The NAMM had only been open for a matter of hours before people started telling me that I absolutely, positively, unquestionably had to see a demo of Zildjian’s Gen 16 system. So I made it my first stop this morning, where I ran into my old friend Derek Zimmerman (formerly with Kaman and Guitar Center) who is now at the center of the company’s digital initiative. And to cut a long story short, Gen 16 surpassed the advance hype. Put simply – I’ve never seen anything like it; an actual alloy cymbal line that can trigger pristine samples of every imagineable cymbal and gong type, and it can still be played acoustically. Check it out for yourself. It’s astonishing.
