Demonstrating & Defining Cymbal Sounds | Ep. 1

Welcome to the inaugural episode of "Cymbal Sounds", the Sounds Like a Drum cymbal series initially launched exclusively on Patreon. We'll be starting to share some of these here on our KZbin channel in the coming months. Please keep in mind that we started this series four years ago, so A/V production isn't necessarily up to date with our most recent videos but all of the material is still 100% relevant. In this episode we demonstrate and define some of the terms we'll be using to describe cymbal sounds throughout this series so we can make sure everyone is on the same page as to what a "dry" sound is vs. "washy" vs. "pingy".
Signal chain:
Mics - Focusrite Clarett 8Pre USB & OctoPre - MacPro w/Pro Tools 12.8
Recorded at 48kHz / 24bit
Focusrite Clarett 8Pre USB tinyurl.com/Clarett8Pre
Focusrite Clarett OctoPre tinyurl.com/ClarettOctoPro
Full kit: AKG C414 (ear-distance)Snare drum & tom tom close mics: Shure SM57
Bass drum: AKG D112 (at mic port) + KAM R3 Ribbon microphone 8” away from reso
Hosted by: Cody Rahn
Production & Consulting: Ben O'Brien Smith @ Cadence Independent Media
New Merch! We’ve got bandanas, shirts, and hoodies! Visit our merch store here: sladl.ink/merch
Click for different colors, sizes, etc.
👂🏼👉🏼🥁
*NOTE: Troll comments will be deleted. You're welcome to disagree with whatever you like but let's keep the conversation civilized and focused on drums.
--------------------------
Sounds Like a Drum is a CADENCE INDEPENDENT MEDIA production
For more information, visit www.cadenceindependent.com
Follow us on Instagram: / soundslikeadrum
Like us on Facebook: / soundslikeadrum

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Can't wait for the next episode of Cymbal Sounds? We've got 30+ episodes ready to watch over on our Patreon for supporting members: sladl.ink/Patreon

[@ZetroDrummer]

All cymbals share a common adjective... "expensive" 😅

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Luckily, this isn't actually the case! There are lots of great cymbals out there at half the price of some of the popular brands. And let's not forget about buying used cymbals.

[@cantthinkanameup]

@@SoundsLikeADrumWell said! I like many others have an “arsenal” of cymbals and some of my favorites were either pennies, or free and I made a very cool effect by experimentation (drilling holes, grinding it into a new shape, stacking). One thing you mention is used cymbals and my answer is YES! No two cymbals are the same, even if they are the exact same model and size. I have a newer pair of 14” new beats and they sound great….I also have a set of older new beats and they sound great but for completely different reasons. The old pair I use more often than not, and I paid 40 dollars for them!

[@gregpepper6053]

Compared to guitars basses amps and keyboards cymbals are a great value! $500-$700 is a high end cymbal where as one can spend a few grand on a high end shell pack or guitar, bass, amp and or keyboard.

[@LEOsoulMonarch]

​​@@SoundsLikeADrumOoooh man. Lol. I hate to butt heads with you on this one because you're kinda goated, frfr. But I feel like man's ain't lying. 😆😆😆 I was feeling this way when I was looking for Zildjian Mastersound hi hats and a Zildjian K crash/ride. Had ro debate if I could go without my lights for two months because I _really_ liked the sound of them. Heartbreaking stuff. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 But I do agree with you about the used stores. If you dig there deep enough, you can score some good sounding brand name cymbals at an affordable price. Found some good Zildjian crashes there. So now I can go ONE month without my lights instead of two! Progress is progress! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 EDIT: I decided against buying the cymbals I named, even though it was tempting. I needed to keep the lights on so I could charge my phone.

[@LEOsoulMonarch]

​@@SoundsLikeADrumAlso, if I'm just looking in the wrong spot, I'm open to that criticism too. Heck, tell me where to _find_ these deals!!! 😆😆😆😆

[@trevortoman2867]

I'm so stoked you guys are going down the cymbal rabbit hole

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Thanks! We kicked this off four years ago. If you want to see all of the episodes ad free, they're on our Patreon.

