hmm...
interesting thought. cool that felix and mfran mentioned this, cause a friend in one of my bands recently told me my overall sound was too shrill and "cymbally". at first, i was like, "eh, its just me playing cymbals, so what?"
but, i guess now i know what he means. besides laying off the plates for a bit, looking for a nice balance, i guess i need to also pay more attention and really listen to what i'm actually playing, rather than just letting my arms fly about.
I'd suggest not so much that you lay off on the cymbals, but that you make a conscious effort to blend the sounds of the various components of your kit. Don't just hit all the instruments at the same volume and assume that will work. That's a common signpost of an amateur drummer.
On some songs, you may want to downplay the hihat, so that it's felt rather than heard. Your toms may need to be slammed to really articulate. Get to know your kit, and what is required to get the sounds in your head. You may be surprised by the modifications in your technique this will require.
Listen to your favorite CDs - often the bass and snare are far more prominent than the hat or ride. Most inexperienced drummers I've heard play too heavy with the hihat and ride, and could stand to beef up their attack on the bass drum. But that's a sweeping generalization.
I sometimes envision a mixing board, and I'll modify my technique to raise or lower the levels of each drum and cymbal, based on the overall blend I want to achieve. One of the reasons I don't cross my hands when I keep time on my hihat is so that I can maintain independent volume levels for both hihat and snare.
Gadd is probably the best I've heard at blending sounds - some of his ghost note drumming is almost impossible to figure out, because he blends the sounds of the hat and snare to a point where it's hard to tell which instrument he's hitting.
Anyway, you've just discovered another layer to this onion. Keep it up!
