Zildjian Cymbals – Manufacture

ambience: Lathing

We’re at a factory, and though the sound may not be music to our ears, the final product will be. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. We’re visiting the Avedis Zildjian Company, near Boston, the world’s leading manufacturer of cymbals. The process starts with an ancient family secret — a special way of making bronze to give it a more musical quality. Each metal disk that will eventually become a cymbal goes through a repeated heating and rolling process, and then a computerized hammering, custom-designed for each type of cymbal to give it certain musical qualities. Next, says our guide, Colin Schofield, the cymbal goes to the lathe.

“With the lathing not only are you bringing the cymbal down to its correct thickness, but you’re also creating the tonal grooves, and it’s the tonal grooves in the cymbal that allow the sound waves to pass from the edge of the cymbal, where you strike the cymbal, to the cup and back to the edge and back to the cup, so the tonal grooves of the cymbal really have a tremendous effect on the sound quality of a cymbal.”

And then, every cymbal goes to the testing room.

ambience: Cymbals

“I’m Leon Ciappini and I’m the head tester at Zildjian. I want a nice clear sound, and clean, not a lot of muddled overtones, just a nice clear, good stick sound and a nice crash quality to the cymbal. This is a reject here. I’m sure you’ll hear the difference. I go through thousands of cymbals a day, and I can check them so quickly. I’ve been here for 39 years now, testing cymbals and after that length of time you can do it almost automatically.”

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 - Manufacture

How do you know if a cymbal has the right ring to it? Just ask a master cymbal tester.
Air Date:07/21/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

ambience: Lathing

We're at a factory, and though the sound may not be music to our ears, the final product will be. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. We're visiting the Avedis Zildjian Company, near Boston, the world's leading manufacturer of cymbals. The process starts with an ancient family secret -- a special way of making bronze to give it a more musical quality. Each metal disk that will eventually become a cymbal goes through a repeated heating and rolling process, and then a computerized hammering, custom-designed for each type of cymbal to give it certain musical qualities. Next, says our guide, Colin Schofield, the cymbal goes to the lathe.

"With the lathing not only are you bringing the cymbal down to its correct thickness, but you're also creating the tonal grooves, and it's the tonal grooves in the cymbal that allow the sound waves to pass from the edge of the cymbal, where you strike the cymbal, to the cup and back to the edge and back to the cup, so the tonal grooves of the cymbal really have a tremendous effect on the sound quality of a cymbal."

And then, every cymbal goes to the testing room.

ambience: Cymbals

"I'm Leon Ciappini and I'm the head tester at Zildjian. I want a nice clear sound, and clean, not a lot of muddled overtones, just a nice clear, good stick sound and a nice crash quality to the cymbal. This is a reject here. I'm sure you'll hear the difference. I go through thousands of cymbals a day, and I can check them so quickly. I've been here for 39 years now, testing cymbals and after that length of time you can do it almost automatically."

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.