[@LEOsoulMonarch]

It's looking rather "cymbalic," i'n'it? 😎😎😎 Ok, ill take my leave. 🚶🏾‍♂️🚶🏾‍♂️🚶🏾‍♂️🚶🏾‍♂️

[@nathanaeltsen8957]

Sounds Like A Cymbal

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Indeed!

[@BelgianDrummer]

What a great episode! I wish I had info like this 30+ years ago… Can’t wait for the next one!

[@davidsmash123]

Great Specimens Guys! Dry & Dark & Trashy & Complex all together now!

[@finnbarconnell7330]

I am so stoked for this series! Great starter on this :)

[@BeatKasterG]

Stoked for this new series!

[@CraigFlowersMusic]

Wonderful to see, as a lifelong B8 user I don't know much about anything but Paiste, so I look forward to it.

[@JDavidBrown]

The track that defined a ride cymbal sound for me is the 1959 recording of the Peter Gunn theme (Mancini) with Shelley Mann playing drums. A straight 8 pattern with a subtle backbeat. Classic. Not sure what kind of cymbal it was, but my money is on a Zildjian medium ride! I bought mine in the late 60s and still have it.

[@xyanide1986]

Yeeee crash of doom for the trash. I bought an alternative to that called the istanbul trash hit. It's a big floppy tortilla. Our bass player described it as 20 chinas at once, and he's pretty spot on when you think about a thin rimmed, bent up complex hammered cymbal.

[@rongeremy5370]

AWESOME, LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS

[@patdeniston3697]

Really looking forward to this series cause I want to upgrade my cymbals and with the cost of them I want to get it right. The choices are endless so the more info I have the better.

[@kimseniorb]

Id love the timecodes. I want these compared back to back

[@TsunamiBeefPies]

I'm really happy to see this come to KZbin! As a cymbal lover, I can't wait to see you guys geek out on them. This should be a lot of fun. Thanks for transplanting this series, that I've always wanted to see. Fun to see Cody's pony tail again, too!

[@andrewnye-jaimes7776]

Super excited about this series. I have been very deep into analyzing hi hat sounds since they change so much with being somewhere on the spectrum of open or closed when they are hit. It has been difficult for me to articulate what I like about hi hats because of how dynamic they are but hope your series will help with that. One word maybe unique to hi hats is crispy. Would be very interested in dissecting that. Also hope you guys include some cymbal smiths in this process. Timothy Robert’s loves talking about this stuff!

[@pjyielder]

I have long dreamed of this. Thank you.

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

You can watch the full series ad-free on our Patreon! We launched this in 2020.

[@DrummerRIP]

Loved this series! Excited to see again!

[@billnicholas1381]

Excellent series looking forward to.

[@mikefloyd5359]

I'm just over 1 year into learning to play the drum kit and have struggled with cymbal terminology. I'm still trying to figure out what sounds I like and don't like from cymbals, much less knowing the terms to describe those sounds. This was a fantastic, basic tutorial to be able to put words to the sounds! Thank you, guys!

[@DidYouReadEULA]

Loving this series, thank you!!

[@jjohnsonmarine]

All my band mates just tell me my cymbals sound LOUD!!!

[@richieluckenbill1590]

Might need to go with thinner/lighter weight cymbals. More pleasant to the ears.

