ZXT Zildjian titanium cymbals.
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Anyone hear of the new Sabian XS20's? Are they any good?
Rimshot
New member
branded said:
They are very shrill sounding. Painfully so. I tried them months ago in a drum shop and after one strike, I knew they were not for me.
For some drummers, they might be "sliced whitebread", but to my ears the sound that they give off is that hideous shrieking crash that you get through the headphones when you hit a crash cymbal and the gain is turned up too high, the high end is all the way up and the lows are turned down. They are like an effects cymbal, certainly not cymbals that I would want to play regularly. They are beyond bright and way over into harsh. They make Lars' snare on St. Anger sound warm and mellow.
......you get the idea that I don't like them?
......Maybe if I was a drummer in a "death metal band"........
mrface2112
Well-known member
none for me, thanks. if i HAVE to use "brighter" cymbals, i'll stick with my A's......but i prefer K's to anything, really. i've not found anything a mixed set of K's and A's won't suffice for.
ZXT's might look pretty cool under the lightshow, but then again, so did Sabian's Rocktagons, too.
wade
ZXT's might look pretty cool under the lightshow, but then again, so did Sabian's Rocktagons, too.
wade
Tim Brown
New member
mrface2112 said:none for me, thanks. if i HAVE to use "brighter" cymbals, i'll stick with my A's......but i prefer K's to anything, really. i've not found anything a mixed set of K's and A's won't suffice for.
ZXT's might look pretty cool under the lightshow, but then again, so did Sabian's Rocktagons, too.
wade
I wish Zildjian had continued with the Platium series....they were silver versions of the A's.
The looked killer, and sounded like A's...as long as you went with the thin cymbals they were okay.
I'm with you though, if I'm going to use Zildjian's, I like K's.
For years, I thought I just didn't like Zildjian cymbals....but I later found out that what I didn't like was HEAVY cymbals....you know, they have that midrange that - yes "cuts through" but God does it sound like crap. There is nothing worse than an 18" A Rock cymbal.... those things are nasty.
But I like the K's.....they are killer sounds cymbals.
If I hadn't already switched to Paiste's by the early 90's, I would have probably gone with K's.
Tim
mrface2112
Well-known member
i hear that!
for the period of about 12 years, i didn't touch my drums. they sat in a corner of the basement neglected. i played guitar instead. then my acoustic band wanted to "go electric", and i was the only drummer we knew.
so i busted the drums back out, and over the last year and a half i've been gradually upgrading things here and there. most of my cymbals were zildjian scimitar bronze (the entry-level cheapies) with a couple A's and K's scattered in, and slowly but surely i've replaced them all with thinner A's and K's. The last "needed" upgrade was my ride, which i just replaced with a 20" K Custom Dark. next is gonna be replacing my 2 pairs of 14" NewBeat hats with a pair of 13" A Mastersounds, but that's a "wanted" upgrade--the NewBeats sound fine as is.
i can't stand big, gongy cymbals. i like quick punctuational explosions and fast decays with non-abrasive overtones. my two main crashes are 16's (one of them, surprisingly is still one of the scimitars--it's got a fantastic soft mallet swell, the other is an A Custom), the other is a 14", but i don't like it much anymore--sounds too much like an oversized splash. got a couple 18's that i never use and prolly oughta put on ebay, but i can't bear to part with my cymbals--even the ones i hate.
i liked the smaller platinum A's well enough......although some of them were a little "shrill" sounding for my tastes and had some abrasive overtones. but i'm sure they'd cut through nicely live.
and it's hard, too, b/c we're used to hearing cymbals from behind the kit, within a couple feet of them......much like guitars, the sound changes radically when you're on the other side, several feet away. and even differently when a set of mics gets hung.
wade
PS--the $10 wuhan 12" china i picked up from Musician's Fiend is one of my favorite cymbals, believe it or not......
for the period of about 12 years, i didn't touch my drums. they sat in a corner of the basement neglected. i played guitar instead. then my acoustic band wanted to "go electric", and i was the only drummer we knew.
so i busted the drums back out, and over the last year and a half i've been gradually upgrading things here and there. most of my cymbals were zildjian scimitar bronze (the entry-level cheapies) with a couple A's and K's scattered in, and slowly but surely i've replaced them all with thinner A's and K's. The last "needed" upgrade was my ride, which i just replaced with a 20" K Custom Dark. next is gonna be replacing my 2 pairs of 14" NewBeat hats with a pair of 13" A Mastersounds, but that's a "wanted" upgrade--the NewBeats sound fine as is.
i can't stand big, gongy cymbals. i like quick punctuational explosions and fast decays with non-abrasive overtones. my two main crashes are 16's (one of them, surprisingly is still one of the scimitars--it's got a fantastic soft mallet swell, the other is an A Custom), the other is a 14", but i don't like it much anymore--sounds too much like an oversized splash. got a couple 18's that i never use and prolly oughta put on ebay, but i can't bear to part with my cymbals--even the ones i hate.
i liked the smaller platinum A's well enough......although some of them were a little "shrill" sounding for my tastes and had some abrasive overtones. but i'm sure they'd cut through nicely live.
and it's hard, too, b/c we're used to hearing cymbals from behind the kit, within a couple feet of them......much like guitars, the sound changes radically when you're on the other side, several feet away. and even differently when a set of mics gets hung.
wade
PS--the $10 wuhan 12" china i picked up from Musician's Fiend is one of my favorite cymbals, believe it or not......
