Cymbal Rant....

ambientgreg

Senior Member
Where are the "wet" cymbals?

Where are the "slow" crashes?

Where are the "regular" cymbals

I have a cymbal which is called a ZIldjian K Custom Special Light Dry ride.
That's 7 things to describe one cymbal.

I think we need new cymbal names.

End of part I
 
Wet cymbals, left in the rain
Slow crashes...nevermind

Describing sonic properties with words is tough, like describing odors. Wet, to me conjures a full ranged balance of tones, pleasing but not wild, and not dry. How's that for pinpoint accuracy?

A slow crash...My 21" ride crashes slow, it takes a lot of force and more time to reach it's peak output.

Regular cymbals is a term spoken by someone who doesn't understand that there is nothing regular.

That's all I got.
 
I have a "slow" 20" Zil A Crash/Ride. It is an excellent description. It is washy and slightly trashy. You have really BASH it to get the crash right. The ride is washy and if you ride it and increase the ride intensity and then crash it, you don't have to BASH it so hard.
 
Light - regards weight (..... vs medium vs. heavy)
Dry - regards stick definition (differs for all sorts of 'rides')
What gets me is describing a sound (like a snare) as 'fat' ? I guess if I hit a heavyweight person with a drum stick, it may sound different than with a lightweight person.
 
I think the 7 words used to describe your cymbal are because cymbal companies have gone to town when it comes to coming up with new cymbal styles with new sounds. If you want something that's described as merely a "cymbal", you need to look to vintage cymbals, or cymbals from any number of just-starting-out cymbal companies that don't have different "lines" or "models". Even then, though, you come across a vast array of different-sounding cymbals that could easily be differentiated with larger companies' nomenclatures.

With the choices available today, people can shop with their eyes as well as their ears. If you played at a jam session, and the house kit had a really nice ride cymbal that you liked, you at least have a name to go with when you go to the store. It's easier to find another cymbal like it when there's a lot of ink on it...
 
20" K Custom Dry Light Ride Combines a warm, dry stick sound, with a lush, dark, dry, warm and full-bodied crash sound, ideal for accents. Provides both these sought-after qualities in a single, unlathed and extra-hammered but thin cymbal design. Ideal for electric and acoustic jazz.

A bit more than 7
 
Or we could just go back to pre-1979 when Zildjian didn't label any of their cymbals with names.

The problem is not the names, the problem is people get too caught up in the names.
You buy cymbals with your ears, not on what it says.

But from some reason, people get obsessed with the name.

Do you know why your cymbal has 7 words in it? Because marketing has found people get obsessed with the name on the cymbal.

And the fact that someone will rant that they need new words on cymbals proves that point.
 
Here's a funnier thing I'd like to point out: listen to any of your favorite recordings and tell me if you can specifically hear the difference between what could be labeled as a 'dry' ride, or a regular ol' 'medium' ride. You can't really. Depending on how it was recorded, or how the soundman at your live gig in the bad venue had to run your sound through the console is pretty much what you're going to get, and at that point, most cymbals sound pretty generic, regardless of title imprinted on the cymbal. We might be able to hear that, yes it is a K, or no, that's an A, or this is good and this is bad, but that's pretty much it. And heaven help you if you have more than two crashes - Liberty DeVitto even stated that in a big hall, you can't tell the differences between all the different crashes a player might have -which is why he only used two crashes all those years with Billy Joel in the big arenas.

I'm beginning to favor cymbals that do it all, like Sabian's Omni line. If I keep thinking, "man, at bar fourteen that 14" super dry fast crash will accentuate the bar just enough to be tasteful" then I'm thinking a little too much. Don't you think?
 
Where are the "wet" cymbals?
Wet sounds yucky.

Where are the "slow" crashes?
Slow sounds too much like "stupid". Plus nowadays speed is everything. Thats why we have "Tama Speed Cobra Pedals" instead of "Tama Leisurely Cobra Pedals".

Where are the "regular" cymbals
"Regular" sounds like "Average", "Run of the Mill" or "Boring". Who wants to be boring? I'm honestly surprised that they still have "Medium" weight cymbals. They for the most part changed "Heavy" to "Rock" because it sounds cooler. "Thin" and "Light" sound pleasant so they stay the same, but "Medium" sounds too much like "Average". I'm waiting for "Medium" to be re-termed as "Versatile" or something dumb like that.

Honestly, all of these descriptive terms and names just make things seem even more nondescript. So much of it just sounds like hype. How many things out there have the words "Pro" or "Custom" in their names? Now, how many of those things actually ARE custom built or professional grade?

Marketing, man.
 
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Maybe now I buy the cheaper Staggs I don't care too much haha.

I go for what I like, if it's particularly heavy I might stear away from it as a crash, but that's to save my wrist rather than because I'm "against" those heavy ones.

Drums are so personal, you have to be careful not to insult anyone when talking about them. But with cymbals, the companies are so profit hungry, they'll just keep going and going and don't help themselves. At least drum makers can only use a certain amount of words to describe the wood (or indeed plastic/metal) sounds haha.
 
