Decided to compile mine, weckl-x and churnz stuff together. For the benefit of cymbal buyers.
Starting off with mine:
Getting the right cymbals for your kit can be a challenging endeavor. There are so many types, sizes and colorations of cymbals you might wonder how you will ever decide which ones you really want. You might think that going to a cymbal shop so you can hear each cymbal will help, and sometimes it does, sort of. You go around tapping on the various offerings in a cymbal room and find one you love. Then you get it home and on the gig and it does not sound the same. What's going on? Did they switch it at the store? Probably not, you just didn't hear it in the context of your other cymbals, nor in the context of the room in which you typically play. Oh well, you live and learn.
Then there is the "I'll buy a matched set idea". Yeah. That works when you are starting out. You get a drum kit and know these usually don't come with cymbals. Why do they do that? Because drummers that care about their sound like to mix and match cymbals suited for their particular needs.
There are 5 basic types of cymbals, the crash, the ride, hi-hats, the splash and the china cymbal (often called a china boy, Chinese, trash.) Then there are effects cymbals, orchestral cymbals, marching band cymbals and gongs. Then lets not forget the specialty stuff, like cymbals with large holes in them for that extra trashy sound (The Sabian Ozone) and the Zildjian Trashformer, which looks like it was run over by a semi-trailer. Want to hear different cymbal online? Go to the great Sabian Online Catalog, where you can hear the full range of cymbal offerings from Sabian. Zildjian also lets you listen to their great line from their site. Great source of cymbal samples, btw.
The sound of a cymbal is really a number of sounds that ring together to make the cymbal's overall sonic characteristic. If you listen to a cymbal closely (played soft) you will hear a fundamental tone and a few overtones, or partials. These overtones may occur at many different frequencies, from a low, slowly developing warm hum to a fast bright hi pitched shattering, with a number of tones in between. The harder you hit a cymbal, the more higher overtones you will hear. When a cymbal is called "dark" it will have stronger lower tones. When a cymbal is called "bright", it has lots of high frequencies, and more "cut", which means it can cut through the mix with a piercing, penetrating sound. You will also see cymbals described as "thin", paper-thin", "light", "medium" and "heavy". A heavy cymbal is typically louder, and requires more time and energy to get it to resonate and crash. If you are going large venue gigs, a heavy cymbal can keep your cymbals from getting lost. Yet these can often overpower the band in a small room and send the clientele heading for the back rows. A lighter, thinner cymbal will react more nimbly. It will still cut, crash quickly with less effort, but have less sustain. These make for good recording cymbals as you want the crash to cut, but not have a lot of low overtones that mess with the mix, and you want it to die fast and not ring over the vocalist as they start the next verse. This is just to say that a rich, full bodied cymbal sound is not always desirable.
So should you get a heavy ride and a paper thin crash? That can work sometimes. Jazz sometimes benefits from that combo, where a loud, resonating ride holds up the mix and you want a fast splashy crash, not a megadeath explosion. With Rock, you will be likely to use the bell on the ride a lot and you want it to ring through clearly. So a medium to heavy ride with a medium full bodied crash might be your ticket.
Size Matters, or does it? You might think that the larger the cymbal, the lower the pitch, and this is sometimes true, but you can't go by it. The pitch of a cymbal can also be determined by the height of the bell, that is, if you laid the cymbal flat on the ground, how high would the top of the bell be from the floor. The higher the bell, the higher the pitch. Larger cymbals tend to resonate longer. Take a 20" ride cymbal for example. The ping and crash might be higher pitched than a 16" medium crash, and an 18" crash might be even higher in pitch, yet ring for a long time. Anyone who has ever sampled a few ride cymbals knows these can quickly eat up megabytes of sample memory if you wait for it to decay naturally.
Cymbals are also described as being "glassy", "trashy", "complex", "raw", "dry", "explosive" "swelling" "fast", "exotic" "buzzy", "fuzzy", "narrow", "wide", "delicate", "splashy", "muted", "silvery", "woody", "breathy" , "washy", "clean", "dirty", "buttery" and finally, "eccentric" What th... OK, you want to learn what these mean? Find 3 cymbals and give yourself an hour of hitting all three as asking "Which one is more [you add one of the terms above]. I assure you, after an hour you will be able to define all these terms. You can go down to the cymbal shop and hit a few and go "ah, how exotic, fuzzy, eccentric, yet buttery!". Don't do this too loud now, they will think you have gone over the top.
