Experimental investigation of crash cymbal acoustic quality
Devyn P. Curley, Zachary A. Hanan, Dan Luo, Christopher W. Penny, Christopher F. Rodriguez, Paul D. Lehrman, Chris Rogers, Robert D. White · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2014
A methodology to quantitatively evaluate the quality of the transmitted acoustic signature of cymbals is under development. High speed video recordings of a percussionist striking both a Zildjian 14 in. A-custom crash cymbal and a Zildjian Gen 16 low volume 16 in. crash cymbal were recorded and used to determine biometrically accurate crash and ride striking motions. A two degree of freedom robotic arm has been developed to mimic human striking motion. The robotic arm includes a high torque elbow joint driven in closed loop trajectory tracking and an impedance controlled wrist joint to approximate the variable stiffness of the stick grip. A quantitative comparison of robotic and human strikes will be made using high speed video. Repeatable strikes will be carried out using the robotic system in an anechoic chamber for different grades of Zildjian cymbals, including low volume Gen 16 cymbals. Acoustic features of the measured sound output will be compared to seek quantitative metrics for evaluating cymbal sound quality that compare favorably with the results of qualitative human assessments that are currently in use by the industry. Preliminary results indicate noticeable differences in cymbal acoustic output including variations in modal density, decay time, and beating phenomena.