Audio: Superscope PSD300 - Record Directly to CD.

by Paul Mathis - Applications Manager, Marantz Professional

From concerts and other productions to daily rehearsals and classroom sessions, teachers often need to make recordings simply and quickly. Many school music programs utilize either a cassette deck or a portable tape recorder for this purpose. That's because teachers may not have the expertise or the inclination to set up and run multiple microphones, mixers and other sound equipment. They just want to capture the moment live, preferably in stereo. Other schools hire outside recording specialists to record concerts and other events, typically spending hundreds of dollars for each event. The final product is a stereo recording on digital audio tape (DAT), CD, or analog cassette. Of course, there are schools that invest in the latest recording equipment and teachers who are adept at wiring up a mixing board and microphone preamplifier to a recorder -- either a DAT machine, rackmount CD-R, or tape deck. Yet, if a well integrated, more portable solution came along, they too would certainly take advantage of it. Now there's an easy to use, professional solution to please everyone. With the introduction of the Marantz Professional CDR300 CD Recording System and the Superscope PSD300 Dual Drive CD recording system anyone can record directly to CD, as easily as using a tape recorder. Why didn't someone invent this sooner? I can only tell you that Marantz Professional and Superscope have two decades of leadership in portable recording and helped develop CD recording a decade ago, and it made sense to us.

The PSD300
FIRST OF THEIR KIND

Both of these first-of-a-kind recorders offer tremendous advantages over alternatives. They:

• Are easy to use

• Are portable

• Have everything you need built in

• Record to CD-R and CD-RW Media

• Make recordings that play back in virtually any CD player

These are the first CD recorders designed for recording live directly to blank CD-R (write once) or CD-RW (rewritable) discs. Blank discs can be purchased in quantity for pennies at Lentine’s Music. They won't degrade like tape does over time. CDRW discs can even be erased and reused like tape. If you create your own tracks while recording, there's no need to rewind or fast-forward to get to the spot that you've marked as a track. To record CD-quality digital stereo straight to CD-R/RW, just plug a pair of microphones directly into unit. You don't need a separate mixer or microphone preamplifier. This provides a significant cost savings, as well as eliminates the need to transport and connect extra unwieldy gear. These are the only CD recorders that have mixing capabilities and a microphone preamplifier built-in. Indeed, they provide more mixing capabilities than any tape or DAT recorder.

PLUG IN YOUR MICS

The CDR300 and PSD300 each feature a pair of balanced XLR microphone/line inputs (a three pin secure connection) or alternatively, a pair of ¼" mic/line inputs. The Marantz Professional CDR300 additionally offers 48V phantom power for use with condenser microphones. The PSD300 does not have phantom power, but you can still use condenser microphones powered by batteries. Also, both models can use dynamic mics that don't require batteries. Because these are two-track or stereo recorders, you can't use all four inputs at once. Microphones that use the XLR analog inputs will allow you to run balanced mic cables over longer distances. The analog inputs are fine for use with shorter cables (under 10 feet) and as line inputs for use with sources such as sound from a mixing board or tape or CD players. You can also attach a microphone to the left channel XLR input, for instance, and a line input to the right channel input (or visa versa). In a preset menu, you can change the record levels and high/low EQ settings for each mic/line input independently. You can also select and adjust high and band pass filtering for each mic/line input independently, offering flexibility in mixing the signals from two different microphones. The filtering is helpful in removing unwanted low end noise such as crowd noise, and unwanted high end noise such as the hum of air conditioning. Of course, these CD recording systems are also convenient to use in more complicated multichannel live recording situations to make the final stereo mix. For example, a concert might be recorded with multiple microphones connected to a 4- 8- or even 24-channel mixing board. Then the "dry" signal from the mixing board could be mixed down to stereo and fed into the CDR300 or PSD300's rear panel digital or analog inputs, while two microphones plugged directly into the unit capture the ambient sound of the venue.

TABLE TOP OPERATION

The PSD300 and CDR300 aren't meant to be worn on your shoulder like a portable tape or DAT recorder. That's because CD laser mechanisms require a stable platform. CD recording also saps battery life, so the units must be plugged into an AC power outlet. However, the CDR300 does have a 4-pin DC input, so it can be used with external gel cell battery packs. These are common in the professional video industry. They also feature an internal mono microphone and a built in speaker. This means you don't even need separate microphones to record. When the quality of recording is not critical -- for recording lectures or quick musical ideas during practice - simply use the internal microphone. Whether recording with external mics, the internal mic, or electric music instruments in the line inputs, you can play back and monitor your recordings using the speaker or headphones.

PSD300 FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

While both the Marantz Professional CDR300 and the Superscope PSD300 are great for recording direct to CD, the PSD300 is ideal if your students ever rehearse to music CDs. The Superscope PSD300 is a combination CD Recorder and CD Player. You can play source music, mic up your students as they play along, and blend that live accompaniment with the source CD. Now for the fun part. The Superscope PSD300 provides the following innovative CD manipulation controls:

• Change tempo

• Change key

• Create A-B rehearsal loops

• Reduce lead vocal tracks

Suppose a student brings you a song on a CD but needs to play it in a different key. Simply use the Key Change buttons to change the key in musical half steps up or down the scale, on the fly, without affecting the music's original tempo. A song on CD is too fast for students to easily identify notes and emulate chord progressions? Simply use the Tempo Change buttons to slow the tempo down (up to 33%) with changing the key of the music. Or increase the tempo as much as 50% without changing key (in 50 increments). The PSD300 lets you also change key and tempo at the same time, independently. You can toggle back and forth from the original key or tempo to your changed setting. You can also fine tune a CD to match the tuning of a piano or other instrument. An A-B loop button lets you loop portions of music to continuously repeat until students have mastered them. Press the A-B loop button at the beginning of the part you want to loop, and again at the end of the passage. A loop can be as long or short as you want. When you press the button again, the B point becomes a new A point in the next loop. In this way, you can step through an entire song (even changing key or tempo). Hold the A-B button for more than a second, and you can extend the B point. At the touch of a button you can also reduce the lead vocal track of many CDs. If the lead vocal is centered in the stereo mix (and the majority of recordings are done this way), and the vocal is not overly processed with reverb or other effects, lead vocal reduction works quite well. If these factors are not in place, it won't work. If you can live with this hit-or-miss limitation and choose songs where it works well, it can be a great tool. You can replace the lead vocal on a CD with a live performance, and capture it to CD-R/RW. Use the PSD300 with Music Minus One CDs, Jamie Abersol CDs, or any music CDs that you or your students might find.

STAND ALONE DUPLICATION

After you've recorded your own CD, you can begin duplicating it, using the PSD300 itself at 2X speed, or half of the CDs playback time. So you can record students' rehearsals and give them a CD to take home to hear how they sound - by themselves or while playing to a music CD. Here's another powerful way to use the PSD300: when transcribing songs on CD, the PSD300's special "half speed" duplication mode, lets you copy a CD at exactly half speed, so that every note is in the same key, but exactly one octave lower, and the tempo is 50% slower.

GREAT TOOLS

In short, the PSD300 and CDR300 will complement your music program. They can help students learn faster. They can save you time and money. They are easy to use and easy to take most anywhere you need to record. CDs are here to stay, so it makes sense to be able to record rehearsals and performances directly to CD.