I have a cymbal which is called a ZIldjian K Custom Special Light Dry ride.
That's 7 things to describe one cymbal.

I think we need new cymbal names.

OK ... they need to keep Zildjian on there, 'cause that's who makes it.​
K ... denotes the series, so we gotta keep that.​
Custom ... a further denotation ... lets us know it's not really from the K series, it's actually a K Custom. We kinda gotta keep that, although they wanted to kinda show off the K Custom lines pedigree ... it's relationship to the K series.​
Special ... yeah, that's a bit flaky. Like, as opposed to the "not so special" cymbals.​
Light ... as opposed to heavy. Or medium. They're telling us the weight. I guess that's a good thing.​
Dry ... OK, maybe that's questionable too.​
Ride .... good, that we need to keep. It's a Ride cymbal, as opposed to a crash, or a china, or a .......​
But, 7 words still ain't cutting it.​
WHAT ABOUT THE SIZE !!!​
Is it a 20" ride, a 21" ride, or a 22"?​
I guess there's no real way to get around it. In this very complex "modern world" in which we live ... ya just gotta have a whole buncha stuff written on your cymbal.​
I think I'll take me a 1/2 a Norco and go back to bed.​
 
Well, actually there are modern "simple named" cymbals that you can find anywhere.

You have Sabian AA "Regular hi-hats".

My ride is a Zildjian K "Ride". (No medium, thin, fast, super fast, custom special order handmade extra dry extra crispy ride... just "Ride").

Paiste has their Twenty "Crash"...

There's a Zildjian A Custom "China".. and a K "Splash".

....

So.. There are cymbals out there that only specify their type and size and nothing more, not even their weight.

Myself, I like a good description, it doesn't hurt at all... it only helps. And if you want "classic" cymbals with no marketing bladablablada, you've got plenty of them out there..


So.. Sorry, but I don't get what's to rant about. :/

Cheers
 
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OK ... they need to keep Zildjian on there, 'cause that's who makes it.​
K ... denotes the series, so we gotta keep that.​
Custom ... a further denotation ... lets us know it's not really from the K series, it's actually a K Custom. We kinda gotta keep that, although they wanted to kinda show off the K Custom lines pedigree ... it's relationship to the K series.​
Special ... yeah, that's a bit flaky. Like, as opposed to the "not so special" cymbals.​
Light ... as opposed to heavy. Or medium. They're telling us the weight. I guess that's a good thing.​
Dry ... OK, maybe that's questionable too.​
Ride .... good, that we need to keep. It's a Ride cymbal, as opposed to a crash, or a china, or a .......​
But, 7 words still ain't cutting it.​
WHAT ABOUT THE SIZE !!!​
Is it a 20" ride, a 21" ride, or a 22"?​
I guess there's no real way to get around it. In this very complex "modern world" in which we live ... ya just gotta have a whole buncha stuff written on your cymbal.​
I think I'll take me a 1/2 a Norco and go back to bed.​


They should put all that stuff on the underside though. Just a nice well designed logo on the top is all that is needed.
 
I always try to retain the logos and desriptions on my cymbals because they are worth much more to the people buying them used if I decide to sell them. For one thing, they know exactly what they are buying and second, it makes the cymbal look as if it's been used much more lightly. For instance, I sold an entire set of Sabian AA cymbals to a Five Star shop about two years ago after having them a few months and I got just about every penny back that I originally put into them.

Oh, by the way, these are "regular" hats.

DSC_0443-1.jpg


Dennis
 
Wanna remove ink from your cymbal .... takes about 15 sec. of not-so-very-hard work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LgyYO6KRCE Leave just the name, or take it all off.

Oddly enough, I have that exact product AND a cymbal that I would like to remove the last remaining logo remnants from, so I'm going to try that right now.


Happy Thanksgiving
 
great rant, I totally agree...my hihats are called 13" aax "fast" hats, I don't know if that means they will roll across the floor faster when they fall off the cymbal stand ? and "dark splash" always conjures up monster movie sound track to me.
 
Bless your hearts.It was actually meant to be humorous in a Seinfeld/George Carlin kinda way ( my original post, I mean). Loosen up, some of y'all are way too serious.
 
Bless your hearts.It was actually meant to be humorous in a Seinfeld/George Carlin kinda way ( my original post, I mean). Loosen up, some of y'all are way too serious.

LOVE the Tama Leisurely Cobra Pedals! Now THAT"S funny.

I move that all cymbals hereby be referred to as ( in the words of many non drummers) " those round metal thingys that go above the drums". Yes I'd like to purchase a 28" dark regular special medium-dry, sometimes - fast Wild Pang Ping Complex mega-bell lathed hammered folded spindled,shaken -not stirred round metal thingy. Traditional finish ,please.

It should go great with my drums with the Aqua sparkle burst fade flame finish made from
special plywood from the Mesozoic era.
 
Regular usually refers to the finish: regular as opposed to brilliant (shinier). Fast or slow in crashes refers to how quickly they open up. Dry in rides means it is pingier with few overtones. Peace and goodwill.
 
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