Supernatural 18″ Universal Crash Cymbal

Supernatural Cymbals is one of several small companies that have emerged during the past few years, who are based in Turkey, and who still make cymbals the way they have been made for centuries (except for the electric motor that turns the lathing machine). The cymbals start out as cast bronze discs, which are heated, rolled, cut into the desired diameter for the cymbal, hand hammered, and hand lathed. There is no machining at all. The results are quite distinguishable from machine hammered and lathed cymbals. It is not that one way is better than the other, but rather, you now have several additional choices in sound, and some of them are due to the old world ways of producing them. This review covers the Supernatural 18″ Universal Crash. It has a beautiful, distinct, moderately bright crash, and a long sustain. It is one of the finest cymbals I have ever heard, and I think that any of our readers who purchase one will agree with me.

In the top photo, it is easy to see the very large number of hammer strokes on this cymbal, and they are irregularly placed, which is typical of hand hammering. The cymbal smith listens to the cymbal after some hammering, and then hammers some more according to what he thinks is necessary to make the cymbal sound the way it is supposed to. The close-up photo illustrates the fine lathing on the bell, which has no hammering, and the wide, deep lathing on the body of the cymbal. The 18″ Universal only comes in one weight, which I would call medium. Its thickness midway between the outer edge and the bell is 1.4mm.

The spectral analysis indicated peaks all the way down to 32 Hz. Other peaks at 150 Hz, 240 Hz, and 450 Hz give the cymbal its tonality. The peaks at 1.8 kHz, 2.4 kHz, 2.9 kHz, and 3.8 kHz represent the body of the sound, and the slow decline from 6 kHz down to 55 kHz delivers the brightness. The overall tone of the crash is neutral. There are no single high peak tones that get in the way of the sound presentation. It rides beautifully as well, and the bell has a singing quality to it. This is a terrific cymbal.

The cymbal has an immediate response, peaking below 0.05 seconds. Notice the long sustain. This is typical of hand made cymbals. Not every drummer will want a long sustain, depending on the type of music being played, but if you like a cymbal that carries its sound for several seconds, you’re looking at a very good one right now.

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).

If your sound card cannot play the high resolution file, click HERE to listen to an MP3 sound file.

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