ideally how many cymbals does a good drummer need to get all the sounds for rock songs?? i would go with 6 or 7.

I don't believe there is an ideal number of cymbals you need to sound "great". It all depends on well you use your cymbals to accentuate your rhythm patterns. Just look at Bonham... He only used three!! (not including his hats) and listen to the beautiful noise he made! I've seen drummers with so many cymbals set-up, you could barely see the drummer. And they only used about half of them. Of course this does not include the greats like Peart, Portnoy, etc.:punk:

ideally how many cymbals does a good drummer need to get all the sounds for rock songs?? i would go with 6 or 7.

2 hi hats, 1 ride, and one or two crashes. That's all you really need for a standard rock band. Any more is just icing on the cake.

Yea, for the heavy metal, the not so essential essentials would include

Either fully raw ride, or a raw bell ride (noise)

and a china, along with some huge crashes

All you really need are hats, a crash or two, a ride and matbe a splash.