If you’re stuck with a set of cymbals, you may be wondering how you can change them to sound better. Unfortunately, altering the tones of cymbals isn’t something easily done. However, you can modify them slightly to produce unique sounds.
Here is a list of nine techniques to try out that will change your cymbal sounds. Some of them are quite easy, while others require a decent amount of DIY work.
Adding rivets to a cymbal will change how much it resonates. The more rivets you have, the longer they will vibrate when the cymbal is struck, and that will extend the amount of time that the cymbal sings for.
You can drill small metal pieces into the cymbal that vibrate as you strike it. It can be a tough job, as doing it wrong will end up damaging the cymbal.
You could also take coins and tape them to the bottom of the cymbal. It will work the same way, but those coins just won’t be as stable.
Putting tape on a cymbal will dry it out. This means that it will shorten the length of time that it resonates. The more tape you add, the less the cymbal will ring.
Doing this will also increase the amount of stick articulation that you get when striking the cymbal.
It’s best to just place one piece of gaff tape underneath the cymbal. Putting too much will kill the tone, and that will make the cymbal sound worse. Think of it in the same way that you muffle your drums.
Also, note that having tape on the cymbal will leave residue that is very hard to get off.
If you have a crash and splash cymbal, you can turn the splash upside down and place it on the same cymbal stand as the crash cymbal.
It won’t alter the sound in any way, but it will give you easier reach to the splash, and having it there will unlock a few extra playing techniques.
Just be careful not to hit it too hard, as striking cymbals upside down can often lead to them cracking.
You can create a cymbal stack by placing two or more cymbals together on a cymbal stand. The tighter you place them, the shorter and punchier the sound will be.
Certain cymbals sound amazing when you stack them together, so you have to try a few combinations to find the best options.
Making stacks is also a great way of extending the lives of cymbals you own that are broken and unusable on their own.
If you place a splash cymbal on a music stand first and then place a crash cymbal on top of it, it will make the crash sound a lot drier.
You’ll get less sustain from the crash, which can create a very cool dry cymbal effect. You’ll see a lot of jazz and fusion drummers doing this.
If you want to buy a dry cymbal, try this technique first to see if you can save a bit of money.
If you have two crash cymbals that are the same size, you can place them on a hi-hat stand to use as hi-hats.
They’ll be far washier than regular hi-hats, as they’re generally a lot thinner. This technique tends to work best with 16-inch crash cymbals. Larger crash cymbals are too large to feel comfortable playing.
Placing towels over all your cymbals will muffle their tones a bit. This means that they’ll become softer and have less sustain.
It’s a great way of keeping the volume down, but it can also help you achieve certain cymbal sounds for recording songs.
If you have cracks on the edge of your cymbals, it’s a good idea to cut pieces out of the cymbals to preserve their lifespan. The worse a crack gets, the more it will dig into the center of your cymbal.
By cutting that part out, you’ll be able to stop that from happening. The trick here is that you need power tools to do it, and working with metal isn’t easy.
If you have a few splash cymbals, you should try to place them on your drums. They’ll muffle the drums, but they’ll also give you tight sounds when you play them.
You can see drummers like JD Beck and Louis Cole use this technique.
No, you can’t tune a cymbal like you can tune a drum. Cymbals have distinct sound qualities that can’t be changed.
However, you can muffle cymbals to sound less resonant, and you can mix cymbals together to create new sounds.
It’s very difficult to make a cymbal sound better, but it’s possible that your cymbal striking technique is bad.
You need to strike your sticks through the cymbals and not at the cymbals. If you make that change, you may just find that your cymbals sound slightly better than before.
Yes, and there are two ways of doing this. The first is to take a smaller cymbal and place it underneath. It’s basically a cymbal stack, but you’ll keep it loose enough for the main cymbal to still vibrate and resonate.
The second way would be to drill holes in the cymbal. The more holes there are, the trashier it will sound.
It’s crazy how much life you can get out of cymbals when you start messing with these techniques. You may have a cymbal that you really don’t like, but using it along with another crash to make hi-hats may just end up giving you incredible hi-hat sounds.
Cheap cymbals will always sound cheap, but you may just get some interesting uses out of them when you try a few different things.
With that being said, you should always spend more money on cymbals than you do on drums. That’s just a rule that every drummer should follow, and we’ll always mention that as much as we can.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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