[@danielkarner1410]

I suggest you start with orchestral cymbals and tools used in orchestral performance instead of drumsticks and a drumkit. This was how how I learned in high school, and I believe is the original purpose of the how abd why cymbals were made. Felt hammers, rubber tipped hammers, wood sticks, metal brushes, nylon-tipped sticks, and crashing two cymbals against each other, all yield different sounds from the same cymbal. It's how a cymbal responds to each striking tool that helps define and identify what type of cynbal you've got! An oscilloscope would also help you see the frequency and bandwidth of these different cymbals, as well as frequency drift (if any) following each strike. I just think that visiting with an orchestral percussionist will give you some key insights into cymbal sounds, as the scrunity of each instrument is profound in orchestral settings (the orchestral sound of several dozen instruments playing simultaneously draws profound attention to the tonal and pitch qualities of a cymbal!). It's a rabbit hole for sure, but every worthwhile endeavor always is! My favorite cymbal from circa 1983 was Paiste's Rude crash/ride. Those were beasts that simply couldn't be damaged, and required no amplification even for outdoor performances!

[@nickferrence8593]

If anyone would do an in depth cymbal analysis it would be "Sounds like a drum". What a great first episode. It's interesting how many different sounds cymbals can have by using essentially the same shape but different manufacturing techniques. Thanks so much. Looking forward to the next episode.

[@laquerhead024]

Super excited about this series boys..

[@UtwoBed]

I am always on the hunt for crash cymbals that sound like breaking glass.😁

[@DidYouReadEULA]

Those amazing cymbals have damn near got me drooling...nice ears guys!!

[@markospolar1577]

Hi guys, a deep dive into cymbals! Great! Thank you! Can't wait for the next episode. As for the terms/words/vocabulary: I think you've nicely demonstrated what each adjective means and they are quite common, so no worries there/their/they're. :) My personal preferences with cymbal sounds are: 1- stick definition, 2- (at least some) body/sustain, 3 - fitting the music. I won't play heavy metal music with thin cymbals nor will I play jazz(ish) with thick cymbals. Most of the time I prefer medium thick and big cymbals, so I get plenty of stick definition and lots of sustain, but they are not too pingy and therefore can be used in a lot of different styles. Cheers!

[@jditty4050]

I'm in. Already feel more informed on why I like what I like in my own small collection.

[@marty9464]

Nice collection of cymbals..... I'm at the point (after playing for 54 years) that a good cymbal smith is my next step. When our drums and cymbals sound "just right" to us we can be much more expressive in our playing. I'll be contacting a cymbal smith with the hopes of creating the perfect crash/ ride, a rare sound in my experience !! Thanks guys, see up the good work.

[@gt3065]

Burke's work cymbals

[@janknjazovic]

loooooooooooove this one! 😍 a little trivia😁 *since I bought a new phone, of course, I had to set everything up from the beginning. when it was the phone ringtone turn, it remained the same, like all those years. -> my ringtone is your intro theme! 🤩 maybe it's not so much legal, but I wanted you to know that someone's phone rings like that somewere in Europe 😄 much love! ❤

[@PatrickWitherow]

This will be awesome.

[@gregwonhoff7161]

Cody and Ben, I love this topic/episode and thank you so much for posting it on your wonderful show. I am saving this to my library so I can see if I can nail down the adjective to describe my cymbals. This is going to be fun, but then again, it might just lead to frustration. Whichever it ends up to be, thank you.❤🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻❤️👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@morrinsville23]

Yay! This is great! Very much looking forward to this!! I have a ziljian swish with rivets and that is the trashiest trash you will ever hear, and LOUD! I love it dearly

[@BeatsAndMeats]

I find it interesting how little I know about cymbals, since I’ve gone so far into the weeds with drums and woods and bearing edges and mics and room acoustics etc. the only thing I really knew about cymbals was “records well” or “records like ass.”

[@karenbentley5935]

Just a wish - I would love manufacturers to give 'sound wave' info so that I can directly compare different cymbals from a visual record in addition to sonically. Not everyone can get to distributors to make direct comparisons .

[@norbertrenner9364]

What i think would be super usefull is to know....to talk.... about diameter and weight of different cymbals....and the material....thst mostly give a first idea of how a certain cymbal would propably sound and as what....in witch situation....it could be the best used.There also exist traditionell terms for cymbals in a certain range.....light ride,medium ride,heavy ride......or ight crash,medium crash,rock crash....that gives an idea of the weight and the possible sound. Beside that....to turn the focus for a while twards the cymbals side of the drum set....pritty cool....i'm curios about it....

