Spiral crash with interesting sound production methods. This library uses an 18-inch Zildjian Spiral Trash Cymbal, and if you play it like a regular cymbal, it sounds very bright. But when using contact microphones, the lower part of the spectrum expands significantly! And with the suppression of attenuation, the scope of use also expands.
Therefore, all possible ways of creating sounds 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 a cymbal dome, plus two Sanken CUX-100K stereo microphones and two Sennheiser MKH 8040 stereo microphones.
The contact mics were a challenge to secure, as the vibrations propagating throughout the cymbal often caused them to come loose. But if they were attached to the cymbal anywhere with small clamps, the weight of the clamps would reduce the attenuation. So double-sided tape, constant monitoring and frequent replacement were required…
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 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 things were shaken out of it!
