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Gen16 AE cymbals - mini review

Started by digitalDrummer, July 11, 2011, 01:26:51 AM

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digitalDrummer

A number of people have had their eye on the new Zildjian Gen16 AE cymbals as a potential add-on to a 2box kit. If you're curious, here's a preview of a more extensive review to be included in the August digitalDrummer.

What's in the box:


The AE 368 (13" hi-hats, 16" crash, 18" ride) consists of four low-volume nickel-plated sheet metal alloy cymbals, perforated with hundreds (maybe thousands) of holes. They look and feel substantial, with a buffed shiny finish.
There's a compact controller, three pickup units, a five-strand, colour-coded cable snake ending in 3.5mm stereo jacks, a few bags of mounting bits including a hi-hat clutch, and some set-up instructions.

Getting started

Set-up was reasonably easy, with sleeves positioned onto regular cymbal stands, the pickups placed on them, followed by the cymbals and neoprene stoppers. There's a bit more fiddling around with the hi-hat, but it's certainly no more difficult to set up than any other two-piece electronic hi-hat rig.
Then everything is plugged into the controller.

In action

The first thing you'll notice, especially if you're used to rubber-covered e-cymbals, is that these guys are not quiet – around 20dB louder than their respective rubber-covered counterparts.
There's been lots of speculation about "the controller", not helped by the fact that Gen16 also recently released its first VST products, with many people assuming the AE cymbals are triggers that generate the Digital Vault sounds. Wrong!
Each cymbal has a stereo microphone under the bell, picking up the actual sounds of the metal cymbal. And not just the cymbal sounds – if you cough next to the hi-hat, that's what will be amplified.

Sounds like?

I'll go into the full description in the main review, but there's a reason why the demos to date have been recorded via an amp. The direct out sounds are thin and anemic, but when amplified, even through a modest PM-10, they really blossom, fill out and mature. They also pick up a shine from the acoustic tones. So, to appreciate the Gen16s, you have to hear the whole package – amplification and all.
Some of the hi-hat settings are excellent when played through an amp, others are a bit over-processed and some are thin and electronic.
The rides sound convincing, but to my ear, the processing had less impact than on the hi-hats, meaning the sound palette is narrower. You'll love the bell response!
The crash has some good tones, great decay and, of course, excellent swells.
The biggest "disappointment" will stem from the hype about "sounding like a K" claims. I honestly couldn't link any of the sounds with any existing acoustic cymbals out there. The sounds are unique – acoustic-like, but not really identifiable.
Where these guys shine is in playability. The responsiveness and range of articulations across the surface was refreshing, as was the bell response – once you learn to stop using the e-cymbal bash technique. Played with brushes, mallets or rods, they show great texture. This, of course, is a challenge when your e-pads aren't equally responsive.

Bottom line:

The Gen16AEs are a paradigm shift. They're not quiet practice cymbals and in my opinion are thin and tinny through headphones. So there's little advantage over e-cymbals for quiet home practice – and in fact, some disadvantage in the limited sound choices. These are really acoustic instruments and sound best when amplified – especially on a good rid that allows you to further tweak the DCP output.
It's important to remember what they are – and what they're not. They're not triggers, they're not really editable (besides the 20 patches and some decay), they're not linked to the Digital Vault samples.
They are miced, so there's some learning curve and you'll need to get your head around feedback issues, bleed and even mic placement (some have to be set at 6/12 o'clock; other a 9/3 o'clock). They do require amplification – the better the amp, the better the sound – much more so than drum module output where all the shaping happens in the module rather than the external amp.
Finally, they are upgradeable – meaning that Gen16 will provide future refinements via download, but at best you can only really expect some minor tweaks to the existing sound-shaping. I'm not sure we can expect anything like the differences between generations of say the 2box, and certainly nothing like the TWD-20 upgrade impact.
From my contacts with Gen16, I'd expect stock to start hitting stores next month and I would strongly advise everyone to hit their closest store and have a listen. These are going to be a very personal choice – like any acoustic cymbals, some folk will love them, others won't give them a second listen. Don't rely on the online recordings – you have to hear the full range of their sound to appreciate – or not – these cymbals.

puttenvr

Since a microphone can be used as a trigger, can't these cymbals just be run into a drum module?

edtc

Quote from: puttenvr on July 22, 2011, 01:20:50 PM
Since a microphone can be used as a trigger, can't these cymbals just be run into a drum module?

the problem is that their long decay will induce multi triggering ... they will also pick the ambient noise , so i think it s no way to use them with great succes as triggers