[@DidYouReadEULA]

8:43 Sweet!

[@DanGrossDrums]

I was just looking for something like this to help me relay what I wanted in a new ride cymbal (had an old Sabian AA Medium 20, ended up picking up a Zildjian Custom Dark 20, which wasn't even on my list of cymbals to check out when I walked in the drum shop).

[@ChaosPootato]

Hell yeah!

[@hbasm3271]

Hope you'll cover brushes extensively, to get that sweeter sound from the cymbals.

[@petarcvahte7418]

I like it when a cymbal has more than 1 character or sound or feel, depending on how deep you lean into it while playing. For example, dry, also perhaps pingy when played softly, and then washy and thrashy when played hard. Also, wobbly, which would translate into soft or relaxed, VS tense?

[@danzitoli2796]

Great starter vid! was a little surprised by the last "Dark" cymbal which I assumed in my head it would be a bit more dry/less sustain and wash. Good to know that "Dark" refers more to it's main tone. Really liked the sound of that Dark Crash! Lastly, how difficult would it be to do frequency charts of each cymbal? Not just for this series, but wondered why a cymbal company hasn't included a graph for each cymbal which would be great for pairing cymbals or replacing ones you have to match up sounds? Similar to what they do for drumheads?

[@G60syncro]

I've been watching lot's of Thimothy Roberts over at Reverie Drum Co doing cymbal mods... Sometimes even fixing vintage (gasp!) cymbals that have some dead spots and sound like dogs compared to others of the same but a different batch... Basically he explains everything he does and the before/after clearly show how it sounds and relates to the words used to describe the sounds. As for me, I love cymbals!! I typically play 7 or 8 cymbals on my kit whether it's the 4 piece "big dirty bitch" or my double kick setup. I have a mix of Paiste's and Zildjian's that really contrast. I stole Ginger Baker's idea of stacking cymbals on old Ludwig 1400 stands. On the ride side I'm running a 70's Avedis 22" with rivets and a Paiste 505 20" heavy. The Zildjian is really dry sounding and lacked presence for live, so I added the rivets and it really kept the same tone but seemed to wake it up. This contrasts nicely with the 505 that really feels like playing a church bell bordering on solid anvil tone... Playing patterns between the two makes things really interesting! On top I have another 70's Avedis ride but it's 20" and a tad lighter, it has a powerful wash... think British invasion Ringo sound! The other one is a Paiste 2002 18" medium crash. It's a great strong quick crash but I often ride it on really quiet passages and dig in slightly before transitioning to the 20" next to it. Over on the hi-hat side I have my trusty Paiste 3000 15" hats and the 2 tiers above are an old Paiste Ludwig Standard 18" that I got with my first ever kit and I love the short trashy crash it produces without going full blown china. Being so close to the hats it creates great accent punches and I occasionally switch it up and ride it and add accents on the hats instead. I consider it an effects cymbal. The other one on top is a 20" Canadian made Avedis crash... probably just before the time the shop there became Sabian. It is a crash of doom! When I reach for the other 20" and finish with that sound, the heavier one sort of lags and it gives that really cool "Kaaatshhhh" crashing wave effect. Last is the optional 12" Paiste 3000 splash... Also just an effect, it's cool but not a necessity! Like I said in the beginning, it's my regular setup and when I was playing in my old rockabilly band, we were often billed with Bloodshot Bill of Montreal who was playing one man band gigs and also playing either drums or guitar in other similar projects. He once remarked to me after soundcheck "I've seen you play quite a few times now and it's rare to see a drummer with so many cymbals play them so smartly.." and that pretty much summed up my philosophy. Except for the Paiste Ludwig that came with a kit and I happened to love it, all others were purchases I made on a whim because I picked up a sound that wasn't in my palette and it needed to be added. From there I work out where I want to use the sounds in various songs and I orchestrate accordingly. Also, pretty much all of these cymbals were bought while I was playing a shitty MIJ kit with nice heads and good tuning while I smartly invested my $$ in bronze before flashing nice drums. The reasoning being you can always tune and tweak a cheap drum, but a cymbal is what it is!!! Take that advice as my own two cents....

