MusicRadar praises Zultan Raw 8-inch mini hi-hat as a quirky second pair

Who this cymbal is for

The Zultan Raw 8-inch mini hi-hat makes sense for the drummer who already has a main hi-hat sound and wants a second voice with a sharper agenda. It is not trying to replace a full-size pair in a rock-derived setup, and that is exactly why it is interesting: it solves the problem of needing contrast, not coverage. If your kit needs a tighter, trashier, quicker response for accents, stabs, and clipped closed patterns, this is the kind of second-color cymbal that earns its space.

That is the real use case here. The 8-inch format, the perforated top cymbal, and the slightly thicker bottom cymbal all point toward a compact effect hat, not an all-purpose workhorse. It is the kind of piece you add when the song needs a new texture without opening the whole dynamic floodgate.

What the sound is built to do

Zultan’s RAW series leans into a dry, controlled character. The cymbals are cast from B20 bronze, left unlathed after elaborate hammering, and finished with an ultra-thin wax polish that lets the raw surface and earthy patina stay visible. On this model, the top cymbal also carries six holes, which strip away surface area and help deliver the short, trashy, fast-decay response players expect from a compact auxiliary hat.

That voice is valuable because it creates separation. Instead of the long, familiar shimmer of a standard pair, you get a tighter attack and a quicker exit, which means the cymbal can sit on top of dense arrangements without masking everything else. It is built for defined accents first, and for timekeeping only in the most deliberate, specialized sense.

Where it belongs on the kit

Placement matters with a cymbal like this because the point is not to make it your default hi-hat. It works best when it is easy to reach as a second surface, close enough for quick left-hand or right-hand color changes, or near other effect cymbals so it can join a small cluster of textures. Think of it as part of the kit’s punctuation system, not its sentence structure.

That makes it especially useful if you like building contrast into grooves. A standard hat can carry the pocket, then the mini hi-hat can answer with short splashes, clipped openings, or closed-effect figures that change the feel without changing the tempo. In a modern setup, that kind of contrast is often more valuable than another all-purpose cymbal voice.

The genres it naturally fits

Thomann positions the 8-inch Raw Mini Hi-Hat as a fit for pop, fusion, funk, jazz, and electro, and that list tells you a lot about its range. Those are styles where articulation matters, where a compact accent voice can sit beside a ride pattern, ghost notes, or programmed elements without sounding out of place. The cymbal is also described as suitable both as a main spot and as an extra closed-effect hat, but the second role is where its character feels most obvious.

The electronic side of its personality is no accident. MusicRadar connects this family of sounds to a broader tradition from the 1990s, when cymbal designers were chasing the textures of breakbeats, jungle, and house. That era valued sampled, pitched-up, and crunchy percussion colors, and the mini hi-hat lives in that lineage: small, dry, and intentionally more about texture than about broad wash.

Why the old rave language still makes sense

Jungle grew out of the UK rave scene in the 1990s and became known for rapid breakbeats, syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesized effects. Breakbeat hardcore, another important ancestor, fused hip-hop-derived breakbeats with acid house and early techno. Those styles changed the way drummers and producers heard percussion, because they made short, edited, abrasive sounds feel musical rather than merely functional.

That is why a compact cymbal with a quick decay can still feel fresh. It gives acoustic drummers a way to borrow from that world without imitating a drum machine. If you want your kit to speak in clipped phrases, not broad statements, a mini hi-hat can do that with a confidence a bigger pair simply cannot match.

Who should actually buy it

This is the right purchase for a drummer who already knows what their main hi-hat does and wants a second voice to answer it. It is especially appealing if you play gigs where texture matters more than volume, or if your set list moves between acoustic and electronic-minded material. Zultan says the RAW series is designed for dry, controlled sounds that work in both acoustic and electronic settings, and that is exactly the bridge this cymbal tries to build.

It is less convincing as a single, do-everything hi-hat replacement, especially in a rock-derived band context where the main pair has to cover a wider range of openings and dynamics. But as a specialty tool, it is easy to see the logic. You are not buying another version of the same thing; you are buying a deliberate contrast.

How the price and brand story fit the picture

The mini hi-hat has been available since April 2019, and Thomann’s U.S. listing puts it at about $214. For a boutique auxiliary sound, that lands in the zone where value becomes part of the appeal, especially when the cymbal is meant to add color rather than replace a core voice. It is the sort of purchase that makes more sense once you already know where your main hats live in the mix.

The brand story supports that value pitch. Zultan says it launched in 2009 and now has 12 cymbal series, while Drummerszone notes that it became a Thomann GmbH store brand in 2011. Thomann Blog also describes the line as growing rapidly, with ten series and more than 200 products at one point, and Zultan says it was the first brand in Germany, and probably worldwide, to offer audio files of its cymbals as product-description content. That history matters because it places the mini hi-hat inside a broader, steadily expanding boutique-cymbal ecosystem rather than as a one-off novelty.

The appeal, then, is not mystery for its own sake. It is a tiny, practical answer to a familiar arranging problem: how to give a groove another edge without crowding the core pulse. For drummers who want a second-color cymbal with a dry, trashy, fast-decay voice, the 8-inch Raw mini hi-hat is exactly the kind of quirky tool that starts making musical sense the moment it is mounted.