The grooves on the surface of a cymbal are not there for looks: they're crucial to the sound of the instrument. They're called 'tonal grooves' and they help to spread the vibrations around the body of the cymbal – the depth, width and shape of the grooves all affect the sound quality.
But underneath the grooves, there's already precision engineering going on. Starting with the metal itself: cymbals are made of bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin, but there are different types of cymbal bronze: "B20", which is 20% tin, and "B8", which is just 8% tin. In B8 bronze, the grains in the metal run in a single direction, which gives you a narrower spectrum of frequencies (a more 'focussed' or 'compact' sound). B20 bronze is rolled in more than one direction, so the molecules interweave to form a lattice structure.
And then cymbals are hammered, not pressed, into shape. Every stroke of the hammer compresses the metal slightly at the spot where it hits, making it a little bit more dense just at that point, and that changes the range of frequencies. So the hammering needs to be done very evenly over the surface of the cymbal, to make the instrument as resonant as possible.
The whole process is so stressful that it takes the molecules in the metal a few weeks to settle down again, which means that a brand new instrument will actually have a different sound from one which is a month or so old.
Amazing, what goes into making a great cymbal crash!
Take a historical, musical and factory tour to one of the world's oldest and largest cymbal making family business, the Zildjian! What a Wall of Fame! What is even more interesting, the women of the Zildjian are making their mark on the family business!
A few examples of cymbals used different ways! Enjoy!
No 1.Cymbals Sound Test:
No 2. A little wild but introduces the cymbals pretty well!
No 3. Cymbals the way you have never seen them being played!
No 5. Sabian Cymbals Factory Tour Part 1 of 4. Here you really can see the whole process of producing high quality cymbals!:
