Choosing exact cymbals. Online/In person or just roll the dice?

[Jules]

I have been a fan of Paiste for a long time, and a large part of the reason is because I have never gotten a bad sounding one. To paint a more colorful picture; I find that Turkish cymbals can have a 'woom' or harsh overtones or just have lots of sound in frequency ranges that aren't ideal.

That said, I do admit that even my beloved Paiste's, for all their quality control and testing against masters can sound a bit different from one to another. This is a good reason to buy local. You can actually hear what you are playing in person and eliminate the hopes for a good sounding cymbal.

Just for shiggles; here are comparisons of two of Todd Sucherman's Session ride cymbals. Definitely a difference frequency band, and I would certainly prefer one over the other. BTW, I love this site and have bought a few cymbals from there. While it's not exactly a substitute for hearing them on your own rig, these videos can surely help you pinpoint what you like or rule out what isn't appealing. My only criticism of this site is that there is no uniformity to how they test the cymbals. It would be nice if they started each video off the same way for long enough to play patterns in the various areas and crash at a few different volumes. I watched one video for a crash cymbal and they had a notable doing the demo, and he only 'crashed' it twice and each time, he immediately caught it. I was actively looking for such a cymbal and it pissed me off a little that I couldn't hear any of the crash characteristics beyond the initial strike itself. I did end up buying one of their cymbals that day, but that could have been a contender.

At any rate:

[media]https://memphisdrumshop.com/products/sa ... s-1012524p[/media]

[media]https://memphisdrumshop.com/products/sa ... mbal-3329g[/media]

[Scott_M]

I would have to say that I would be much more comfortable buying almost anything from Paiste (outside their Masters line) without hearing the exact cymbal in person or recorded/video'd first. If I can hear one of that series/type/size in person, I pretty much know what I can expect and the "margin of deviation" in the sound from cymbal to cymbal in the same size/series is very subtle.

There's just TOO MUCH variation from cymbal to cymbal with everyone else's professional line stuff (Zildjian, Sabian, Meinl, UFIP, Istanbul, Bosphoprus, etc) to be able to do that with any level of confidence that they'll still sound the same - even side by side comparisons of the same brand/series/size can frequently sound like completely different cymbals...

After being a Zildjian guy since the 80's (I do still love the K Custom sound...), I made the switch to Paiste a couple years ago for exactly this reason.

[Jules]

Scott, for once in 23=/- years, we whole-heartedly agree on something. I guess the law of averages was bound to catch up sooner or later.

[tcbetka]

For many years I was a Zildjian guy. I mean like 35 years. I would have the occasional Paiste or Sabian pie, but 99.9% of the cymbals I've owned were Zildjians. Then, 6 year ago or so, I sold everything. I had several surgeries and it was hard to play...and we were getting ready to move 125 miles to a newly-constructed home. So I didn't need all the gear. So I sold the two Sonor kits I owned, all my hardware, and the 20 or so Zildjians I had at the time. All I kept was a couple of pairs of practice sticks (heavier, large diameter), and a few practice pads.

Fast-forward to current day, and I went back to a Sonor kit. I bought Evans dB One low-volume heads and cymbals because I can't yet play at full-volume in the new house. I need to build out a "drum studio" downstairs this coming winter, once I recover from the recent foot surgery I had. But in the meantime I spent a bunch of time looking at cymbals again--and settled on Meinl. I bought several of their Foundry Reserve cymbals, include a pair of 16" hats, two 20" crash/rides, and a 19" crash. Then I bought a couple of the Pure Alloy Custom cymbals as well. Haven't played one yet, and most are still in the shipping box--but I can't wait to get a full kit set up. To my ears, the Meinl cymbals seem to be the most exciting options out there. There's a German (I think) brand called Agean, and I like several of those things--but I don't see that you can even buy them in the US at this point. There are one or two online sources where you can buy their low-volume cymbals, but not the "real" cymbals you see being played on YouTube.

So I went with Meinl, and we'll see how that works out.