This is the keyboard on my wishlist right now. “The keyboard” has been changing several times over the past few weeks but I’ve finally decided that this is the one I want.

I really like Roland products and have played Roland keyboards for about 17 years. In fact, if you’re reading this and you happen to be a Roland employee, I’d be more than happy to discuss an endorsement or even just a review agreement if you’re interested in shipping one of these lovelies to a very friendly, blogging singer-songwriter guy.

Besides being familiar with Roland products, here’s what attracts me to this (from their web site):

• PHA alpha II weighted keyboard, which simulates a real grand piano by providing a heavier touch in the lower octaves that gets increasingly lighter in the upper range.
• It’s ultra easy to transport at about 36 pounds (16.4 kg), — yet built tough enough for the rigors of the road.
• Play audio through the RD-300GX directly from a USB memory key. Flexible file compatibility enables playback of Standard MIDI Files, WAV, AIFF and MP3s. The “Audio Key” feature lets you use the bottom 15 keys for controlling start song, song length, etc.

Those are pretty much the main reasons. It’s a light, realistically weighted keyboard with a sweet USB Thumb Drive option. At this point, it’s not clear to me if I can start and stop my SP404 with this (via midi clock), but that would make me weep tears of joy if I could. Plus, after selling a couple other Roland keyboards that I currently own, I think I can justify the price of $1,400.

It doesn’t ship till late April, but I’ll keep you posted on this decision. In the meantime, here’s the product page where we can pass the time together.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Back in late ‘05 or early ‘06, I highlighted an acquaintance’s music on this blog. Thanks to the great server crash of Dec 2006, I have no record of that post and it’s not on The Wayback Machine for me to snag and repost.

His name is Garett Gengler and he’s never really produced an album until now. Last month, he released a 17 song project under the name “Tomorrow is Already Here” called First Words. I’ve been listening to the songs and they are really nice. I’m especially partial to his vocals. They are engaging and something about his music makes me nostalgic. Not in a “This music sounds old” way, but just in a really nice, good story-telling sort of way.

A few of my favorites are “Back and Forth,” “Where it all Began,” and “White Bird.”

There are a couple places to buy the CD online. In fact, the download is still quite a steal at $2.22 over at Amie Street.

Amiestreet.com
CDBaby.com

You can also listen to the full CD at Amiestreet.com, as well as on the sidebar at Garett’s Blog at worksongs.net.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Part of the fun of February Album Writing Month is getting to know the folks in the community at fawm.org. In fact, it’s a big part of what made February fun for me. You get to hear some really creative, brand new songs and get some instant feedback on your own new songs.

I happened to find this video from one of the members of this year’s challenge and thought I’d pass it along. It’s pretty much the same process I use for songwriting, though I’m planning a podcast soon with a little more insight into the specifics for me. The artist here is Steven Wesley Guiles and you can get to his myspace page here. This isn’t a song from this year’s challenge, but I think the video is interesting and the song’s pretty cool too.

Popularity: 14% [?]

The day has finally arrived. The day after FAWM. It’s a funny feeling that I have right now. It’s been a great month and a really good experience. 14 songs was the official goal. I personally hoped to make it to 14 1/2 and I did. Here’s the rough demo of number 14.

A Way to Say

I’ve closed public access to the other rough demos for now. I hope to complete the recordings for my “Open Source” EP by May 1st and I’ll post the multi-track files and free downloads at that time. Here’s the final song list for anyone who’s interested. Several of these you’ll hear on my next CD fully produced. Some of them you’ll probably never hear.

Popularity: 14% [?]