Zildjian Gen 16 Worst Idea Ever

[Coco Nabes]

Well...I don't really need to play a set of these ever again, thanks very much. Went over to a dude's house to jam today. He told me I didn't need to bring anything because he had a really good kit at his studio. Turned out to be a god awful Pintech electronic kit with a set of Gen 16's. OMJ- I can't believe these got through developement and actually made it into production. As terrible as these things sound acoustically, they sound even worse amplified. Tin pie plates would sound better. Seriously. One of the worst products I've ever seen. I need to go take a shower now. Ughh.

 

[theneonguy]

I've seen these and can't believe the price/performance problems. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Peterk256]

I dunno about the Gen 16 but I had a Pintech mesh pad kit 11 years ago and it was the worst POS toy ever.

 

[Luddite]

I wonder if those were the first generation Gen 16's---I know that there was some issues with the pickup on the cymbal that caused some feed back issues. I saw a set of those marked down to around $300 at the local GC and the guy working there told me about the problems people were having with them. I had played some when they first came out and actually liked the 'hats. The ride wasn't bad but the crash was pretty abominable.

 

[dwdave]

well they liked the idea enough to give them a new finish and brand them as quiet cymbals....

 

[fishmouth]

My issue with them (and i haven't played in person) is that sure, the aucoustic sound is quiet and quasi-cymbal-esque but i would just use pads for low volume practicing. One more issue, the demos just seem, blah. I thought "ok, here's a weird sounding acoustic cymbal, i bet when the pickups are used there's gonna be some eye-opening moment" but no. Just the same sound amplified.

Maybe there's something i'm missing and some have used them to good effect, but no thanks.

I will say, though, that sometimes these products at least show that companies are trying to do something different.

 

[TDM]

I had played some when they first came out and actually liked the 'hats. The ride wasn't bad but the crash was pretty abominable.

I've played them, too. Yes, by far, the hats were the most "listenable", but that's still being charitable. Really, I wouldn't pay good money for any of them. All the cymbals sound like garbage. Thin. Overly shimmery. Lots of high end, but no body and no warmth to speak of. And, they feel like playing on garbage can lids. Clunky to the max. Not worth any price, in my opinion.

 

[TDM]

I thought "ok, here's a weird sounding acoustic cymbal, i bet when the pickups are used there's gonna be some eye-opening moment" but no. Just the same sound amplified.

Spot on. They sound exactly the same whether acoustic or amplified. I spent hours tweaking the digital processing module and no matter what I did, I couldn't get rid of the basic sound, which, as noted above, is overly shimmery and lacking any kind of body and warmth. Beginner B8 cymbals sound many times better.

 

[blueshadow]

If they just stuck to non-amplified versions and knocked the price down they are great low volume practice cymbals.

 

[LauraCai]

well they liked the idea enough to give them a new finish and brand them as quiet cymbals....

Yes, I recently saw they put a new bronze finish on them. This might not be that they like them, as much as still trying to get their money out of their investment, instead of writing them off the books.

 

[LauraCai]

If they just stuck to non-amplified versions and knocked the price down they are great low volume practice cymbals.

That is a good idea. Reposition the product for that use case instead of the original intention. I agree they work much better as practice cymbals. I think I may have seen a post from Bun here before where he mentioned using them for this purpose.

 

[TDM]

If they just stuck to non-amplified versions and knocked the price down they are great low volume practice cymbals.

Problem is... they are still quite loud acoustically - many times louder than rubber trigger cymbals. The Gen 16s feel better than rubber, but they don't trigger so you're stuck with the acoustic sound and that sound level will most certainly bother neighbours. Ultimately, the Gen 16s utterly fail as a solution for people in apartments, townhouses, etc. and that's where the cymbals would have been most useful.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Are these even really marketed to be played live?

To me - if I bought them, it'd be for the feel of real cymbals, while being able to practice quietly on an electric kit and trigger a software drum instrument for recording.

