"The cymbal" is rarely just one sound. A ride cymbal alone has three completely different voices depending on where the stick lands; a crash cymbal has two; a china or splash is its own colour entirely. The drummer who knows the geography of their cymbals has an enormous expressive range.
The Geography of a Ride
Bow. The wide flat area between the bell and the edge. The default ride sound: clear stick definition, a steady "ping," some wash underneath. Most jazz and fusion ride lives here.
Bell. The raised dome at the centre. Cuts through everything — high, brassy, almost like a cowbell. Used as an accent inside a ride pattern (Latin, gospel, fusion) or as the ride voice itself in mambos and certain rock songs (Phil Collins, "In the Air Tonight" verse hi-hat-bell motif).
Edge / "crash zone." The outer rim of the cymbal. Strike it with the shoulder of the stick and the ride momentarily becomes a crash — fast attack, lots of wash. Useful when you want to crash without leaving the ride.
The Other Cymbals
Crash. Designed for one purpose: short, loud, broad burst on a downbeat or song-section change. Strike with the shoulder of the stick at the edge, never the tip on the bow. A hesitant crash is a wrong crash — commit fully or don't hit it.
Splash. A small crash. Faster attack, faster decay, smaller. Used as a percussive accent inside a phrase, where a full crash would be too much.
China. A trashy, dirty crash. Used as a sentence break — at the end of a fill, on a rare loud accent, or in metal as a stand-in for the regular ride. Always musical, never random.
John Riley (in The Art of Bop Drumming) is explicit about this: bop ride patterns are not just rhythms, they are colour choices. The same pattern played at the bow vs. the bell tells the band two different stories.