BTW, from the internet: “Dennis Chambers discovered a crash he enjoyed on a ca. 2000 performance tour to China one with a dark, special sound. Dennis admired it so much that he asked Zildjian to re-create it for him. Completely based on a Dennis Chambers cymbal.”
I find your videos not only extremely informative and interesting, but at the same time your approach to drums and your philosophy on gear, setups etc. is very inspiring. It translates to other topics as well. Becoming a patreon now. Thanks very much
Right now, my preference is for rides with a lower profile, but on the drier side to take away some of that sustain. I kinda like it when a cymbal takes its time to fully open up, like if you do a roll on it, you really get a sense of the overtones coming in one by one as you crescendo. Chinas are the exception, because I want them to be extremely fast and explosive, with little sustain. One thing to watch out for, however, is how much different a cymbal sounds from the audience vs. from the throne. A ride that maybe has a little more sustain than I want it to, when I hear it from the throne, sounds perfect or even just a tad short when I hear it from 15 feet away.
I'm thankful you guys are getting into cymbal anatomy. I think it's an underrepresented subject. Hey so you use that old Sabian for jazz, it'd be great for the stoner/doom metal I play too. I'd also want a ride that I can keep crashing and it still have defined crashes on the 8th notes. I don't think there is such a thing as the right cymbal for a certain type of music it all depends on the player. Also great find with that blank cymbal, a lot of them sound a bit iffy but this one sounds extremely useful.
I stumbled upon the Zildjian K Special Dry cymbals. By itself, sounds weird. Never heard anything like it. Did not know if I would like it. My initial thoughts were, NOPE! But I do know that in a mix with a band things tend to change. Ended up purchasing a 20” Soecial Dry & a 19” Special Dry Trash Crash. Once I heard the playback with the band at church I immediately fell in love. SO GOOD! And you wanna talk about profiles?... these cymbals have many. But yes, at the end of the day the way it washes out so quickly of the mix is genius. Fits the needs we as a band were looking for. And they sound great! Thank you for going through all the different profiles.
I’ve sold a LOT of cymbals too. I’ve REALLY been loving the K Paper Thins and i use the K dark crashes too. I’ve had a lot of A customs that i didn’t really like and I used to like the Z customs but i grew out of them and started using Ks a few years ago
I used to own a Zildjian 21” A Sweet Ride, which I noticed has an umbrella-like shape to it. It wasn’t to my liking because of its brittle kind of wash. A standard 20” K ride fits me way better - it still has ping and a nice bell, but a nicer darker wash imo. I bet the shape plays a big part listening to your examples. Cheers!
I once got a 14" crash, which was very old and sounded so dark, it had pretty much no treble and sustain (it was pretty flat). It had multiple cracks along the bell, which the previous owner tried to solder (!). The thing being so thick, I thought I could enhance the sound and get it to open up a little by machine sanding it and drilling a large amount of holes into it, removing probably around a quarter of its overall mass in the process. Sadly it didn't work out and I ended up tossing it into the bin, but it was a fun process!
One of the first cymbals I got my hands on when I started drumming again, was a Istanbul 30th Ann" 24" ride, from the earlier series. Beautiful, dry and dark but with an unbelievably crisp definition, cutting through the mix like a hot knife. Unfortunately it has a fairly high profile (and thickness), preventing it from opening up / breaking up like the newer series or its 22" iterations. You really have to dig into it to crash / wash it for a bit, and it get's overwhelmingly loud doing so (I also believe that's the profile doing that). I've asked around if there were any cymbal smiths willing to take off little material or do some hammering to the profile. All I got was: "What are you, an imbecile?!" xD And they're quite right though, it's a rare gem of a cymbal, just not the fit-all end-all ride I was hoping it would be.
I struggle to find crashes that have the long sustain that I want and is as low as I can get. Resorting to 19"crashes solely at the moment. I have Z3, but my one (Thrash Ride) needs replacing as, for some reason, it has lost all of it's sound. Don't know why. As for the profile, I never really thought about it. I once had a set of K Dark Crashes, they sounded beautiful but they were really short in the sustain so I sold them.
Stick choice is a big deal but also the dynamic of the place you play in makes a big difference. And every drummer makes a different sound it looks like sometimes the sound comes out of you ! ;-) Thanks for making good content!
Quick crash of doom story... One of the top drummers in Pittsburgh played one in a show I saw years ago and it sounded absolutely amazing. Of course I had to have one. I bought the 22" version because I tend to lean towards larger cymbals. It was terrible. I tried for a while to get used to it, but no dice, it was crap. Eventually, I decided to alter it. Big... Vents... Like 6 big 2" vents. It may have sounded 1% better... Sold it. Replaced it with a 22" Benny Greb sand crash and haven't looked back. (Had to take the rivots out tho)
In 1976 I believe, I bought a 20in Zildjian mini cup ride cymbal. About two years later it blew out of the back of my pickup truck. I was setting up when I noticed it was gone. So I headed back down the highway to retrace my route and I found lying on the shoulder. I had a couple dings on the edge and was turned inside out. I stood on it to pop it back into shape and dusted it off and I’m still playing it today.
Protect this channel at all costs!
Best way to do that is to join the Patreon: sladl.ink/Patreon
Loving this new series. I’m sure this is coming up-B20 vs B8 vs other alloys?
