<p>S didn't have to send a recording for school, but he's had to for various summer or scholarship programs. In each case he made his own using a minidisc recorder. (With excellent outcomes.) His accompanist also has a minidisc recorder in her living room, so he has recorded there for the accompanied stuff. He usually records each piece several times (except the long concertos that are just not feasible to play more than once - no lip left) and chooses the best.</p>
<p>I have heard it said that any recording is expected to be pretty good, since you do have the chance to play a piece until you get it right. Even colleges that give you a choice between live and taped auditions judge the taped ones harsher - they assume you are sending the very best you can do. It also makes sense to not edit a pre-screening CD - that's like "false advertising" and may end up costing you a lot of time and money in travel, etc, when an accurate recording would have been more helpful for everyone involved.</p>
<p>An added bonus of pre-screening CDs - next year at this time when you're missing your kid, you can always pop in the CD!</p>
<p>We used the music school recording studio at a local university and paid $50 for hall rental, $20 per hour for recording time (plus mandatory 1 hour set up and 1 hour tear down). Master CD was $35 and additional CDs were $12 each. The accompanist was $35/hour. My best recollection was about $300 total.</p>
<p>Don't underestimate the importance of your prescreening CD! You should put even more effort into it than for a live audition. I didn't take it seriously enough last year, and was rejected from every place which asked for one (save St. Olaf, where I am now). In addition, if you're going to use a minidisc recorder, make sure you know its ins and outs before you record. I tried twice to record on my teacher's amazing Steinway, and both times I had problems with the recorder which rendered my recordings useless. It was horribly frustrating, especially since I had some really good playing. The moral is to pay attention to both the musical and technical side of your recording - you don't want to be forced to scramble for a CD at the last minute.</p>
<p>You can get really good results with a quality microphone and a Sony minidisc recorder. I have also had my share of failures. Once the setting was wrong and each time I pushed record the minidisc recorded over the previous selection. Depending on the compression setting, the minidisc will only record for about an hour. When recording concerts, I have learned to replace the disc well before it fills. You also need to be careful to avoid touching the minidisc or microphone while recording.</p>
<p>I just realized that the recording level of one of the pieces I recorded for my daughter's prelim was too low compared to the rest on the CD. If I raise the volume by a couple of dB, is that considered editing? Note that I am not trying to 'normalize' it.</p>