The award-winning Gen 16 line made huge waves in 2012. Now Zildjian has developed it further with The Gen16 Direct Source Pickup - designed to give more accurate cymbal definition, audio articulation, and tone shaping. The great news is that it can be used with the existing DCP and Gen16 Cymbals as well as Zildjian’s acoustic cymbals.

The company has also has revised its line up and pricing for box sets. For the Gen 16 each box set includes up to five AE Cymbals, a DCP (Digital Cymbal Processor), pickups, a cable snake, and mounting accessories.

Grammy-award winning artist, Russ Miller will be demo-ing the cymbals during The NAMM Show in Anaheim.

We’re really excited about the new Ringo Starr signature sticks - a classic style and a fabulous starry look. Drumming legend Ringo helped Zildjian design a very versatile stick with 5A type dimensions, an elongated oval tip, and an exclusive DIP coating in vibrant purple. The stick is printed with the artist’s signature and his trademark star.

There’s plenty more to celebrate the 390th birthday of a company with a fascinating history.

Zildjian has tweaked the curvature and weights of its A line to capture the sweet spot of the A sound, leading to enhanced crashes, rides and hats that reflect today’s musical styles.

Here at Kitmonsters we’ve been finding more and more drummers with a penchant for Zildjian Thin Crashes. Zildjian have been responding to artists’ requests for larger thinner models, and are re-introducing the 19” and 20” A Zildjian Thin Crashes and 20” A Zildjian Medium Thin Crash.

The Thin Crashes are designed for a classic, full-bodied sound and a broad sonic range and wash.

Zildjian are also introducing a new 23” Medium Thin A Zildjian Sweet Ride inspired by the best selling 21” model. It offers clean stick definition for riding as well as a powerful crash component, made to be a dynamic and versatile cymbal that can be used in virtually any musical setting.

There’s plenty more newness, with three larger size ZBT models in 2013 – the Medium Thin 17” and 19” ZBT Crashes and the Medium 22” ZBT Ride. Also the whole ZBT line will have new features with lathing on both sides of the cymbals and an updated logo. The new 17” ZBT Crash and 22” ZBT Ride will be featured in the ZBTX390 Box Set beginning in May 2013.

There’s also lots going on virtually, with the launch of Sound Lab, a new social-web community for drummers, where visitors build their own virtual cymbal set ups from a full library of Zildjian cymbal sound files and then share their set ups with friends.

You can choose from nine drum set ups and build a unique configuration of cymbals or select from a library of pre-set genre (rock, jazz, etc.) or Zildjian artist set-ups. The Sound Lab allows visitors to compare any number of cymbals side-by-side, select cymbals that instantly appear on a kit, and strike individual cymbals to produce up to two different sounds. Then you can even print out your set up and take it to your local dealer. It’s all shareable on Facebook and Twitter.

In 2013, the Company will announce a contest to kick-off the new Zildjian Sound Lab. Visit www.zildjian.com soon for more details.