BTW, from the internet:
“Dennis Chambers discovered a crash he enjoyed on a ca. 2000 performance tour to China one with a dark, special sound. Dennis admired it so much that he asked Zildjian to re-create it for him. Completely based on a Dennis Chambers cymbal.”
I find your videos not only extremely informative and interesting, but at the same time your approach to drums and your philosophy on gear, setups etc. is very inspiring. It translates to other topics as well. Becoming a patreon now. Thanks very much
I never realized how much the profile changes the cymbal overall sound
Great video again!
Right now, my preference is for rides with a lower profile, but on the drier side to take away some of that sustain. I kinda like it when a cymbal takes its time to fully open up, like if you do a roll on it, you really get a sense of the overtones coming in one by one as you crescendo. Chinas are the exception, because I want them to be extremely fast and explosive, with little sustain.
One thing to watch out for, however, is how much different a cymbal sounds from the audience vs. from the throne. A ride that maybe has a little more sustain than I want it to, when I hear it from the throne, sounds perfect or even just a tad short when I hear it from 15 feet away.
Also, the cymbal smith Timothy Roberts has a ton of YT videos about the various details of cymbals and cymbal fabrication.
Greatest channel out there on these subjects.
I'm thankful you guys are getting into cymbal anatomy. I think it's an underrepresented subject. Hey so you use that old Sabian for jazz, it'd be great for the stoner/doom metal I play too. I'd also want a ride that I can keep crashing and it still have defined crashes on the 8th notes. I don't think there is such a thing as the right cymbal for a certain type of music it all depends on the player. Also great find with that blank cymbal, a lot of them sound a bit iffy but this one sounds extremely useful.
I stumbled upon the Zildjian K Special Dry cymbals. By itself, sounds weird. Never heard anything like it. Did not know if I would like it. My initial thoughts were, NOPE! But I do know that in a mix with a band things tend to change. Ended up purchasing a 20” Soecial Dry & a 19” Special Dry Trash Crash. Once I heard the playback with the band at church I immediately fell in love. SO GOOD! And you wanna talk about profiles?... these cymbals have many. But yes, at the end of the day the way it washes out so quickly of the mix is genius. Fits the needs we as a band were looking for. And they sound great! Thank you for going through all the different profiles.
You are definitely a mine of information & please! keep on nerding mate. 🙏👍
That blank at the end has a wash that is pleasant to my ear, nice one
I’ve sold a LOT of cymbals too. I’ve REALLY been loving the K Paper Thins and i use the K dark crashes too. I’ve had a lot of A customs that i didn’t really like and I used to like the Z customs but i grew out of them and started using Ks a few years ago
I used to own a Zildjian 21” A Sweet Ride, which I noticed has an umbrella-like shape to it. It wasn’t to my liking because of its brittle kind of wash. A standard 20” K ride fits me way better - it still has ping and a nice bell, but a nicer darker wash imo. I bet the shape plays a big part listening to your examples. Cheers!
I once got a 14" crash, which was very old and sounded so dark, it had pretty much no treble and sustain (it was pretty flat). It had multiple cracks along the bell, which the previous owner tried to solder (!). The thing being so thick, I thought I could enhance the sound and get it to open up a little by machine sanding it and drilling a large amount of holes into it, removing probably around a quarter of its overall mass in the process. Sadly it didn't work out and I ended up tossing it into the bin, but it was a fun process!
One of the first cymbals I got my hands on when I started drumming again, was a Istanbul 30th Ann" 24" ride, from the earlier series. Beautiful, dry and dark but with an unbelievably crisp definition, cutting through the mix like a hot knife. Unfortunately it has a fairly high profile (and thickness), preventing it from opening up / breaking up like the newer series or its 22" iterations. You really have to dig into it to crash / wash it for a bit, and it get's overwhelmingly loud doing so (I also believe that's the profile doing that). I've asked around if there were any cymbal smiths willing to take off little material or do some hammering to the profile. All I got was: "What are you, an imbecile?!" xD And they're quite right though, it's a rare gem of a cymbal, just not the fit-all end-all ride I was hoping it would be.
I struggle to find crashes that have the long sustain that I want and is as low as I can get. Resorting to 19"crashes solely at the moment. I have Z3, but my one (Thrash Ride) needs replacing as, for some reason, it has lost all of it's sound. Don't know why.
As for the profile, I never really thought about it. I once had a set of K Dark Crashes, they sounded beautiful but they were really short in the sustain so I sold them.
Stick choice is a big deal but also the dynamic of the place you play in makes a big difference. And every drummer makes a different sound it looks like sometimes the sound comes out of you ! ;-) Thanks for making good content!
Was it Dennis Chambers? (the Crash of Doom)
Yep! I remember when they came out...awesome cymbal
Great video!
Quick crash of doom story...
One of the top drummers in Pittsburgh played one in a show I saw years ago and it sounded absolutely amazing.
Of course I had to have one. I bought the 22" version because I tend to lean towards larger cymbals.
It was terrible.
I tried for a while to get used to it, but no dice, it was crap.
Eventually, I decided to alter it.
Big... Vents... Like 6 big 2" vents.
It may have sounded 1% better...
Sold it. Replaced it with a 22" Benny Greb sand crash and haven't looked back. (Had to take the rivots out tho)
👏Thx guys!
I'm personally a high profile kind of guy
I recall the Crash Of Doom being developed with Dennis Chambers, allegedly modelled after a Wuhan cymbal he brought back from China.
Please do.an episode strictly on flat rides.. There needs to be more education on flat rides.