Hiss and a Roar – FX027 Spiral Trash Cymbal

This library uses an 18″ Zildjian Spiral Trash Cymbal , and when played as a regular cymbal, it sounds very bright. But when using contact microphones, the lower end of the spectrum is greatly expanded! And with the damping suppressed, the range of use is also expanded. So all sorts of sound creation methods were explored: from simple dirty crash sounds to drops, tremolos, strokes and taps with various mallets. A total of six tracks were recorded: two Trance Audio contact microphones on the cymbal dome, plus two Sanken CUX-100K stereo microphones and two Sennheiser MKH 8040 stereo microphones .

Fixing the contact microphones was a challenge, as the vibrations spreading across the entire cymbal often caused them to become loose. But if they were attached to the cymbal anywhere with small clamps, the weight of the clamps would reduce the attenuation. So it required double-sided tape, constant monitoring, and frequent replacement…

After a few recording sessions in this configuration, the contact mics were removed as there was a desire to use the cymbal more aggressively: a stretched and twisted cymbal produces some really interesting distorted metallic sounds… But such a violent movement meant that there was no way to keep the contact mics attached. Freed from this physical constraint, the cymbal was turned inside out and all the living stuff was shaken out of it!