Explain Like I’m Five: Spock Cymbal

[jahn3official]

Don’t get me wrong, the EZDrummer expansions that I bought are phenomenal, but this has been on my mind for a really long time…

On some of the expansions like the Metal! pack and the Metal Machine pack for example, I see this thing called “Spock” cymbal near the top of the screen just a little off to the left.

I kept trying to look this up but nothing came up on my searches so I’m really going to sound like I’m dumb here but… seriously, what is a Spock cymbal? I mean, I’m not against it, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just that I’m just having trouble understanding what the term refers to and how the whole term originated and made it into the “Spock” slot. Basically I’m having trouble understanding why the cymbal is called a Spock and what qualifies as a Spock cymbal.

TL;DR: I don’t think there is anything wrong with Spock cymbals. I’m just having trouble trying to understand what it is.

Thanks for your help!
Joonho

Topic

[jahn3official]

Okay, I just heard from some of my classmates (I’m in the Music Industry Arts college programme) and he said it’s a stack of multiple cymbals. But then if that’s the case, why is it that the Spock doesn’t look like two cymbals stacked on top of each other? I mean, that was recorded using two cymbals, right? Maybe that cymbal should be redesigned aesthetically just to make sure that it’s clearer that it’s two cymbals stacked on top of each other? Or am I missing something here?

Thanks,
Joonho

[TheMarkness]

Probably too late, but I stumbled on this thread and figured I should answer.

#1 Why is it called a ‘spock’ and not a ‘stack’?

Probably because in Toontrack drum software a stack is when you join two instruments together. For example in Superior Drummer you can layer a kick drum with another kick drum, which is called a ‘stack’, so to avoid confusion with cymbal stacks, they named those into spocks, I guess.

#2 why does it look like one cymbal, if it’s two?

Well, if you put a 19 inch china, on top of a 16 inch cymbal, you will only see the china on top, because it’s bigger and covers the bottom cymbal 😉
This is inconsistent though, some cymbals where the top one is bigger look like this and others do not, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMarkness

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Thanked by: Martin

[Author]

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