Introducing the Superscope PSD300 every musician should have one!In late 2002, US technology firm Superscope introduced the world's first portable CD recording system. With a host of unique features for tuition, transcription and rehearsal, it burst onto the American scene with great aplomb. For around $1000, anyone could now record direct to CD, make backup copies and fit the whole thing in an average sized lunch box! And the name of this phenomenon? The PSD300... Until recently (due to a lack of specialist outlets), the PSD300 remained one of the best-kept secrets in the UK. Now it's available over here, so to whet your appetite, here's a brief synopsis of the flagship model in the Superscope range. The PSD300 essentially gives you three products in one: you get a CD player, a CD recorder, and some basic mixing facilities, all in a compact and portable design. But it doesn't end there - the machine has some amazing tricks up its sleeve. For instance, you can isolate any part of a song and make it repeat (or loop) continuously - which is nice. But it gets better - you can slow down the tempo of the music, without affecting the pitch - perfect for learning, teaching, or rehearsing situations. In fact, you can slow it down by as much as 33%, or speed it up by as much as 50%. Imagine trying to learn a fast or difficult musical phrase from a CD - with the PSD300 you can slow it down and loop it, until you get it perfected. It's a great way to focus on solos, stabs, or any challenging piece of music. Furthermore, you can also change the pitch of the music without affecting the tempo; this is great news for anyone looking to transpose music by as much as one octave up or down, in 12.5 cent steps. Another neat feature is the Vocal Reduction. With this, you can virtually `filter out' a lead instrument or vocal, leaving the backing track clear for you to play along with. To be fair, the effectiveness of this depends on the source material - it works best on fairly `dry' recordings with the lead sound panned centrally. These functions make the PSD300 impressive, but it gets better still...On the recording front, the unit allows direct recording to audio or data CDRs, from the built-in CD player, or from external sources. It even has a built-in condenser mic, just for `capturing the moment'. You can then finalise your disc (allowing recorded CDs to playback in other machines) and make copies of it, in real-time or 2x speed. This is great for handing out parts at the end of a rehearsal, or giving a student a CD copy of their lesson. Finally, the PSD300 makes a good basic mixer. With XLR and jack mic/line inputs, digital in/out, stereo phono in/out, headphone and footswitch jacks, it can hook up to most things - and you shouldn't need a mic preamp, computer, or anything else to make use of it (except for a mains power supply!). So there it is. The PSD300 is an extremely useful machine, and surprisingly simple to use. It's worth buying for any of its clever features, but even more so when you consider them all together. If, like me, you're a musician, who sometimes needs to record, but isn't overly technical, then the PSD300 is definitely for you - whichever instrument you play.Reprinted from The Brass Herald magazine, Issue 7 (Feb/April 2005), with kind permission from Philip Biggs Brass Festivals Ltd.