[@marcusbrown87]

I go for darker cymbals (Zildjian K's and K Customs) They just sound the best to my ear. Nice and smooth and not too intrusive. I would also like to point out my dislike for cymbal companies marketing their cymbals as "metal" or "jazz" cymbals. Look at Matt Garstka's cymbal set up... I use a 20 inch K Constantinople ride and thin K Dark crashes for metal and this works quite well

[@boldstardex]

very nice video! this will surely help me in purchasing new cymbals in the coming months. Question though, 1) Is "warm" the same with "dark" cymbal sound? 2)How do you define "sweet" cymbal sound? is it just used to describe a zildjian?

[@drummercarson896]

I love a crashable ride cymbal and definition and a loud bell

[@markcampbelldrummer]

I'd like some ideas on 'cajon' friendly hand played cymbals...also for Conga and Djembe hand Drummers ..playing cymbals with a different implement ...hand or beater or brush is not linear or predictable compared to the same cymbal struck with a stick!!!

[@jjohnsonmarine]

WOO HOO!!

[@hngodesign]

Other terms I hear people use are "smoky" and "buttery" to describe a cymbal's sound.

[@kevinsloan5570]

I'm glad to see that you are doing this ! Curious , does the weight or designation , such as heavy , medium , medium thin , etc lend itself to certain sounds ? Thanks .

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

Thanks! We actually launched this on Patreon four years ago (episodes are available ad-free over there). We get into weight and tension in future episodes.

[@willmcbride4435]

Love it. I honestly still don’t understand China cymbals. I have been playing drums since 1977. I finally bought a China only because my band wanted to play Rockin’ Me. Hate is a harsh word, so let’s say I really don’t like trashy. Unless Zildjian dark Ks have some trashiness, then I’m OK with it. How quickly our opinions change.

[@matthewzagorski9161]

Is the cymbal series going to continue on Patreon? It's been a few months since there was a new video.

[@BeatKasterG]

Could we have a list of the cymbals used in this episode please?

[@BatManWayneCorp]

You missed "sizzle" and "ring" 😉 At least those are some words I often find myself using when talking about cymbals. To me, a "trashy" Cymbal has a very short decay, but my definition might be off 😂

[@studakins]

I really enjoyed the 2nd symbol used to represent cymbal “wash”; is that an avedis reissue ?

[@pitinhabitant]

Sounds like a cymbal that is

[@saltysaltine]

I try to find cymbals that are versatile. I wouldn’t know how to describe that to someone though….

[@user-zn8kg7uu5c]

Maybe size difference of cymbals

[@DidYouReadEULA]

4:55 Love that cymbal...what is it please?

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

That's the same Jesse Simpson modded cymbal (modeled after an old A) that we've used on the vast majority of our episodes over the last six years.

[@DidYouReadEULA]

Thank you, want to sell it?​@@SoundsLikeADrum

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

@@DidYouReadEULA Not a chance! 😄

[@stephenrosenthal5337]

"Clang", "clangy". Example: Paiste Rudes.

[@chiefluke210]

I don’t think buying cymbals brand new is ever worth it unless you have money to burn. You can find high end cymbals used on Reverb and at Guitar Center.

[@eugeivashchenko758]

Complexity/trashiness = audio film grain, but only say that if you want to be the pretentious guy at the party :D

[@gt3065]

Second cymbal is not washy. Washy has a spread that is consistent and mostly uniform. That thing was just a mess of ugliness. Lol

[@SoundsLikeADrum]

We disagree but again, the point of this episode is to share how we're defining these terms as they'll be used throughout the rest of the series.

[@eugeivashchenko758]

Hell yes!