 

[ron pangborn]

I'm a total supporter and life long player of Zildjian cymbals. I love their product line and they've been kind and supportive of my musical adventures since 1988. That said, I've never understood their forays into electronics. Back in the late 80's early 90's they introduced a cymbal micing system that was just poorly thought out and bad. The Gen 16 stuff seems like the same kind of thing. I agree with the previously mentioned comment that now that they've given them a bronze finish and began promoting them as "low volume" cymbals, the end of Gen16 is near....Sincerely and with all due respect, when they do what they do best, the results are most often, "Beautiful, Baby"

 

[Rik_Everglade]

The Gen 16 sound sampling sets that Zildjian offered should have been created so that they would be easily used as the sampling for the Gen 16 cymbal set. I assumed that this was what Zildjian was intending to do with this. But there was no cross-use of these two products even though they shared the name Gen 16. Imagine if you could have used those studio sampled sounds with the electro/acoustic cymbals. That's where the sales would have really been great!

 

[MatrixClaw]

The Gen 16 sound sampling sets that Zildjian offered should have been created so that they would be easily used as the sampling for the Gen 16 cymbal set. I assumed that this was what Zildjian was intending to do with this. But there was no cross-use of these two products even though they shared the name Gen 16. Imagine if you could have used those studio sampled sounds with the electro/acoustic cymbals. That's where the sales would have really been great!

That's what I thought you had to do to use these...?

So the Gen 16 cymbals can be used without the module and just plugged directly into a PA? I thought the pickup on them was used just as a piezo transducer to trigger a sample?

 

[blueshadow]

If they just stuck to non-amplified versions and knocked the price down they are great low volume practice cymbals.

Problem is... they are still quite loud acoustically - many times louder than rubber trigger cymbals. The Gen 16s feel better than rubber, but they don't trigger so you're stuck with the acoustic sound and that sound level will most certainly bother neighbours. Ultimately, the Gen 16s utterly fail as a solution for people in apartments, townhouses, etc. and that's where the cymbals would have been most useful.

True for apartments and townhomes too loud still... for me they'd be great with a small bop kit muffled way down to use at home where I don't have an isolated drum room but still am in a house far enough away from neighbors that I could practice. But for the price of the cymbals and another set I could almost build a drum room (almost)

 

[Matt Middleton]

I'm not a fan of the Gen16's either but I'm willing to give Zildjian props for trying to innovate rather than just sit around waiting for Paiste's patents and trademarks to expire so they can shamelessly re-brand them.

 

[TDM]

MatrixClaw,

So the Gen 16 cymbals can be used without the module and just plugged directly into a PA? I thought the pickup on them was used just as a piezo transducer to trigger a sample?

The module is a sound shaping unit. The output of the Gen 16s goes into the module and the output of the module goes to the PA. There is no triggering capability. Let me write that again. You cannot use the Gen 16s to trigger samples or an electronic drum brain. Yeah, surprised the heck out of me, too.

 

[MatrixClaw]

MatrixClaw,

So the Gen 16 cymbals can be used without the module and just plugged directly into a PA? I thought the pickup on them was used just as a piezo transducer to trigger a sample?

The module is a sound shaping unit. The output of the Gen 16s goes into the module and the output of the module goes to the PA. There is no triggering capability. Let me write that again. You cannot use the Gen 16s to trigger samples or an electronic drum brain. Yeah, surprised the heck out of me, too.

Whaaaaat? That's interesting...

I don't really understand the practical use of them, then. I always assumed they were for use with an electric kit and the little box worked off of a piezo trigger on the cymbal... I mean - I've used them before in Guitar Center and didn't think the sounds were that bad for practice, but I always assumed I could hook that thing up and send MIDI for recording through Superior Drummer or Steven Slate Drums or something... Weird!

I think this may be a classic case of "Cool idea, terrible execution." What the hell were they thinking!?