Jedi, First to address your comments: Thanks for the compliments. The girl singer is Heather Nieideffer. We've been working together for about ten years since we met as freshmen at IU's school of music.

And regarding the CD, she is also the lead singer for my live band "Four Sexes". We hope to have it out next month. Please check out www.foursexes.com and hear the preview clips and then click the "send us" link so we can add you to the notification list once it's released.

Yes, everything was done on the PSR-500 except of course the vocals, the synth-sitar, the jingle bells, and the horse-clip-clop done by my mouth, ha. The drum beats were made using the PSR-500's drumsounds. Like others, I'm sure, some of the preset jazz styles leave much to be desired. I found that sequencing my own style on the psr-500 was better because I made them less complicated than the presets which at times get annoying. I did often keep the preset drum fill-ins because they added a nice break to the drum loop and I hate to have to program a fill-in since I'm not a drummer.




Scottyee: many thanks for your supportive comments. Actually it was older PSR-500 (from 1992) that I used. But, yes you can get good results from a toy keyboard. My only problem is the quality of the samples which is what brought me to this forum in search of a better keyboard.

Regarding the "auto-accomp" discussion. I guess I got off topic a little. The auto-accomp thing is really secondary to me. I only enjoyed using it to make quick demos of new melodies for my lyricist when I didn't want to spend too much time orchestrating the song, but still wanted the lyricist to get a good feel for the tempo and style. I can really live WITHOUT it if to get better quality samples and sequencing abilities I have to go with something like the MOTIF. But it sounds like the 9000pro sequencer may suit me just fine.

Also, yes, hearing my demo would lead you to believe my specialty is jazz, which it is. However, part of what I'm working on now involves much more need for electronic/techno type grooves, pads, and leads. Of course I still want to be able to retain use of jazz stuff which means good acoustic instrument sounds too. In light of this, 9000pro or MOTIF???

I've been into "Space Age Pop" music since about 1987 when I was sixteen and discovered that my orchestra teacher in highschool, Dick Dennis, actaully worked with Henry Mancini, my favorite composer whom I had just begun discovering then. Before that I was sucked into big band music while playing for the jazz ensemble. Through college, I became more interested in vocalists from that era and vocal groups. With Heather, I put together a vocal quartet specializing in Piep Pipers, Modernaires, Hi-Los type of stuff. Later, Heather and I did many Steve & Eydie acts since the other two members of the group graduated and moved on. After, Heather and I both moved to Orlando (and consequently both met our spouses there), we decided that we all hated the Florida heat and moved back home where we have been dabbling in retro-styled jingles and now recently this fun, space age pop band, Four Sexes where we do many lounge renditions of pop/rock tunes besides the standards. Speaking of jingles, I forgot to include in the demo the "Remember When Theme" which also was done with PSR-500 and my baritone ukulele (???). You can hear that tune by going to the Remember When website. www.rwpi.com.


THANKS again to all who are helping me pick the right keyboard. I'm getting closer to my decision.


[This message has been edited by seanbaker (edited 07-19-2002).]