Cymbal construction. All cymbals are made of bronze. Bronze is not a metal found in nature; it is an alloy, a combination of tin and copper that is mixed in a cast. As the cast hardens, the cymbal is hammered into final shape, either by machine or by hand. Then the cup is added (the bell of the cymbal). Then it is spun on a lathe which makes the cymbal perfectly round. The lathe may also cuts grooves into the cymbal. You can tell the difference between the two by feeling the underside of the cymbal. Some are grooved and some are not.
Sheet Bronze or Cast Bronze? Manufacturing method? Or marketing hype?. Is it a less expensive process for manufacturers to deliver sheet bronze cymbals? You often find sheet bronze cymbals in the newbie sets, line the Zildjian ZBT and ZXT series. Just considering Zildjian cymbals, if it has ridges, it is probably Cast Bronze. If it is smooth, it may be sheet bronze. The Zildjian Sheet bronze series sounds "lighter" and "tinnier" and less rich. Other manufacturers have cymbals that feel like Zildjian sheet bronze, but do not sound "cheap". All bronze was cast at one point or another. The difference, one assumes is whether the manufacturer pours the bronze into a mold shaped like the cymbal or simply cuts it out of a pre-cast sheet. Still, the water is too muddy to base a decision on these definitions. If you like the sound and playability of a sheet bronze cymbal, go for it. There are some cymbals from Paiste that may feel like a sheet bronze cymbal yet a rich in depth and overtones as top line "cast bronze" Zildjians.
Hi-Hats come in two sizes. 13 inch and 14 inch. Here, size does effect pitch in most product lines. The 13" will be more cutting, with slightly more ability to rise above the band on an open hit. Fast stick definition is important as the hi-hats are the "timekeeper" of the band. A 14" hi hat has a more solid, richer sound. A studio drummer is likely to have both, as some songs might require 13" hats.
Adapted from
http://www.tweakheadz.com/cymbals.htm
Churnz:
[1] The 3 major cymbal producers
this section is for beginners or perhaps those who only heard of these 3 brands.The reason why these 3 companies are soo famous and prefered to is due to the fact that they are large companies with the capacity to endorse many famous drummers who are idols of many people and therefore,these fans of the famous drummers would naturally be influenced about getting their idol's cymbals and hence get "stereotyped" into the "zildjian/paiste/sabian is the best!anything else will lose out to it" kind of mentality.i would like to let everyone know that even though that these 3 brands are very reputable for making "good" cymbals,there are other companies out there which also produce very unique and wonderful cymbals,do not be constrained to these 3 brands only when buying cymbals.
[2] Branding is not everything , sound IS
Most people also tend to be brand conscoius,the minute they hear of an unfamiliar brand of cymbals,they do not even put them into consideration, without even hearing them.I would like to emphasize that branding does not say a single thing about the sound,but actually hearing the cymbals for yourself and letting your ears do the judging of the sound produced is everything.just because the cymbal has the brand of bosphorus or istanbul etc. doesnt mean their cymbals sound uncomparable to zildjian/sabians/paiste cymbals,they may have different characters but never uncomparable.
[3] "Good" sounding cymbals
this term is very very subjective,there will never be a definition for good or best sounding cymbals.Each cymbal may sound brighter,darker,washy,crisp etc. and different people may like a certain cymbal while others might not.so next time if you are asking for some cymbals,
dont ask "hey,do these cymbals sound good?"
instead,you should ask : "what are the characteristics of these cymbals?and where can i find the sound sample"
[4] "Should i sell my current cymbals to get money to buy the next set?"
No.you should try your very best not to sell your cymbals just to get money to buy the next one unless you truly hate what you are hearing.
First reason,if you sell your current cymbals,you will be selling it lesser than what you bought it for,in the long run,you will be losing alot of money by buying and selling cymbals after using each of them.
