The Cympad Moderator Box Cymbal Pad Set is a 10-piece cymbal pad set, consisting of two 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90mm pads, all made from cellular foam. Cympad Moderator cymbal pads provide the consistency and dependability of Cympad’s advanced cellular foam material while reducing cymbal volume and unwanted overtones, controlling sustain and increasing articulation. Cympad is an affordable and easy to use system for optimising the sound and performance of virtually all cymbal sizes, types and brands. Cympad is specially designed and made from premium-grade cellular foam to simply and effectively protect your cymbals and control your sound.
The main features of the Cympad Moderator Box Cymbal Pad Set include:
I used these cympads recently to tame the volume of cymbals at an all day event in a small venue with a strict average volume limit and minimal changover times.
From a live sound engineering point of view, It worked brilliantly for 90% of the artists (all soft rock through to metal), allowing the mix to sound more balanced out front without exceeding volume limitations. This really allowed me to able to hear and tighten the mix without loud stage volumes, putting the full kit (minus OH's) and backline through the PA and easily level it with the volume of cymbals on-stage and have more control over the cymbal bleed on vocal mics.
The choice of size really depends on 2 things - the size of the cymbal (and the bell), and the loudness of the player (which is the only hard bit to truely determine in advance when only line-checking the bands). Having the full box set meant that I was able to cater for every band throughout the day (18 acts in total!) and get the choice right 90% of the time.
I highly reccomended for live applications where cympals appear too loud in small venues, venues with hard surfaces everywhere, and for those ridiculously loud cymbals a lot of metal drummers insist on using! I have even made some of the bands I tour with get them (simply for control purposes) and have reccomended them to other loud drummers.
The only downside is that the wrong choice of size (too big) can result in poor attack, and sustain on the cymbals. Experimentation is advised but when the correct choices are made, the results are very pleasing and can transfer to a stage of any size providing balanced cymbals for overhead micing.