Tim Brown
New member
I know exactly where you are coming from.
I like my cymbals to sound like big splashes.
I do like 18" and 20" cymbals, but I like DARK sounding cymbals.
Yeah, the Wuhan's are really great sounding.
From my perspective, they make the best sounding China cymbals available...it seems that with China's, the cheaper the metal used, the better the cymbal sounds....it's got more "trash" to it....and in their regular lines, I thought those cymbals were REALLY good sounding, but they were super thin....I mean, think about an 18" crash that is literally as thin as a splash.
They open up completely with a light smack, and the spread is great. If I had the extra cash to put on a set of cymbals, I would seriously think about the Wuhan regular lines.
The only bad part, is they are hand made, which means you're going to have to go through a stack of them to get some that really mesh well together - and if you find one you like and it winds up breaking, you are going to have a hard time replacing it.
That was the very reason I switched to Paiste...because each cymbal type is compared against a "Master" cymbal for the line & type....but what's funny, is I haven't broken a Paiste yet.
Everybody kept saying, "Oh, they break really easily!"
Tim
I like my cymbals to sound like big splashes.
I do like 18" and 20" cymbals, but I like DARK sounding cymbals.
Yeah, the Wuhan's are really great sounding.
From my perspective, they make the best sounding China cymbals available...it seems that with China's, the cheaper the metal used, the better the cymbal sounds....it's got more "trash" to it....and in their regular lines, I thought those cymbals were REALLY good sounding, but they were super thin....I mean, think about an 18" crash that is literally as thin as a splash.
They open up completely with a light smack, and the spread is great. If I had the extra cash to put on a set of cymbals, I would seriously think about the Wuhan regular lines.
The only bad part, is they are hand made, which means you're going to have to go through a stack of them to get some that really mesh well together - and if you find one you like and it winds up breaking, you are going to have a hard time replacing it.
That was the very reason I switched to Paiste...because each cymbal type is compared against a "Master" cymbal for the line & type....but what's funny, is I haven't broken a Paiste yet.
Everybody kept saying, "Oh, they break really easily!"Tim
mrface2112
Well-known member
actually, i think we miscommunicated. i said i don't like my 14" crash *because* it sounds like an overgrown splash. it's too deeply pitched to be a splash and too "pishy" for a crash--it's the worst of both worlds.
i like my crashes to have a little balls to em. i also like them to get in and get out quickly--explosive punctuations, more than anything. nice, rich, quick crash and then a short decay. usually these are best found in the thin darker cymbals.
as for the wuhans (and unlike with mics) i don't really mind the variations. it's strange, but i don't mind variations within $10-20 cymbals, b/c i can spend $50 and get several sounds that'll be usable in a variety of situations.
see, i like to keep a lot of cymbals hung--usually 6-8, depending on the situation, so i try to not be really bound by the concept of a "set of cymbals" that mesh together. instead, i want individual notes that i can use in a variety of situations. i look at cymbals as complementers to the key of the song, and if we're playing a song in C (=G =F, etc), then i'll use the cymbals that best "get along" with that key, if that makes any sense. in that respect, i view a cymbal to be as much of a musical instrument as a guitar.
drums, however, i DO want to "mesh together". simply speaking, i never "go around" on 5 or 6 cymbals in a row, where as we all do that on the drums all the time.
wade
i said i don't like my 14" crash *because* it sounds like an overgrown splash. it's too deeply pitched to be a splash and too "pishy" for a crash--it's the worst of both worlds. i like my crashes to have a little balls to em. i also like them to get in and get out quickly--explosive punctuations, more than anything. nice, rich, quick crash and then a short decay. usually these are best found in the thin darker cymbals.
as for the wuhans (and unlike with mics) i don't really mind the variations. it's strange, but i don't mind variations within $10-20 cymbals, b/c i can spend $50 and get several sounds that'll be usable in a variety of situations.
see, i like to keep a lot of cymbals hung--usually 6-8, depending on the situation, so i try to not be really bound by the concept of a "set of cymbals" that mesh together. instead, i want individual notes that i can use in a variety of situations. i look at cymbals as complementers to the key of the song, and if we're playing a song in C (=G =F, etc), then i'll use the cymbals that best "get along" with that key, if that makes any sense. in that respect, i view a cymbal to be as much of a musical instrument as a guitar.
drums, however, i DO want to "mesh together". simply speaking, i never "go around" on 5 or 6 cymbals in a row, where as we all do that on the drums all the time.
wade