Second reason,each piece of cymbal is an art,how its being crafted,how it sounds.Having a larger arsenal of cymbals would also mean that you will have a larger variety of sound play with rather than being confined to a single set that you might also want to change in the near future.
List of Cymbals
this list of cymbals listed by me is to let drummers in our community know about the less popular cymbal companies and a chance to explore more into them.
Big Three
American - Zildjian
http://www.zildjian.com/
Canadian - Sabian
http://www.sabian.com/
Swiss - Paiste
http://www.paiste.com
Turkish
Istanbul Mehmet
http://www.istanbulmehmet.com/
http://www.cymbalsonly.com/cymbals/mehmet/mehmet.htm
Istanbul Agop
http://www.istanbulcymbals.com/
http://www.cymbalsonly.com/cymbals/agop/agop.htm
Bosphorus
http://www.bosphoruscymbals.com/
http://www.cymbalsonly.com/index.htm
Amedia
http://www.amediacymbals.com/
Turkish
http://www.turkishcymbals.com/
Masterwork
http://www.masterworkcymbal.com/
Anatolian
http://www.anatoliancymbals.com/
GrandMaster
http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/WNAMM98/Grand-Master/models.html
TRX (Turkish OEM, US brand)
http://www.trxcymbals.com/
Cadeson (Turkish OEM, Taiwanese brand)
http://www.cadesonmusic.com/17-cymbals.html
Italian
UFIP
http://www.ufip.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VErtOXTboxE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2DqWY2LB7o&mode=related&search=
(audio samples)
German
Meinl
http://www.meinlcymbals.com/cymbal_series/cymbal_series.html
Note: Byzance series made in Turkey, finished in Germany
Chinese
Wuhan
http://www.wuhancymbals.com/
Saluda (Chinese OEM, finished in US factory)
http://www.saludacymbals.com/c/sounds.php
(audio samples)
Dream (Chinese OEM, Canadian brand)
http://www.mountainrhythm.com/
http://www.frontrangebronze.com/
Stagg (Chinese OEM, Belgian brand)
http://www.staggmusic.com/
Brazil
Orion
http://www.orioncymbals.com.br/english/produtos.htm
Harpy/Krest
http://www.krestcymbals.com.br/
Japanese
Koide
http://koidecymbal.com/factory/index.html
Local
Trojan
Independent Artisans
These are the rare and few who work alone, creating cymbals from scratch with their bare hands, also modifying existing ones, personalized custom work.
Italian
Don Roberto / Spizzichinos
http://www.spizzichinocymbals.com/
http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/film-detail.jsp?id=8262#
Swiss
Michael Paiste / Swiss Custom Shop
http://www.swiss-customshop.ch/
Belgian
Johan VanDeSijpe
http://users.telenet.be/cymbzdrumz/
Icelandic
Steve Hubback
http://hubgong.dse.nl/
*compiled by weckl-x
Edit: - added afew more details into the cymbal list
- edited some terms in section 4
- added weckl-x's cymbal list compilation
Weckl-x:
Cymbals - The Basics
The inspiration behind these articles is to help younger and less experienced drummers become better acquainted with what may on the surface appear to be an open and shut subject matter. While I don’t profess to know everything on the subject, I hope that over the course of a few articles I can impart some of my knowledge and experience and help others avoid what can be, some expensive mistakes. You will find I refer to certain things quite a lot – this is deliberate and is because they are important contributing factors to the matter at hand.
http://mikedolbear.co.uk/story.asp?StoryID=420&Source
Cymbals - Part II - Optimising Performance
Like most things on a modern drumkit, the placement and positioning of your instruments is down to personal taste. However, I would like to try and give an indication on how to get the best out of your cymbals by positioning them in the ‘least-wrong’ way. I say this because obviously there is no real correct way to so, just optimum and less optimum. What I am trying to do is give some grounding on which to experiment and so you can find your own happy medium.
http://mikedolbear.co.uk/story.asp?StoryID=447&Source
Cymbals - Part III - Optimising Performance
In the last part of this series, we’ll look at how to change/ alter the sound of your cymbals, a bit of care and maintenance and what to look for when buying.
http://www.mikedolbear.co.uk/story.asp?StoryID=509&Source=Arch
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