Meinl 18″ Byzance Jazz Medium Thin Crash Cymbal

The Meinl Byzance series is forged in Turkey and then finished in Germany. This particular cymbal is an 18″ Byzance Jazz Medium Thin Crash. Like many cymbals on the thin side, with hand hammering and lathing, it has a dark tonality, making it ideal for classic jazz use. It rides well too, and has a silvery wash in the background. In fact, it has more of a washy background than the standard (non-Jazz) 19″ Medium Thin Crash. It has a nice ride sound too, sort of like the classic 1950’s jazz drummers’ cymbals.

The logo blends in with the natural color of the cymbal, which does not have the brilliant finish that is popular right now. In order to achieve the brilliant finish, an abrasive material is used, so the lathing is not very prominent. Thus, in this non-brilliant cymbal, the lathing is very visible, which adds a visual textured appeal. Secondly, applying the brilliant finish does remove some of the metal, which alters the sound.

The spectrum shows a slow rise between 400 Hz and 7 kHz, followed by a decline to 55 kHz. The lack of large peaks anywhere in the spectrum gives it a neutral tonality. It crashes very easily, and its dark tone reminds me of 1950’s jazz.

The peak of the crash occurs at 0.14 seconds, with a slow decay (long sustain).

Click HERE to listen to an audio sample, which will include crash (when appropriate), ride, and bell sounds (these are 24 bit, 176.4 kHz wav files, so be sure your sound card is capable of handling these high resolution sound files).

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