Zildjian Cymbals – Secrets

ambience: Cymbal testing

We’re in the testing room of the world’s leading maker of cymbals. Here, an expert listens to each new instrument before it’s sold. But the cymbals have to go through many stages before they reach this point, and there’s a bit of mystery involved in the process. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. The Avedis Zildjian Company got its start in the 1600’s in Turkey, when a family member discovered a special way to improve the metal that he used in his cymbals. Company spokesman Colin Schofield says that they’re still using that special process and they’ve kept it a secret for centuries.

“It’s a way of creating a bell-metal bronze, which was traditionally used for the creation of bells, which is 80% copper and 20% tin, with little trace elements of silver. Having that much tin in an alloy gives it its brilliance in sound. But a negative byproduct of that is that tin is extremely brittle, so when you add tin to a bronze alloy, it makes it liable to crack and makes it very, very fragile, hence the crack in the Liberty Bell. ”

“And that essentially is what the Zildjian secret is. It’s not a formula, it’s copper, tin, little bit of silver. It’s a way of putting them together that gives the alloy this tremendous flexibility and strength, in addition to its tremendous sonic properties.”

The Zildjian company has also developed a more modern secret. It comes into play when the cymbals are hammered to fine-tune their sound.

“The more random the hammering process, the darker, warmer, drier the type of sound. But we use many, many different combinations of hammering, but you’re really essentially working the alloy by pounding it in that way, and it’s just something that we’ve learned over many, many, many years.”

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Zildjian Cymbals - Secrets

The world's leading maker of cymbals says it owes its success to a centuries-old family secret.
Air Date:07/19/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

ambience: Cymbal testing

We're in the testing room of the world's leading maker of cymbals. Here, an expert listens to each new instrument before it's sold. But the cymbals have to go through many stages before they reach this point, and there's a bit of mystery involved in the process. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. The Avedis Zildjian Company got its start in the 1600's in Turkey, when a family member discovered a special way to improve the metal that he used in his cymbals. Company spokesman Colin Schofield says that they're still using that special process and they've kept it a secret for centuries.

"It's a way of creating a bell-metal bronze, which was traditionally used for the creation of bells, which is 80% copper and 20% tin, with little trace elements of silver. Having that much tin in an alloy gives it its brilliance in sound. But a negative byproduct of that is that tin is extremely brittle, so when you add tin to a bronze alloy, it makes it liable to crack and makes it very, very fragile, hence the crack in the Liberty Bell. "

"And that essentially is what the Zildjian secret is. It's not a formula, it's copper, tin, little bit of silver. It's a way of putting them together that gives the alloy this tremendous flexibility and strength, in addition to its tremendous sonic properties."

The Zildjian company has also developed a more modern secret. It comes into play when the cymbals are hammered to fine-tune their sound.

"The more random the hammering process, the darker, warmer, drier the type of sound. But we use many, many different combinations of hammering, but you're really essentially working the alloy by pounding it in that way, and it's just something that we've learned over many, many, many years."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.