Cymbals choices for Houses of Worship.

As a for instance, I carry and use a pair of Danny Carey’s Vic Firth Signature sticks to church on Sunday. His sticks have occult symbols on them that yours truly has sanded off. Perfect sticks for my hand size and drumming style but his symbols ain’t gonna make it into my church, baby!

Pete
 
I have just purchased a meinl vintage 20" pure light crash for worship. We have a small gathering in a room about 150m2. Will this suit with a hyrbid kit (meinl cajon with foot pedal and 10" tama snare)?? I am concerned that it will be too loud with being hit with 7a sticks?
 
Good news! You get to decide how hard to strike the cymbals so the volume control is in your hands. On a more serious note, there will be times when a louder strike will be called for. And then you’ll already have what you need in front of you.
 
The bare minimum of cymbals for me and many Worship drummers are dark, thin, and big cymbals.
Some cymbals can work, depending on the music itself. When I used to play in my youth group, we had Sabian XSR cymbals, and it worked because most of the music was upbeat. Heck, maybe the Zildjian A customs would've been MUCH better than the XSR ...

But look around with the cymbal specs in mind. I recommend looking at Zildjian's K line!
 
I generally see Worship Drummers using very Pingy ride cymbals with very splashy thin crashes and Clangy hihats.
 
Couple years late, but a lot of the current guys have been playing Zildjian Keropes of all sizes, K Light rides, and a lot are hitting Istanbuls.. now this is in the Bethel style worship with trendy big, loud, and dark cymbals. David Whitworth from Bethel has Istanbuls, and none of his cymbals except hats are under 22". Joe Volk plays closer to what I have: 20" K Constantinople Medium Thin Low, 22" Kerope, 24" K Light ride with (I think) 16" K Light Hats.

My current setup:
-15" Kerope hats
-20" Kerope on my left
-22" Kerope on my right (I pitch and weight matched them to be at a pleasing interval)
-24" K Zildjian Light Ride

If I were to do a smaller setup and not standard K's (still Zildjian), I would likely do:
-14" K Sweet hats
-18" Kerope
-20" Kerope
-22" K Zildjian Light Ride

I sold my 22" K Constantinople Hi Bell Thin High and 20" K Con Medium Thin Low just because they stood out a bit much in the room. We're playing in an 800 seat treated auditorium with a decent shield, and I feather the cymbals, but we don't want to have to mix too far above the volume of the kit.

Meinl are good, and a lot are muted and trashy, but it's all personal taste. Once you get to a certain quality level, most dark cymbals that aren't too loud are great choices. I would be careful with A Custom or other brilliant finish cymbals, but it's about technique too. I run live sound, and I always build relationships with the drummers and make thoughtful suggestions rather than muscling my way through a really painful sound.

Hope this helps,
Michael G
 
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