What kind of ride cymbals you do prefer?

Rock Salad said:
My favorite one that I own is probably not the one anyone (even me,) would choose out of a stack of rides. It is very ringy/klangy. It's heavy and took years to figure out how to crash decently. It has a fair amount of tape on it too, but that has gotten less and less as I learn to play it better.
I play electric guitar music though, so clarity and projection are more crucial than finer nuances of wash. Which (fwiw) I have also improved on learning to play this beast.
It's a heavier 20" with a thickish edge, but flatish bow, and a nice wobble for its weight.
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Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, fourteen o'clock rock, we gonna rock, around the clock tonight...
But seriously: what's a "nice wobble"?
 
I have a ride suited to playing and recording at home. I don't know how it will do at a gig, it may be too quiet, but at home it is delicious. It is a Bosphorus Turk 22" thin unlathed dry complex Ride! 2440g. The stick definition is extreme, and the wash never overpowers. It makes a nice swell with mallets and looks astounding in slow motion video. If you play jazz or anything not very noisy, it is a dream cymbal.
 
It was dark, and washy, but the sustain got out of the way quick so it worked for pretty much anything and you could still hear the ping when you needed it. I could run that one cymbal with hats and no other cymbals and play just fine. It wasn't for everyone and took a few minutes to get the hang of an control, but I sure loved it.
=(

If anyone has something like that for sale, please PM me.
 
Right now my preference are 22” Bosphorus wide ride (Stanton Moore) or for more character a 22” Istanbul 30th anniversary or a 22” Paiste Twenty Masters dark ride. I switch them round every few months, no one else in my band even notices......
 
Man, this is a tough question because I want different ride sounds for different sounds of music

I own 5 rides each kind of serve a different purpose

Meinl Byzance Dual Crash/Ride 22”: this is a great ride if I want a unique sound with multiple sounds in one ride. Thin

Meinl Sand Ride 20”: just a grea my solid all around ride, medium thin

Meinl Byzance Heavy Ride 22”: this is my ping ride for heavier music. Heavy (for meinl)

Paiste Dark Energy Mark I 22”: this is my favorite ride. It’s dark yet has good ping, and is crashable. Very versatile. Medium

Paiste Dark Energy Mark II 21”: the brighter but not to bright version of the mark I. Has a good stick definition.


I guess I’d say Dark, thin to medium thin, with some crashability and a good bell.
 
Ride is one of my favorite cymbals so, I was not able to have a preference and thought it was really though to find a good crash, good ping and doo ways in only one cymbal, this, I decided to have 4 in my set up. I know it's not exactly an answer to your question but at least you I'll see which one I had chosen and why:
Left hand side ride: Sabian HHX Groove ride 21", almost top on all features
Right hand side at 1 pm, more a crash one: Sabian Artisan ride 20"
Left ride, normal 2h30 pm, above the Floor tom, my Ping ride, Sabian AAX Raw Bell Dry Ride
When the last one, my wash ride, at 3h00 pm a top of the AAX, Zildjian A Custom Sweat ride 23"
That's it, really, I can't decide which one I prefer.?.
 
my AAX 21" medium ride has the best of both worlds, nice stick definition and bell while still having a nice crashability! I love crashable rides.
 
I like a ride that can do any genre well, feel wise I like a nice bell and and it has to crash and have a controlled wash with stick definition. The bonus part is it has to have a warmth/darkness too.

My 22" A Medium ticks all those boxes. Sure you can have a specific ride for a specific situation but you can dry a cymbal up with a bit of tape or add a sizzle chain. That's the beauty of medium rides.

They're the Supras of the cymbal world.
 
Well i haven't found the ride yet, but i'm leaning more towards thinner, darker and crashable rides. I use an 21" A Zildjian Sweet Ride and it's one of the most recommended crashable rides, but i'd prefer it to be a tad thinner and with some more complex hammering. The Paiste Traditional 22" Light Ride, Meinl Byzance 22" Sand Ride or the Meinl 21" Byzance Transition Ride are probably good contenders. But considering their price i'm not looking to buy ;)
 
iCe said:
Well i haven't found the ride yet, but i'm leaning more towards thinner, darker and crashable rides. I use an 21" A Zildjian Sweet Ride and it's one of the most recommended crashable rides, but i'd prefer it to be a tad thinner and with some more complex hammering. The Paiste Traditional 22" Light Ride, Meinl Byzance 22" Sand Ride or the Meinl 21" Byzance Transition Ride are probably good contenders. But considering their price i'm not looking to buy ;)
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man I couldn’t get down with the transition ride but you should check out the Meinl Polyphonic Ride 21”
 
