Cymbal Maker Robert Paiste dies

George Lawrence, the staff and the writers of Not So Modern Drummer offer our condolences to the Paiste family, the Paiste employees and the Paiste endorsing artists. 

This from the Paiste Company:

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Robert Paiste, family member, visionary cymbal maker and perennial company principal. In the four generations of family members to guide the company, Robert was a foremost presence. His contribution was of immense importance, and he shaped Paiste in major ways. Robert's life-long focus was the development and production of cymbals and gongs. As an uncompromising perfectionist, he established the benchmarks for quality, fidelity and consistency that are the hallmarks of Paiste today.

Along the way, his work led to numerous innovations, inventions and patents, and among his many accomplishments, the Formula 602, the 2002, and the Signature Series continue to stand out in the cymbal world. Robert's contributions to the realm of cymbal and gong instruments in fact transcended his activities within the Paiste Company. Through his efforts, he shaped and influenced the direction of the entire field in the past half century. Never satisfied, he forever thought of new directions and possibilities to create instruments, indeed, he lived his life for sound:

"Sound is vibration, and vibration is energy. Life energy is vibration and sound, also. So, for us, sound is part of a very deep, basic truth. We are not the only ones who feel like this. There are so many musical-minded drummers who get the same exciting feeling from playing their cymbals. It's not just the sound. It's the vibration, the touch, how it feels, and how it speaks to the drummer. It's a wonderful feeling to produce something, hand it over to the drummers, and see them get the same response. There's a deep truth behind it." - Robert Paiste

Robert was born in the family's country of origin, Estonia. The disruptions during the mid 20th century brought the family through Poland to Northern Germany, where in the late 1940s he joined his father Michail in cymbal and gong making. He moved to Switzerland in 1957 to found the company's new and present home base. Robert went on to lead Paiste together with his brother Toomas throughout the second half of the 20th century. Together, on the foundation of their father's and grandfather's work, they built a cymbal company of world-wide significance.

We are grateful for Robert's lifetime achievements.

Hollywood Drum Show 2017 Pics

Click to see all 150+ of Bob's pics on our Facebook site.

Registration and payment for 2017 Snare Drum Olympics

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1.     Please pay via the add to cart button above. Or by Paypal. The Paypal address is george@notsomoderndrummer.com. If paying by check or money order please send to George Lawrence and send U.S. mail to George Lawrence, Not So Modern Drummer, 3341 Towne Village Road, Antioch TN, 37013.

2.     Fill out the online form below, one for each drum if you are entering more than one. We will print this out here and attach it to your drum for the duration of the event. 

Registration DEADLINES Send your drum on now. We will be doing some advance publicity before 1/15/2017. You can send a drum any time before the Final judging in November 2017 , but the publicity starts officially on January 15

• January 15, 2017 - First deadline: If you have your drum in by this date you will receive all the publicity and events planned for the year-long event. The event runs from January 15 to January 15 every year.
• The deadline for the display exhibit and public judging at Summer NAMM is July 1. If your drum(s) is received by this date it will be displayed at Summer NAMM in Nashville TN. July 13-15.
• November 15, 2017 - This is the deadline for the official judging. All drums have to be in by this date.
• Early January 2018 - Results will be published in time for Winter NAMM announcements.

Remember, the sooner you send your drum in, the sooner we can video it, photograph it and start publicizing it. See the registration form for shipping instructions.

-Insure your drum for shipping and return shipping. Send it in a very sturdy box and packing material that will survive a lot of transporting as we will be moving them around a lot. Do not use styrofoam packing peanuts. They are evil, pollute the environment and fly out of the box all over the place. If you wrap the drum in plastic or bubble wrap do not put packing tape on it. We do not want to put a knife anywhere near your drum and that's the only way to remove that stuff. Use a few short pieces of scotch tape. Please follow these instructions. We will return any drums that do not follow our packing guide lines. 

-Each drum must have a return shipping label. Please place it on the drum head. All drums will be returned after the final judging and results announcements (early first quarter 2018) unless another option is checked.

-Please tell us in the additional comments box on the form if you are consigning the drum to us to sell at a 20% consignment fee, having someone pick it up in Nashville, or want to donate it to the Not So Modern Drummer Museum.

