Paiste 18″ Giant Beat Multi-Functional (Crash) Cymbal

Paiste’s Giant Beat line is quite different than their other cymbals. The Giant Beat’s color for one thing. I thought at first they look like they have quite a bit of silver in them, at least the 18″ version that I tested, but over a few months, the silvery finish began to turn into a patina, with the more expected coppery color showing through. So, I suspect there may be a thin nickel coating. This possibly gives the cymbal a bright sound, almost bell-like, but without making you want to cover your ears. They are in the medium-thin category and vary by diameter, and are categorized as “Multi-Functional”, which means you can use them as a ride or a crash. I would classify this one primarily as a crash cymbal.

The sound has a moderatly bright tonality. Perhaps that is why they call it multi-function. It has a very nice wash to it which is generally neutral.

The Giant Beat is a very nice line of cymbals. They are musical and powerful, but won’t overpower. The 18″ reviewed model would be good in a medium sized venue for jazz or rock.

The frequency response is reasonably flat out to 14 kHz, which is more like the ride cymbal pings I have reported. Then the response begins a gentle slope down to 50 kHz.

Level vs. Time shows that it peaks at 0.13 seconds with a slow decay. Notice that in the spectrum, the decay (the magenta line is the initial crash, and the yellow line is the sound after 2 seconds) is pretty much even across the spectrum from 300 Hz to 20 kHz. If you compare this spectrum to some of the others reviewed here, you can see why cymbals all sound so different. If they didn’t there wouldn’t be so many brands and so many different lines in those brands.

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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