...but not a crash-ride

I need a crash cymbal that I can ride with the edge of with neck of my stick - nice and ballsy-sounding with a good quality wash, but it can't overpower the whole kit or have harsh tones.

I've been using a 19" sabain AXplosion, which seem to work ok.

Alex MacSween (formerly of Bionic) had an amazing sounding one that he said was a 21" Zildjian A thin crash. He had to special order it. When I asked about it at the shops, everyone was very puzzled and insisted it doesn't exist...

I think I may be able to special order a 20" A thin.

Thoughts??
Thanks

I break the PISS out of those thin A cymbals. Takes about a month and a half, but then.... i am kind of a gorilla behind the kit.

Highly recommended are the Sabian 20" Paragon crashes, if you're hell bent against using a ride for this purpose.

When I was recording with Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads, Motorhead, Smithereens, and..... me, oddly) he told me that he much prefers for drummers to use ride cymbals as crashes, if they hit hard. Crash cymbals lack sustain and character on tape, sometimes. They tend to decay very quickly and can end up sounding more like white noise than tone.

Since then, I have not bought any crash cymbals, except for that Paragon, which I liked.

MY FAVORITE CRASH CYMBAL EVER was a 20" A Custom Ride. Holy shit, that thing sounded nice when I whacked it.

I am currently using the studio's 18" Zildjian Projection crash, and it has all of the problems that Ed mentioned when we were recording.

I think you should ignore what is written on the cymbal and LISTEN WITH YOUR EARS instead of your eyes.

20" Sabian HH rides make excellent crash cymbals. i bought one ages ago to use as a ride and it was always kinda lame.. until i used it as a crash. it's very dark and slow, which (as ringo was saying) make it great for recording.

mine has kind of a washy and not-too-useful bell, but i've heard others (mainly the ones with the unpolished bells) sound really cutting.

thanks for the help. i'll look into using a ride.

What about bleed??

While I hit cymbals hard during shows & practice, I lay off in the studio to prevent excessive bleed. Have you ever had this issue using the rides?

also check out the zildjian sweet rides. i use one as my main ride, though i know others (shane from call me lightning) uses them as his dual crashes. it breaks up/washes great (i use as dual purpose ride and crash 2)

as a bonus, they happen to have one of these in the drum room at EA so you can audition it.

The OTHER Canadian wrote:thanks for the help. i'll look into using a ride.

What about bleed??

While I hit cymbals hard during shows & practice, I lay off in the studio to prevent excessive bleed. Have you ever had this issue using the rides?

I don't think the arrangement of ink forming the word "ride" printed on the cymbal would lend it to bleed more than one reading "crash", but if anyone could change my mind it'd be 'Ringo...

They're all cymbals. Same rules apply. They are sized, weighed, and labled differently; the latter being the least important.

Bleed is what room mics and overheads are FOR.

You get some mics with good rejection on the drums, point them in the right direction and don't WORRY about it.

The only bleeding you should worry about at Electrical is from the nose from ALL THE GACK those guys do.

Jesus.

P.S.- they don't really do tons of blow at Electrical.

But if anyone asks if you play cards, the answer is "No."

dontfeartheringo wrote:Bleed is what room mics and overheads are FOR.

Agreed. In the past I've had problems with hi-hats drowning out the snare, and if I'm riding a crash cymbal I don't want it to overpower the toms.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to look into those ride suggestions.

...Sounds like it's a good thing I'm shitty at cards.

Keeping cymbals out of the drum mics is a function of two things-
using mics that are appropriately directional and have good rejection rates for drums

AND

you need to hit the drums hard enough that it doesn't matter.

Never hit the hi hat harder than you hit the snare.

That makes a huge difference. You have two months to work on that.

GO.