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However, and this is true for all the Roland cymbals reviewed, that leads to mostly up-and-down movement. But at least with the CY-5, it has a surprising amount of rebound and “good wobble”, making it unique among the Roland cymbals. The CY-5 was hard to choke. A firm grip was needed, although the cymbal wasn’t particular about where along the edge the choke occurred. It was probably not as hard to choke as the Pintech PCs, but it was close. As a crash, most people will probably find it too small, but that makes it ideal for that umpteenth crash in a large kit in a tight space. Also, when used as a china or splash, the two zones provide additional sound possibilities. CY-8 The other “budget” cymbal in Roland’s line-up, it’s also likely to be discontinued with the release of the crash-only CY-12 and the crash/ride CY-13. The first odd thing that strikes you about this cymbal is its pronounced leftward tilt. The trigger housing is on the left and it consistently pulls the cymbal that way despite the Roland plug. Yes, you can adjust your cymbal arms to address this, but it’s the only cymbal of any tested that leaned in a direction other than up and down. The strike “sweet spot” is less than even the one-fifth area of the Surges and obviously far smaller than the actual rubber strike area of the CY-8 itself. There was significant drop-off to the right and left and even down to the edge. Bow triggering outside of that very small sweet spot was extremely inconsistent. The soft edge of CY-8 would lead one to believe it should excel at soft hits and swells. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Edge triggering was not nearly as responsive as any other two-zone cymbal tested. As such, it took harder strikes and more thought when hitting the cymbal. For example, striking the sweet spot with a light to medium hit would produce a decent response, but then quickly move out to the edge and you need to hit the cymbal hard in order to get a similar sound. That edge triggering issue means that cymbal swells are problematic. We set up the CY-8 directly alongside a CY-12 and CY-14 using Roland’s factory settings on a TD-12 module and using the same cymbal sound. Whereas the 12/14s were consistent, the CY-8 took harder hits on the edge and serious thought about hitting that bow sweet spot to trigger - and we could never get good swells. Adjusting the rim gain upwards from the factory setting helped, but if we weren’t careful and hit the cymbal hard, we’d get a piercing loud crash sound we didn’t want. It does, however, choke better than the CY-5 and CY-12. I’ve had experience with three CY-8s over the years. I used one with a TD-7, then an expanded TD-10 module, with the sort of experience described above. However, I demoed a TD-9 kit with CY-8s and was struck by how good they were. Nonetheless, you’ll find plenty of online complaints about the uncertainty of what you get out of a CY-8. If you need chinas and splashes, they’ll work fine in those roles, but don’t expect them to excel as crashes.
digitalDRUMMER, MAY 2011
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