From languid sonic landscapes to energetic dance tracks, the many entries received by Roland Canada for the first successful run of the Roland Synthesizer Contest have been trimmed to six by an expert panel of judges and now the public can weigh in with their opinion.

Uploaded to the Roland Synthesizer Contest MySpace site, the top six tracks will be open to public vote for two weeks from Tuesday, October 21 to Friday, October 31.

The poll ratings, combined with the judges’ previous scores, will determine the top three finalists who will compete at the Roland Synthesizer Contest Finals event in Montreal on November 13, 2008.

The top six semi-finalists were chosen by an esteemed group of judges that included:

• Lawrence Gowan: celebrated Canadian musician and lead singer and keyboardist for the rock band STYX.
• Anthony Cooperwood: Montreal keyboardist with acts such as Cirque du Soleil and Freddie James.
• Tony Padalino: Toronto keyboardist with CTV’s Canadian Idol.

The Roland Synthesizer Contest was last run as an international competition by Roland Corporation in Japan over 20 years ago and was staged this year as a national, Canadian, contest for the first time. The rules were very simple: entrants were invited to submit an original synthesizer composition created on a keyboard or computer synthesizer of any make until October 15. The submissions were then critiqued by a panel of judges and streamlined to six entries to be voted on by the public.