Drums vs. Cymbals

zephead19

Senior Member
I dont think Ive seen any threads like this before. I was wondering which you guys prefer. I know they are both essential to the kit but are you more in love with your tubs or your pies?

Personally with this I have to go with cymbals. I like how much more simple it is to get the sound you want out of them. there are no heads, bearing edges and the rest to have to worry about to get the sound you want. all you have to do is pick it out and that is how it plays. some may think the exact opposite of this however so I ask you all.

Drums or cymbals?
 
I am a cymbal guy too. I love cymbals there is a certain magic to cymbals. It is also pretty easy to go into a store and check out a few cymbals and find something you like and they are relatively cheap (compared to a new drumset or even a decent snare). Once you buy a cymbal it pretty much sounds the same way the rest of it's life, and it just brings alot of enjoyment. I am very careful not to go over board with too many cymbals though. I still like a simple set up. I own 5 crashes, 2 rides, 2 splashes, and 2 sets of hats, but I rarely ever set up more than 4 cymbals at a time.

I love searching for good ride cymbals too. One time I went on this ride quest that took me all over the place. I checked all the shops in houston, austin, dallas, etc. looking for my perfect jazz cymbal. The funniest part was I ended up finding my perfect ride at the store I took lessons at. I actually found 2 rides that sounded close to perfect to me at that store. a 22" sabian manhattan ride, and a 20 k dark custom. I ended up going with the K but it was so much fun looking for the perfect ride.
 
I like having my cake and eating it too.

1. Cymbals

2. Drums

Taking a few things into consideration, drums can be tuned to get an "ok" sound out of them. Cymbals either sound like crap or sing sweet melodies with no middle ground about them.
 
my cymbals are my cymbals, i never change them, only replace them with the same model if they brake,

no snare drums, on the other hand, are the cream of my crop, i go to Maxwell's and
buy either a new or vintage snare at-least twice a year, i play em for a while
then either sell them to get new ones or add them to my keep for ever play/recording
snare drum corner in my room, ive got three in that corner so far!
 
I can sit down and play along with drums only, but not cymbals only. I'm thinking of marching drums by themselves as opposed to marching cymbals. hmmmmmm
 
I'd say it's gotta be drums.

Sure, cymbals are much more straight forward to get a good sound from (as long as you have some good cymbals that is), but you have so many more sound possibilities with drums. Once you've bought a cymbal...you can't do alot to change how it sounds.

With drums, changing the heads and the tuning can give loads and loads of cool different sounds!
 
I'd say the drums. That being said; I'd never sell or trade a cymbal I like. The good ones are keepers. Kinda like the snare drum collectors.
 
I'd hate to have one without the other.....but that said, I'm a fan of the sound of drums.

Snare drums, bass drums, shallow toms, deep toms.....it's all good, for mine. Cymbals are a fabulous compliment.........but give me the drums themselves anyday. There's just something so primal about that sound.
 
There is no skill needed to tune a cymbal, he get better with age while heads need to be changed an what not, and i think if you are good at tuning an average kit can be made sound brilliant, so more focus should go on cymbals, thats in my case anyway....and i think a cymbal can define a song or record. Imagine a great jazz record that has a nice smokey cymbal in it.....now imagine it as an aax or something, and vise versa. a cymbal can really help a songs texture
 
I'm absolutely nuts about rimshot sounds on snare drum (snares off) and mounted toms but I recently bought a new ride and you know what new love affairs are like.
 
It's always been about the cymbals for me.
I'll play a $500 kit and like it but give my a cheap cymbal and I simply will not play.
Zildjian K's, Paiste 2002's, and most recently Istanbull Agop Traditional and Custom Sultan series are my favs.
 
my cymbals are my cymbals, i never change them, only replace them with the same model if they brake,

no snare drums, on the other hand, are the cream of my crop, i go to Maxwell's and
buy either a new or vintage snare at-least twice a year, i play em for a while
then either sell them to get new ones or add them to my keep for ever play/recording
snare drum corner in my room, ive got three in that corner so far!

Oh, man. This is so true. Snares are just amazing. Recently, I saw a Black Beauty with a 24K finish on the hardware. It was freakin' beautiful.
 
I prefer the actual drum sound, it's something profound in it.
Of course, cymbals are an important kit component to crash, ride, keep the time and additional sound effects.
 
Tough choice. I do dearly love cymbal tones. Sacrifice the snare drum? Sacrifice the hi hat? Left arm? Right arm? Well the drum was the first instrument, so I'd have to defer to that. Otherwise, instead of a drummer, I'd be a cymbaler.
 
I would have to go with snare no. 1 and cymbals a close 2nd. If my snare sound isn't working it's going to be a long night. However, you can adjust your snare sound, but you're stuck with a bad cymbal.
 
If I had only one thing to hit, it would be a snare drum. You can just about keep a band going with only that.

But as far as attention and effort in the search for good sounds, it has to be cymbals. Most quality drums can be made fairly interchangeable with similar heads and good tuning. So you find the brand and finish you like, but you could probably get by on your second or third choice. But every cymbal is unique. No two sound anything alike. So you play everything that looks like a possibility. And just when you think you've found it, you decide you want something trashier, or drier, or brighter, darker or whatever. Now you're stuck on yet another holy grail search.
 
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