iCe said:
Well i haven't found the ride yet, but i'm leaning more towards thinner, darker and crashable rides. I use an 21" A Zildjian Sweet Ride and it's one of the most recommended crashable rides, but i'd prefer it to be a tad thinner and with some more complex hammering. The Paiste Traditional 22" Light Ride, Meinl Byzance 22" Sand Ride or the Meinl 21" Byzance Transition Ride are probably good contenders. But considering their price i'm not looking to buy ;)
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Check Bosphorus rides.. I have 22" that is 1900grams :) So gooooood!
 
iCe said:
Well i haven't found the ride yet
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Yeah, that's kinda the truth. I have not found a ride that does it ALL. I have 2 rides that are pretty close to perfect for me, a 20" K Crash Ride from the 90s, and a 24" K Light Ride. They're both pretty rad in their own ways.

I currently have reduced my selection down to 13 rides. I do a lot of recording work and play a lot of musicals, and often times find myself gravitating towards a few ride cymbals that I would have otherwise passed on if I tapped them in the music store. For example, I was playing a show where I knew I wanted to use an old A, but none of my A cymbals were cutting it, so to speak. I needed something with more "tah" for those particular tunes, for that particular pit. I brought in my K Con and my K Light, but neither of them had the volume I needed. I brought in a Sand Ride which I had *just* purchased, which I didn't really like the way it sounded in my studio, and I was planning on selling it. It was perfect enough for the situation that both the musical director AND the sound guy made comments, neither of them knowing I was rotating between several different ride cymbals (the director thought I was playing the ride with the right amount of "aggression" for that tune, and the sound guy thought I had moved the mic placement, and came down to the pit to see where I had moved it to). So, despite not personally being "inspired" by the sound/feel when I played it, the sound sat in the mix just right. We all make sacrifices for our art. ?
 
I play super heavy rides, and have been using a Zyldjian original Z Heavy Power Ride. I love the tight, bright staccato ping and the definition a heavy ride offers. That sound just cuts through everything. And it also doesn't take over the mix. I can't stand washy rides, or drummers that ride on crash cymbals. I hate the constant drone of that wash, ending up sounding like a keyboard player playing a whole note chord and just holding it for the duration of a song, sound boring. I play hard rock and light metal, so my preferences are geared toward that.
 
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for rock/metal/punk/funk etc, I use my 1979 20" Zildjian A Rock Ride. I can get many different pings out of it, and really like the bell. It was my 8th grade graduation gift, and was my first non "Camber" cymbal...

for country, I use my 22" 1994 22" Zildjian K ride. It is less pingy, and darker, and I can control it's volume a bit more...smal bell, which sounds good, but is hard to hit

for jazz, I have my 1955 Zildjian 22" ride...it is super thin at the edges, and real washy. Super dark. I use a "trade secret" that is not tape (because I think taping cymbals is sacrilegious) to dry it up a bit.
In that set up, for brushes, I actually use a 90's era 17" Zildjian K Custom Dark Thin Crash as a ride....soooo shimmery

as mentioned in another post, I am lusting after a Zildjian 20" K Custom ride....what a glorious ping, and to me, the ultimate bell sound
 
rocker261 said:
I can't stand washy rides, or drummers that ride on crash cymbals. I hate the constant drone of that wash, ending up sounding like a keyboard player playing a whole note chord and just holding it for the duration of a song, sound boring.
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I wouldn't call that cymbals fault... More like the guy who sits on the throne behind the kit.
 
I usually play on a Zildjian A 21" Sweet ride or a 20" A custom and I love them! They both have really sharp bells and pretty good stick definition but I love that you can crash ride on them. I play mostly Rock, Metal, Jazz-Fusion, and Funk and they work so well for that. When I was more of a Jazz guy however I really used to love a fairly dry ride, I think it was a 21" Bosphorus.
 
I really like my Meinl Transition, but I do miss my Sabian Xs20's bell (not the rest of it haha). I played a Zildjian Mega Bell ride at a party and loved it, bought a used one and couldn't get on with it. The bell is more dull than I drunkenly remembered.
I tend to play the bell on my Pure Alloy 18" ride as it has this super high ping which I find great for my Fleetwood Mac style band and my Punk band.
 
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