Dave's project - Crystal Silence

[David Houck]

Chick Corea's beautiful Crystal Silence.  I've loved this tune for many decades, and finally decided to try to learn it.  My arrangement has a bit more edge to it, and thus departs from the wonderful floating quality of the original.

I've been working on this for weeks, pretty much at the exclusion of everything else.  Finally got a recording where I played it fairly well; and thought it was good enough to share.

Probably should have run it through a limiter, as the dynamic range might be a bit wide; let me know if you think the loud parts are a bit too ear-piercing.  And of course, any other critical comments on tone, effects, recording, etc, are welcome.

[CaseyVancouver]

Very nice Dave.

I love this piece as well, and it really suits solo bass.
What bass/strings/stuff are you using? I play it with an Essence fretless 34" scale with flat wounds.

I wish that Bill Evans had played it, would be amazing to hear what he would do with the chords, form and melody. Then we could steal his ideas haha.

Just a beautiful complex composition. Thanks for posting ...and great playing too!

[David Houck]

Thanks, Casey.

The bass is this one.  The strings are TI Jazz Rounds, except that last fall, as an experiment, I replaced the B string with an E from an Alembic set, tuned down to a D.  That experiment is still ongoing.

[edwardofhuncote]

That was really nice Dave.   

Over coffee this morning, I've listened over the speakers in my practice room a few times. Shoot... I wish I had a fraction of the discipline it takes to work out a piece like that. Well done. 

Have you tried a B string from the TI Super-Alloy set? That .118 can be a little limber, but the .125 might get you there. I'd be glad to send you one.

[edwardofhuncote]

This set:

[pauldo]

Listened with headphones on. Beautiful execution, no issue with the 'loud' parts.

From the critical ear (which in no way means anything needs to be changed)
 Could hear a faint 'pulse' in the quite parts from the reverb/ echo (?) effect.

[David Houck]

Thanks, Greg.  The only time I use the lowest string is as an open string; it just hasn't worked to include it in the fingering of a chord (the stretch between it and the C string is too great, and pretty much all of my chords include the C string).  And an open B is a bit too low for my taste; thus I had been using a partial capo at the third fret for an open low D, which I use a lot.

(In this particular recording, you can hear the open low D in the first chord of the B section.)

When I replaced the B string with a low "D", that gave me the addition of an open low F when capoed at the third fret (I use a spider capo which I leave at the third fret; not ideal, but I've yet to find anything that works better).  (Interestingly, the low D string has a bit more potential to be used in the fingering of one particular chord, though I haven't included it in any songs yet.)

All of which is to say that what I'm really looking for is a good low D string with the right amount of tension to balance out the rest of the JR's.  I don't yet know the tension of the Alembic E tuned down to D (I've inquired), but so far it seems to be working.  Will know more as the summer humidity increases.

[David Houck]

Thanks, Paul; and reassuring to hear that the dynamic range was fine for you.

In this song I'm using delay to hopefully enhance the spaciousness of the reverb (I'm still learning to use both, and I wasn't really satisfied with how I had setup the delay on this song, though it seemed to work well overall in the recording).  But what you might be referring to is tremolo, which I'm adding to the held chords (ie when there's no melody movement over them) as if I had a trem bar on my bass.

The song opens with a single note followed by a chord; I then engage the tremolo, and then release it before the next note in the melody, as if I had reached down for the trem bar and gently moved it back and forth a few times.

Is this what you're hearing?  I'm guessing it is, as it indeed pulses, and is engaged on all the quiet held chords.

I made several adjustments to the effect, hoping to get it to sound right and not be too overbearing; but it doesn't have the touch that a real trem bar would.  I did previously experiment with using an expression pedal to emulate a trem bar, but again it just doesn't have the touch of a real trem bar; and this method seemed to work better for the purposes of this song.

[pauldo]

Not over bearing at all.
Just recognized it being there.
I like the 'spaciousness' that is on many of your recordings, it is comforting. . .  If that makes sense? 

[David Houck]

It makes sense to me.  Thank you.

[CaseyVancouver]

Wow Dave yours is a special bass!

Colo Bolo, gold plated jewelry and 6 strings. Amazing bass!
I stole a pic of it for my special stash.

[David Houck]

Thanks, Casey.

   

[gearhed289]

Beautiful, thanks for sharing.

[David Houck]

Thanks, Tom.

[mario_farufyno]

This song is the one where I heard Stanley Clarke for the first time a long, long time ago.

Thanks, Dave, beautifull rendtion!