Queit good ride cymbal

another thing you can do is stick a bit of tape (or a few pieces stacked on each other) or moon gel on the edge of the ride and you might like the new controlled sound.
 
For low volume gigs I use Zildjian K custom special dry ride, 21" with Peter Erskine sticks, easy to control the dryness enables cut but it never gets loud like a rock cymbal, not too much wash either.
 
Vic Firth SD2 Bolero
Zildjian 18" Breakbeat Ride

That's my ultimate restaurant gig jazz setup. I did a gig once with my ride cymbal probably three feet from a table of old ladies talking and having dinner and after our set they said we were great background music.

Or if it being a gig like this where the music isn't featured, I'll take it as a chance to practice brushes.
 
Rides I have experience with that are low volume would be...
22 agop sig
20 bosphorus black pearl
22 bosphorus master vintage
20 mehmet turk jazz ride
20 paiste 2oo2 dry ride
22 mehmet legend dark
22 mehmet original ride- most versatile of the bunch
 
I recommend a Meinl Byzance Vintage Pure Ride in a 20" or 22". I have the 22" and love it.
 
Vic Firth Keith Carlock sticks and a Zildjian K Custom Flat Ride.
 
18" Istanbul Agop Signature flat ride. By far the quietest ride I have ever owned. Great sounding ride and ideal for a piano trio
 
Quiet Ride... Quiet, do you mean small? The sweetest ride I own is a 1950's 18" weighing in at 1722 grams.

My heaviest is a 1995 20" at 2461 grams... it is a world apart from the sweet ride. And I prefer the sweet 18" over the 20".

Jeff Hamilton had a line of cymbals a while back that were very thin, a slo-mo on them was astonishing.

Arm yourself with lots of info and go scouting around. Don't dismiss anything heavy, light, or medium, and measure the weights. Weights make a difference as does size.
 
While I have used tape on a number of cymbals over the years, you can often end up with a very artificial end result, and something that no longer has the key characteristics you need.

If you haven't already, try a thin, broad cymbal felt underneath the bell (just like the kind that goes under the bottom hi hat on most stands). I find that this dries out cymbal wash sufficiently, while still allowing the main characteristics to stay balanced. The 20" Dream is really a crash/ride (I think), and so you'll be battling the wash as soon as the volume increases at all.

See how you go.

Also, if you're thinking of buying a new cymbal, do you have a budget in mind? If price is no object, then I'd suggest a 22" Agop 30th Anniversary ride. Very different sound to the two models that you mentioned in your original post, but such a fantastic cymbal for jazz and associated genre at just about any volume you could need, right down to a whisper.
 
Sabian Artisan 22" Light Ride. I own one and it is excellent.

I just had a 22" Artisan medium ride relathed down to be of medium-thin weight... Oh my god, this is now the ultimate jazzy/bluesy ride. It's noticeably quieter, and I think something like that fits the bill.
 
Any Bosphorus cymbal in a jazz weight should do you-- they're a whole level of quiet beneath any other cymbal I've played. The Master series even more so-- to the point that for me they're kind of useless as cymbals. But normal Bosphorus lines are good for when you need to keep stage volume down, and you aren't worried about projecting very far at all.

But you should be able to use most cymbals that are not blatantly rock cymbals in that setting-- you just have to be able to play quieter. Get some smaller maple sticks-- VF SD-4 Combos are popular-- bring your stick heights down, and don't use too much muscle in your playing.

Loudness is relative to us i think, I have had 21" Bosphorus master vintage and 22" master ride, they weren't ear piercing, but definitely not quiet. Quiet to me is 30-60dB(c) and never came across, these truly quiet cymbals. We have to remember, drums and cymbals are EXTRAORDINARY LOUD instrument by nature.
 
That's just my experience with them. I never owned any mediums, but I didn't like the few I've played. I don't know about absolute volume, just musical volume. The ones I've owned all projected poorly-- great for recording, mediocre for playing live. And poorly balanced with the drums-- I felt I had to hit the cymbals harder than the drums to produce a balanced overall volume.

I guess percussion is only extraordinarily loud if you play it that loud, right?
 
That's just my experience with them. I never owned any mediums, but I didn't like the few I've played. I don't know about absolute volume, just musical volume. The ones I've owned all projected poorly-- great for recording, mediocre for playing live. And poorly balanced with the drums-- I felt I had to hit the cymbals harder than the drums to produce a balanced overall volume.

I guess percussion is only extraordinarily loud if you play it that loud, right?
Yes, but drums played ”quietly” is still ”loud” to our ears. My 22” bosphorus was very light 1900grams.
 
That's just my experience with them. I never owned any mediums, but I didn't like the few I've played. I don't know about absolute volume, just musical volume. The ones I've owned all projected poorly-- great for recording, mediocre for playing live. And poorly balanced with the drums-- I felt I had to hit the cymbals harder than the drums to produce a balanced overall volume.

I guess percussion is only extraordinarily loud if you play it that loud, right?

I'm with Todd on this one-- the Bosphorus Masters I've had have just gotten lost in the music. They've sounded magnificent in the practice room and under mics, but once we were above mp on a live gig I wondered where the cymbal went.

The other cymbals I was thinking of in answering the OP of this zombie thread is the Paiste Masters Extra Thin cymbals.
 
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