Simmons MC13 E-Kit 13" Metal Cymbal

I bought two of the MC13's to upgrade a Roland TD11KV kit from the stock Roland CY8 cymbals. I wanted a 3-zone ride, so this was a cost-effective way to get it. I just had to change the trigger in the TD11 module settings to a CY13R and it worked perfectly! If you have the room, I would go to the MC16 or MC18 for the ride cymbal position. I'm limited on space, which is why I bought the MC13 and you do have to be a bit more precise with your strikes on the bell zone due the cymbals smaller size. Other than that, it works great and triggers accurately with the Roland TD11. For the other crash position, I set the cymbal to a CY12c in the TD11 module trigger settings and it worked perfectly! Here's where your results may vary - I also tested the MC13 on the Alesis DM10 Pro kit in my home studio. I tried it as a 3-way ride on one of my user kits and it had a noticeable hot spot in the center of the bow section and was missing triggers on the bell, which I had to strike really hard to get it to trigger. I initially thought the MC13 was defective, but after switching to a factory preset it worked perfectly? So if you're putting these on an Alesis kit, be aware that if you customize your velocity and trigger settings - the Simmons MC's may not be plug and play and will require some tweaking to dial them in. Or just copy the settings from the preset kits and fine tune from there... Overall, they look great and have really nice feel and action. They play more like a real cymbal than the Rolands or the Alesis (Medeli) cymbals and they are quieter for in-room noise. I would buy these for a Roland kit without hesitation, and probably will end up putting them on my Alesis DM10 Pro kit too.

I chose bad and good as the headline to be specific in my review. This cymbal is well made and has a great feel and stick response like all the other size Simmons metal cymbals that I have. The problem is the exposed metal top design of these new cymbals causes a vibration noise when using it as a high hat. This doesn't happen when using it as a crash nor does it happen on my MC18 ride. Now to be clear, the sound using it as a crash is outstanding and that's why I'm keeping it to use a acrash and as stated before the quality is great, just not as good a sound as the standard original ride from the kit.

The screws closest to the edge that help hold the sensor to the cymbal broke at the metal contact and no longer register correctly. No way I can think of to fix. Really hoped this would have lasted much longer.

The best

I have been playing these for a couple weeks now. I have adapted them to my Roland kit and the feel, response and dynamics are so much closer to a real cymbal feel, it is amazing. The sensitivity stands out as well

I really like the feel of the cymbal. It's not the real thing, but the response is much closer to one. It looks great in my Titan 70 kit and I will buy the other two sizes! I would give 5 stars, but the cymbal requires you to use the existing cymbal stand and then you have nothing to put the old cymbal on. It needs to include a clamp for the frame and a cymbal pole to mount on.