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Gongs

Tam-tams, nipple gongs, and sound plates

Orchestral tam-tams, tuned nipple gongs, and the symphonic and planet gongs used in film scoring and sound work.

Models

  • Paiste Sound Creation Gongs

    Gong · Germany

    The Sound Creation series gives each gong a name and a purpose — Earth, Sun, Fire — with hammering and shaping aimed at a particular spectral character rather than a general wash.

  • UFIP Gong

    Gong · Italy

    UFIP applies its rotocasting process to gongs as well as cymbals, producing tam-tams with an unusually even build and a bright upper spectrum.

  • Meinl Sonic Energy Planetary Gongs

    Gong · Germany

    Meinl's Sonic Energy range covers planetary-tuned gongs alongside singing bowls and tuning forks, sold largely into sound therapy rather than into music retail.

  • Wuhan Opera Gongs

    Gong · China

    Chinese opera gongs bend in pitch as they ring — upward or downward depending on the instrument — and are used in pairs for exactly that effect. They have crossed into Western percussion writing as well.

  • Paiste Planet Gongs

    Gong · Germany

    The Planet Gongs are tuned to frequencies derived from the orbital periods of the planets, a scheme that comes from sound-therapy practice rather than from orchestral tradition. They are widely used in film scoring and sound work.

  • Paiste Symphonic Gong

    Gong · Germany

    Paiste's Symphonic gongs are the tam-tams most orchestral parts assume: a broad, unpitched wash that builds slowly and takes a long time to die. They are made in diameters up to eighty inches.

  • Wuhan Chau Gong

    Gong · China

    The chau gong — a bronze disc with a raised rim and a darker unpolished centre — is the gong most often heard outside the orchestra, and Wuhan's are the ones most widely sold.

Makers

  • Matt Nolan Custom

    Matt Nolan makes cymbals, gongs, bells, and outright unclassifiable metal instruments to order in Bath, working with experimental and film composers as often as with drummers.

  • Wuhan

    Wuhan's china cymbals are so widely used that the instrument's name and the maker's are often confused. The factory in Hubei also makes gongs, tam-tams, and opera percussion for both Chinese traditional music and Western drum sets.

  • UFIP

    UFIP was formed in Pistoia in 1931 by a group of Italian cymbal makers pooling their workshops. Its distinguishing process is rotocasting: molten bronze is spun in a mould so the alloy densifies toward the rim, which UFIP argues does the work hammering does elsewhere.

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