I love watching cymbal demos on YouTube until they start doing this...

[5stroke]

I can't stand:

1. Demonstrating a crash while simultaneously hitting the bass drum LOUD! Completely discolors the cymbal's unique crash characteristics.
2. Demonstrating a crash by building up a "crash swell" which allows any man hole weight cymbal to sound like it could somehow crash when you need to do it most with a single stroke and were hoping to hear that 1 crash only.
3. Immediately starting to wail away on the bell, as if 99% of music demands an obnoxiously loud bell groove as it's primary component.

A whole generation of cymbal demos has gone downhill since Ben White somehow "retired" from Memphis Drum Shop's demos. He would also offer a clear opinion on the cymbal's properties. Now, at MDS it smash, wail and vanish.

 

[flatwins]

Slightly OT but on the topic of Ben White-

We hadn’t seen him for awhile but I recently ran across this video from a couple of years ago where he was showcasing a Vistalite.

 

[jb111]

Tom L > Ben W

G. Sluppick > Tom L > Ben W

 

[peter]

Saying "exact" when they mean "actual".

 

[peter]

This sums it up nicely:

 

[Nubs]

talking

That's one think I never understood nor will I ever do on a cymbal demo video. I show you the cymbal, the kind of stick I'm using, then I play. That's it. Nothing else needed.

 

[drumflyer]

The Paiste sound room does it best. Same pattern, bell, body, edge sounds. Cymbal demos should follow a pattern like this so one can see and hear the differences between different cymbals.
IMHO

 

[little rock]

That was tooooo funny.

 

[little rock]

I’ve watched quite a few cymbal demos on that channel but for some reason had never encountered sunglasses man (similar to smoking man from the old X-Files TV show). Now I’m on the lookout!

He demos used Sabian HH Bright hats.

 

[stick2it]

Lots of fun contributions to this discussion, but I applaud Ptrick who offered, on the opening page, the suggestion that we develop a code -- suggested best practices for preparing cymbal demo videos. How many times did you see a cymbal on DFO or elsewhere that looked promising but the video was so bad you wouldn't risk the purchase? Building together a list and sequence of what we want to hear/see in these videos would help the DFO community prepare better videos. Here's a start....

Position your phone for best image and audio capture.
Crash at different volumes and in different ways.
Play different ride patterns at different volumes.
Play the bell and the edge of the cymbal.
Play a crash and roll using mallets.
Play brushes, ending with moving the wire end of the brush across the lathed rings.
No toms, snare drums, bass drums or other cymbals in the mix.
No other instruments or recorded music (e.g., music minus drums), or at least not for most of the video.

It's just a start from one DFO member. What would you add or change? Or maybe we just resign ourselves to a future of more bad cybmal-demo videos?

 

[Nubs]

This sums it up nicely:

This made me genuinely laugh! The whole hitting the cymbal with the side of the stick thing really got me I see that all the time in demos and thought "Wait, what the hell is that?"

 

[CAMDRUMS]

For sure! How often do any of us play a cymbal roll with mallets? VERY seldom and even if we do...it's probably the last thing we're ever concerned about.

And even a budget cymbal sounds pretty good if You roll on it with mallets.

 

[CAMDRUMS]

Hit the cymbal on the absolute edge at a 90 degree angle. That is a dangerous way to play any cymbal.

Agreed. I have heard folks refer to this as playing the “harmonic” of the cymbal. I don’t know. To me it seems like more of a visual thing - the audience sees the drummer do that and they think, “wow s/he is a really sensitive and creative player.” (Admittedly I am guilty of having done that from time to time for that very reason .). But as a potential cymbal purchaser that move really doesn’t help tell me how the cymbal sounds for 99.9999% of the playing I will do on it.

 

[jptrickster]

Most sound files are terrible imo. I’m not a fan really although when Sinclair was renting out his right hand of god to promo Bettis and a few other goodies I appreciate them especially playing along with appropriate music, that’s the way to do it. Matt makes a nice cymbal.
Honestly I’ve never bought a pie because of a soundfile I enjoy the excitement of a blind date!

 

[hardbat]

One of the important aspects is the mic. A common problem is when it's a cell phone positioned too close - makes it sound artificially harsh, and the limiter keeps cutting in.

What I like to hear is a ride cymbal pattern with some crashes mixed in. The sound of transitioning back and forth between riding and crashing is key to me, because that is mostly how I play.

 

[hardbat]

I love how he loses it when he says it tastes like raw beef.

 

[hawker]

I can't believe I watched the entire thing. What a boring waste of time....but he did have me chuckling a few times with his crazy word salad. And there's nothing like enhancing a cymbal demo with state-of-the-art cinder block walls. He's a funny guy....but maybe something a bit shorter next time.

 

[charlesm]

I can't believe I watched the entire thing. What a boring waste of time....but he did have me chuckling a few times with his crazy word salad. And there's nothing like enhancing a cymbal demo with state-of-the-art cinder block walls. He's a funny guy....but maybe something a bit shorter next time.

And so it seems he has made his point.

 

[hardbat]

The demo starts with about 20 hits on the bell.

Sure enough, one went up right now (for sale section), starts with 20 loud hits on the bell.

I don't know exactly why that bugs me... but it's like it jangles my brain and I can't hear anything clearly for the next minute or two.

 

[JazzDoc]

My beef is when it's a hihat demo and there's little no time spent on the pedal closure sound - I need to hear the "chic" or "chup" of the pair. I choose my hats based on that sound and feel more than any other parameter!
I want to know if they close crisply or 'chonck' together or are they 'sloshy;' and how they sit on the stand - are they more or less parallel - or are they over tilted so they flap together.
It's also nice to hear a hihat "foot splash", too. Maybe a few Bernard Purdy "barks".
I care little about the bell sound or hearing the cymbals played separately - how do they "marry" is what matters to me.

Too often most of the demo shows them played closed or partially open without hearing them played open and closed at different volumes and dynamics.