Re: bell sound samples (from DIY bells)
Instead of rewriting I copied the post from my parallel thread in a parallel drum universe (Derek Roddy's website/forum), haha. The last few days of DIY'ing have been a bit chaotic and have kept me busy, I feel like I need some rest. (Or making more bell holders, having... what is it, 33? bells now.)
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(October 6th)
One of those cymbal packs (UFIP, Paiste, Platin, Zultan) arrived.
As always I first checked their as-is sound.
Paiste 2000 Sound Reflection 16'' Crash:
Sounded impressive even with the crack. Must have been a sweet crash! Having (more than) enough bells I thought I'd utilize more of the cymbals than cutting them down to bells so I figured that Paiste would be good for a 12'' splash.
Polished the Paiste in the evening.
The Paiste splash sounded a bit harsh and direct to me. I thought adding some holes would make the sound more interesting.
Zultan CM17B Aja Series Crash (17''):
Sweet crash (thin material), pretty useable with the crack. I knew it had one crack but noticed a 2nd (smaller) crack when I polished that cymbal. It was clear that cutting this crash would be a waste. So I planned to make it into an ozone style cymbal, 'covering' the crack with a hole and adding a few more for aesthetics/balance. When I noticed the 2nd crack the hole configuration boiled down (due to the angles resulting from the crack position) to 6, or maybe 3, holes. The cracked cymbal was a bit out of balance as it came so I figured that the hole placement could be used to set off that dysbalance to some degree. I went for a 3-hole configuration. The holes had to be around/at least 6 cm in diameter to cover the main crack - I made them 6 cm. The 2nd hole to cover the smaller crack isn't exactly 120 degrees from the 1st hole but I displaced the perfect position as far as possible to still fully cover that 2nd hole. The 3rd hole was placed in average distance from the other 2 holes.
I polished that cymbal on the same day, did the hole markings on the following day (Sunday - no noise allowed) and did the cutting on Oct. 8th.
PS: I didn't check out the market price beforehand - seems the Aja 17'' goes for 59 Euros - my guess was way more than that! To me it sounds better than 59 Euros.
Polished the Zultan in the evening.
Ufip (Earcrafted Cymbals) Experience series 14'' Crash:
Sounded promising in as-is condition. I went for a bell diameter which wouldn't completely cover the cracked area but to have as much sound out of that specific (crippled) bell as possible. I didn't like the look though - the sound was surprisingly good for a 'less than optimum' bell - and sanded it down by a few mm's. The look was much better now! Surprisingly the bell still sounded good, the pitch remained exactly the same (I did a comparison with another bell from a 'diatonic' family). With those few mm's less rim it did lose a tiny bit of level but it's still useable. The resonance/body is poor (would have taken more edge material to begin with), this bell has an emphasis on harmonics, it cuts. (I'm considering selling it.)
Platin Drums:
Wow wow... Who manufactures crap like this?? Hahaha. It sounds so poor... On top of that - it _looks_ poor!
I could/should have discarded that one right away but no, it received the same treatment as usual. I had hopes the bell would sound nice... not really. Even the bell sounds thin, cheap, lifeless... But I noticed that this bell goes well with the only china bell I did so far. The Platin bell is 3 semitones higher in pitch but has somewhat similar sonic characteristics. (I don't really like that china bell, too.) I cut the bell and polished it on the same day.
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(October 7th)
Repolished the 2 bells from that most recent cymbal pack. That Platin bell took quite some polishing work to look ok. I'll have to buy new polishing paste soon. That Gundelputz polish lasted many years for guitar, studio gear and small stuff but gets some serious use now that I'm messing with cymbals, haha.
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(October 8th)
'Ozoned' both the Paiste 2000 and the Zultan Aja crash. The Zultan took about 15 minutes for cutting the holes - I figured a cutting disk would be too awkward/big to get this job done. It could be used but there would be more than enough material to be sanded away afterwards so I used a Dremel with small disks instead. Hadn't used Dremels for cymbal mods before so first I used the thin disks - and needed 2 of them to cut the 3 Aja holes.
The Paiste was a bit thicker but I thought I'd try and just continue with the Dremel. Igot through 4 or 5 of the thin disks (and had cut 4 holes on the Paiste util then) but then decided to try one of those thicker ones. Which was a good decision because that one disk made it for the rest, with not too much wear on it.
I'm keeping in mind I paid 13.60 Euros for that cymbal pack (shipping was extra)... Ok, those 2 bells aren't superb but I got 1 nice crash and 1 cool splash out of it.
I've made pics of everything, will edit & upload some of them later.
I found a notification card in the mail box - while I was working in the garage the delivery man came by (that other 4-cymbal package) but nobody opened. I'll pick up that other cymbal package in the afternoon or tomorrow - more modding ahead ;-)
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EDIT: Picked those up in the afternoon. It was hard/impossible to judge from the orig. pic how close some cracks were running towards the bell section - overall those cymbals are pretty beaten up, haha. I briefly checked them for sound, pre-polished the bell areas (top and bottom) to save some time tomorrow and prepared the markings where to cut the bells.
- The Paiste 101 Brass 18'' Crash Ride leaves a so-so impression. The crack stops a mere 1 cm before the bell. On the Paiste I did the markings as if there was no crack, for maximum sound. Meaning after the cut there will be a tiny crack of a few mm length, shouldn't be a problem. In case the crack is audible I'd flex it out a bit.
- The Sabian AAX 14'' Mini Chinese is the only cymbal of those 4 which would allow to make a splash out of it (around 8'' max), but I've done the markings for bell dimensions. Not sure though... why not try the splash route and see how it sounds.
- The 2 Z Custom Rock Crashes 18'' and 16'' don't leave any more options but making bells out of them. The 18'' has a quite pronounced bell, I guess it'll be killer after the mod.