Paiste Alpha Swiss Crashes - £199 - www.paiste.com

Paiste add some effects to their bronze Alpha range...

Paiste’s Alpha range is now, believe it or not, 20 years old. I still remember with fondness my 14” Medium Alpha hi-hats that I delivered many a newspaper to be able to afford! This more affordable bronze cymbal, made of the CuSn8 ‘2002’ alloy, is still as popular as ever. Since its inception in 1991, and after a revamp in 1997, the Alpha has gone from strength to strength and is now used by professional drummers as well as intermediate players and students. With more new cymbals added to the line-up, the Alpha sound palette is broadened further again, so Paiste have lent us their latest Swiss crashes for a close look.

Holy Moly

We have two 18” Swiss crashes here, one medium heavy in weight (labelled medium), the other medium thin (labelled thin). Both crashes have a number of circular cut-outs of differing sizes right the way across the cymbal – like a piece of Swiss cheese. Both are in brilliant finish. The medium-weight cymbal is more aggressive-looking and has an appearance you would associate with heavier styles. The thin crash features Paiste’s distinctive lathing, making it look more traditional. Before you even play these cymbals, your mind conjures up an expectation of what they might sound like – be prepared for something a little different, though … we’re going exotic.

Trash city

I tried the medium cymbal first. A clean, solid strike delivers a really trashy sound, with rich and exotic tones. The cymbal reacts fast and builds to a loud crescendo almost instantly. Due to the holes it has a fast decay. In fact, there is sustain for a moment, but that sustain dives incredibly fast at a certain point, making this more musical than just an FX or accent cymbal. The cymbal is quite bright, with dark overtones and a complex mix. The bell is special as well – it gives a distinctive ‘pang’ when played with the shoulder. It’s quite an aggressive cymbal, so it will work best in rock and metal styles as well as drum and bass. The thin version is darker overall and not so aggressive. As with the medium, it’s very fast (it’s even quicker to react, if that were possible) and has that same sustain, with sudden, fast decay. When you play the bell, the whole cymbal reacts with a dark, exotic  shimmer; meanwhile play the bow of this cymbal lightly or with a mallet and you get a light gong-like property.

Conclusion

These are fantastic crashes. And they are more ‘crash’ than ‘FX’ – it’s just that they are particularly trashy crashes. Both are very rich, complex and exotic, the medium-weight cymbal being more appropriate for rock/pop/drum and bass/ dance/electro, with the thinner version perhaps more suited to lighter work like pop/Latin/jazz. I’d add one of these to my cymbal armoury any day.