School Band Directors Make the Most of the Superscope PSD 300

“An invaluable tool. I use it everyday” -Wiley Cruse, Band Director

Customer Experience

Music educators face many challenges. From organizing a curriculum, equipping a band or orchestra, teaching, tutoring, and testing, to conducting concerts and meeting regularly with parents and boosters. It is enough to frazzle the nerves of even the best of professionals. That’s why music educators are always on the look out for new technologies and tools that can make their jobs easier and help their young musicians develop faster.

Superscope’s PSD300 CD recording system is just such an advance. It’s won rave reviews from the press for its innovative music practice controls and impressive recording capabilities. The PSD300 has been reviewed by School Band and Orchestra magazine, the Jazz Educator’s Journal, Jazz Times, Downbeat, Pro Audio Review, Electronic Musician, and the New York Times.

Band directors who already own a PSD300 CD recording system can attest to its capabilities as a powerful rehearsal and recording tool. Best of all, it’s easy to use.

Wiley Cruse is the Director of Bands and Orchestra at Dakota Ridge High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. He purchased a PSD300 to record his students’ rehearsals, and to manipulate the key and tempo of any music CD in real time. “Once I started using the PSD300 on a daily basis, I found more ways to take advantage of its capabilities than I ever thought possible,” Cruse says.

A REHEARSAL TOOL
At his program, Cruse uses a computer to compose rehearsal tracks with the Band-In-a-Box software program, then burn a variety of tracks to a CD. “By PSD300 CD Recording System for the Performing Arts putting this compilation CD in the PSD300, I can quickly select certain tracks and create a customer CD for each person in my Jazz band. That way, each musician can concentrate on his or her separate part or solo.”

Students can also take a favorite song, and if needed, change the key to match the key of their instrument. They can also slow down a song using the tempo control button to more easily play along as they learn the notes and chords. For particularly challenging parts, they can create A-B practice loops, so just the part they are working on will continuously repeat, avoiding the delays caused by rewinding, and starting or stopping. These loops can also be made at a changed key and tempo. “The PSD300 is portable enough that students can take it anywhere to listen to CDs, rehearse, and record themselves playing along to an accompaniment CD,” Cruse adds.

A TESTING TOOL
Cruse has found a way to spend less classroom time testing students, leaving more time for group practice and other activities. In his symphonic band, each section leader will use the PSD300 to record a 5-minute CD of that section.

“For example, I’ll have the clarinet section on one CD, the trumpet section on another CD,” says Cruse. “I’ll then play these CDs in my car CD player going to and from work, and I’ll record my comments in a handheld tape recorder, much like an adjudicator will do at band clinics. His students can later listen to the tapes while playing back their recording.

RECORDING MADE EASY
Leroy Eversgerd is band director at Jane Adams Middle School in Bolingbrook, Illinois. A year ago, he hired an audio professional to record a school concert in order to sell CDs to parents for the band boosters. The audio professional recorded the concert on a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine, edited it in a studio, and duplicated CDs. “We ended up losing money on the deal,” says Eversgerd.

This year he recorded another school concert using the Superscope PSD300.

“You simply plug you microphones into the PSD300 and can record directly to CD. It’s easy,” says Eversgerd. The resulting digital recording was hiss-free, and CD-quality. By marking tracks with the remote control during the concert, a band director can place original master recording in the CD player drive, then create a play list of only those tracks he or she wants to keep. The last step is to burn a final master that is ready for duplication. “It’s a convenient way to edit out the warm up and crowd noises between numbers without having to use editing software or spend money at a studio,” says Eversgerd.

“I’ve been a teacher for 30 years,” he says. “Whenever I hear a recording of my students, I’m so critical I can hardly stand it. However, parents absolutely love it. They love to hear their child’s performance, and they appreciate being able to give a CD to grandma and grandpa for Christmas.”

At Dakota Ridge High, Wiley Cruse uses his PSD300 to record most every day. “I always have a mic stand set up, ready to go. I’ll put it in my backpack and take it anywhere. I’ve recorded our marching band from the top of our practice scaffolding. I’ve also recorded All State audition performances to CD. I’ve also recorded seniors who need to mail a CD to a college music departments that they are applying to as part of their music scholarship and application process. More college music programs are looking for CDs instead of tapes from their applicants,” he says.

He’s also allowed students to take the PSD300 home to make their own practice CDs.

“The Superscope PSD300 CD Recording System is “an invaluable resource,” says Cruse. “Once you own it, you’ll find more ways to use it than you ever thought possible.”

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