Cymbal mutes... that don't sound disgusting?

ermghoti

Silver Member
So, one can reduce the sound of a drum by muffling it. It won't sing, but you can tell what it is supposed to be, at least good enough for rehearsal. Eventually, you can choke them until they are pretty quiet, but that's not what I'm interested in, just quiet enough so one could play in a single family home without summoning a mob with pitchforks and torches and the screaming and hurting and glavin.

Cymbals, however, have two settings: ear bleeding, and clunk. I know one could really lay off the brass in a pinch, but I'd like to maintain as much of the physical integrity of the techniques.

My idea is to rest the cymbals on what would amount to a brush, some percentage of the diameter of the instrument in question. Originally, I envisioned something like a spring steel daisy, with some sort of protective sleeves, but it struck me as complicated to build, complex to adjust to different pies of different weights, and you may not get any warning if the sleeve wore until you discovered you'd wrecked your 50s era Zildjians.

My current plan is to rest the bows of the cymbals on something like the bristles of a broom, which may mitigate the above issues. I'm guessing volume would be reduced somewhat compared to non-muting, along with sustain, but the stick feel would be pretty authentic. With the edges unencumbered, they should still ring a little, hopefully leaving enough of the splashy characteristics to serve well enough for banging around informally with friends.

Anybody heard of or tried such a thing? Or should I just get rutes?
 
Play with rutes instead. Hot Rods are much quieter that sticks, and you can still coax the expressiveness out of your pies.

If that is still too much for the famn damily, try brushes. I find these to be more challenging for cymbals though.
 
lay off the brass

Cymbals are mostly bronze, unless you're talking about entry-level brass ones included with kits like the Pearl Rhythm Traveler.

Anyways, agreed on rutes. Your ride bell will practically disappear but rutes sound very nice in some situations and are certainly easier to control volume with. I use Vic Firth's model, appropriately called "Rute". Very nice implement.
 
If that is still too much for the famn damily, try brushes.


Good news! No family, it's just the neighbors, 50 feet or so away.

Cymbals are mostly bronze, unless you're talking about entry-level brass ones included with kits like the Pearl Rhythm Traveler.

Yah, I know, figure of speech.

Since I started this, I discovered Lidwish by Googling. I figure, traditional mute for the kit, and try a pair of those thinamajiggies. The only disadvantage compared to the nonsense I'm thinking of is losing the feel of regular sticks.
 
This is going to sound weird... but - it is THE reason I started getting Sabian AAX cymbals. I back off (a LOT!!!), and my family (sometimes upstairs) is not always aware than I'm still playing (as opposed to just music in the background).

At one point, I switched to smaller cymbals (but that changes the tone too drastically).

Another point - I purchased cymbal mutes (pads)...
 
True, I play Vault crashes, they open up very easily, don't know if they'd be quiet enough without taking some sort of measure though.
 
True, I play Vault crashes, they open up very easily, don't know if they'd be quiet enough without taking some sort of measure though.


I also (out of another habit altogether), put a felt on the top of my cymbals, and crank the crap out of them...

So basically - they vibrate a lot less, they don't move, and they all sound great. I cranked them down, because I noticed that when I play softly, I 'push' more, instead of 'whip' the cymbal (striking across). I feel I get a softer attack, without sacrificing 'where' I hit the cymbal.

Weird? Yes. Perhaps bad for an overplayed cymbal? Yup.

It works for me, though.
 
Interesting. I wouldn't try it right now myself, since I share the kit with some hamhanded rehearsal space mates (RIP 3xVaults and 2 APX crashes), so I'd almost certainly see the holes or bells crack out.
 
+1 for Sabian Sound Shapers.
Also, a little gaffers tape on the undersides. This combination works great for me.
 
That depends on how much tape. I start with the "Sound Shapers" under the pies. Then I add small short strips of gaffers tape underneath. The top hi-hat gets four pieces midway between edge and bell, at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock, 1" long and 1/2" wide. The ride gets 8 (slightly larger) pieces, staggered in a similar way. The crashes get something in between these two. I'm sure you get the picture, experiment with the tape -- it's cheap and easy. Also, I found tan colored gaffers tape, which matches the bronze pretty well!
 
Try large felts on the bottom. First thing I do to control an overly washy ride (although I like that sound more and more). Also moon gels on the top, opposite where you hit. The closer to the bell, the more damping.

It won't sound disgusting but will look disgusting; back in the day in my old apartment I used to put a pair of BVDs (tiddy whiteys) over the hi-hats and smaller crashes. Leave the waist part open towards you where you hit. It actually quiets them pretty well and still sounds something like cymbals. The expensive Sound-off rubber thing I bought a few years ago sounds almost as natural. The wetsuit rubber cymbal mutes sound horrible but the hat thing isn't as bad.
 
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