Listen to the crash cymbal
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
How the crash cymbal makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the crash cymbal belongs to the struck idiophones: the body is struck directly – bells, gongs, xylophones and cymbals.
More broadly it is one of the idiophones, where the solid body of the instrument itself vibrates, without strings or a stretched membrane.
Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.
From Wikipedia
A crash cymbal is a type of cymbal that produces a loud, sharp "crash" and is used mainly for occasional accents, as opposed to a ride cymbal. It can be mounted on a stand and played with a drum stick, or by hand in pairs. One or two crash cymbals are a standard part of a drum kit. Suspended crash cymbals are also used in bands and orchestras, either played with a drumstick or rolled with a pair of mallets to produce a slower, swelling crash. Sometimes a drummer may hit two different crash cymbals in a kit at the same time to produce a very loud accent, usually in rock music.
Other struck idiophones
Questions people ask
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Frequently asked questions
What does a crash cymbal sound like?
Listen to 1 recording on this page. As one of the struck idiophones, its sound comes from the way the body is struck directly.
What type of instrument is the crash cymbal?
It is classified as struck idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 111.24).
Sources & credits
- Crash cymbal – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q93985 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Crash cymbal – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by Stephan Czuratis ( Jazz-face ) – CC BY-SA 2.5