-All drums MUST have a single play coated medium weight batter head and a clear medium or thin snare side head.   The heads on all drums must be the same so we can compare apples with apples (exceptions - concert and marching)

Please don't leave any boxes blank below. If it does not apply to your drum or you don't have an answer, please type NA. This will be emailed to George Lawrence at Not So Modern Drummer. Call if you have any questions about filling out the form. 330 338 6035

3 Main Divisions:
-Marching snares
-Orchestral snares
-Drum Set snares

orchestral and Drum Set drums are further classified by shell materials
-metals: brass, bronze, steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, etc. 
-woods: maple, birch, walnut, combinations of wood, etc.
-synthetics: plastic, carbon fiber , etc.
-combinations: wood and metal, metal and synthetic, etc.,

Wood drums are then further classified by construction type: 
-plywood, single ply steam bent, block, stave, etc. 

and all drums are further grouped by diameter size:
Baritone -15” or larger diameter
Standard 14”
Piccolo 13"
Soprano 12”
Sopranino 10” and smaller

Snare Drum Olympics 2017 Rules and Guidelines

Fees:

The $125 entry fee is to pay for judges, video and photo shoots, transportation to shows, and other handling expenses. This fee is required no matter when you send your drum in. Any optional extra show display events besides the public display in Nashville may incur an extra charge.

Deadlines

Send your drum on now. We will be doing some advance publicity before 1/15/2017

• January 15, 2017 - First deadline: If you have your drum in by this date you will receive all the publicity and events planned for the year-long event. The event runs from January 15 to January 15 every year.
• November 15, 2017 - This is the deadline for the official judging. All drums have to be in by this date.
• Early January 2018 - Results will be published in time for Winter NAMM announcements.

Remember, the sooner you send your drum in, the sooner we can video it, photograph it and start publicizing it. See the registration form for shipping instructions.

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Judging Criteria

We strive to compare apples to apples in the judging, so drums are grouped with similar drums.

3 Main Divisions:
-Marching snares
-Orchestral snares
-Drum Set snares

orchestral and Drum Set drums are further classified by shell materials
-metals: brass, bronze, steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, etc. 
-woods: maple, birch, walnut, combinations of wood, etc.
-synthetics: plastic, carbon fiber , etc.
-combinations: wood and metal, metal and synthetic, etc.,

Wood drums are then further classified by construction type: 
-plywood, single ply steam bent, block, stave, etc. 

and all drums are further grouped by diameter size:
Baritone -15” or larger diameter
Standard 14”
Piccolo 13"
Soprano12”
Soprano 10” and smaller

We may add further sub-categories if warranted. We will list a spreadsheet of all possible judging categories soon.

Heads and Tuning

All drums have to have single ply medium thickness coated heads and medium or thin clear snare side heads so we can compare apples to apples. Drums with double ply heads usually have less snare sensitivity and tonal response and don't do well in the judging results.

Snare wires? Your preference, though we recommend standard 20 strand wires for the drum set drums.

Please tune your drum in order to stretch the heads. Medium tension will do. We are going to retune them all to the same pitch here with a tuning device (and by ear). 

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JudgingCriteria and Scoring

In the objective blind judging the drums are played behind the judge’s backs for two to three minutes each, using the same series of rudiments, patterns and beats on each drum as the judges vote from 1 to 10 on five criteria; snare wires sensitivity, tone quality, dynamic range, rim shot and side stick sounds, and blend of the drum with the drum kit. The judges have no idea of the manufacturer or model of the drum and can not see it. They are told the sequence number of the drum, and what the shell size and construction is. Otherwise, the only thing they have to go on is their ears. A perfect score of 50 from each judge would equal a total score of 250.

The subjective judging is the “hands on” part of the process where each judge sees, touches and plays each drum, judging from 1 to 10 on the five criteria of appearance, tone quality, response/sensitivity, dynamic range and hardware functionality. The judges take a lot of time with each drum and sometimes have in-depth discussions about a drum’s attributes. Though some of these judges may have endorsements from major drum companies they are very impartial in their judging. Again, a perfect score of 50 from each judge would equal a total score of 250.

The cumulative score is the total of the subject and blind scores with the highest possible cumulative score being 500. The cumulative score is the score printed on the certificate of award given to the companies for each drum submitted.

Results: The results are published as rankings for each category and sub-category. And there are three grand winners for the three highest scores in any category. So your drum may place high in the objective, low in the subjective and fair in the cumulative as a stave drum but still beat out every other drum in its "alien Mars wood" category. So there a lot of ways and categories in which to place and win. We publish all the scores in a table and highlight the three top scores in each category. The three drums with the highest cumulative scores in any category are the grand prize winners.

I know this can sound a little confusing to some. The main reason we do it this way is so each drum has the chance to shine in its many characteristics and to show that there is more than way to judge a drum.

*You may also have to your drum in the non - judged category. You will still the same amount of online publicity, and listed in the rankings as non-judged, just no numerical ranking at the end of the year. 

FAQ

1. Can I enter more than one drum?

-Yes, as many as you want. The fee is the same for every drum and they must be boxed individually.

2. Who are the judges?

They are all top shelf working, touring and recording drummers usually from Nashville. Some are national and international celebrities. We line up more than we need during the year because inevitably there are schedule conflicts, some at the last minute, so we don't announce the names of the judges until after the end of year judging. 

3. Is there a prize?

No physical prize. Each contestant can get a certificate of participation with or without the drums' scores. These are used frequently in advertisements.