<p>I’m new to this process and don’t understand how to record the accompaniment for the Unified Auditions. Is it supposed to be karaoke music and, if so, how do you do the cuts? Or, do you hire a pianist and, if so, how do you record to a CD? It looks like CD recorders cost $400. Am I supposed to buy one of those? I’m lost. Please advise.</p>
<p>You should be able to burn a CD on your computer. </p>
<p>We use an online service (auditiontrax.com) - you scan and send the sheet music to him, he records the accompaniment for you and sends you back an MP3 that you can burn to a CD. You could also take the music on an MP3 player with speakers to your audition.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I’ve also used auditiontrax.com for custom cuts. The website also has very inexpensive tracks for complete songs for almost any show you can think of. This is not a typical website. Tom Griep is very personable and provides beautiful tracks that are perfect for auditions.</p>
<p>Interesting, but how does Tom know your tempo, your phrasing, etc? My S did not have to use recorded accompaniment much because he did not attend Unifieds. Had to use at M.A.Dennard’s private auditions, though and he also uses it to warm up before campus auditions. We recorded his accompanist/coach onto an iPhone. Bought a player at Best Buy for $120.</p>
<p>My daughter video taped her voice teacher playing the accompaniment on the piano. This way it was “custom” to her phrasing, tempo and breath placement. She then up loaded the video to Youtube and “ripped” the audio track (free programs available) creating an mp3 file, and put it on her iPod. It was a piece of cake for her and absolutely free. The recordings sounded beautiful and worked well for her auditions that required them.</p>
<p>Sounds good. Was there a reason you didn’t just audio record in the first place?</p>
<p>Already looking forward to Unifieds in Feb. When it comes to accompaniment music, am I correct to presume that everyone is walking around with both their mp3 players (e.g., iPhones) and the 21st century equivalent of a boom box to produce their own sound?</p>
<p>1st time long time yes usually they are not as large as a huge boom box but yes you need a MP3 player and speakers they should be battery operated so that they dont take long to set up</p>
<p>We also recorder my D’s accompanist and converted to MP3. We brought speakers with us, but all of the schools had their own speakers and my D just popped her iPod in their system. This was also the case at the on-campus BoCo auditions. It is imperative to have your own speakers, just in case, but we never used ours. Better safe then sorry.</p>
<p>My girl used a portable iPod dock that uses batteries and/or power cord. It had a great sound and was relatively small . . . maybe 6-7" diameter on the base (it’s circular-shaped). If you go to Amazon and look up: JBL OnStage IIIP 30-Pin iPod/iPhone Speaker Dock this is the most recent model, but they sell models for iPhone 4 & 4S iPhone/iPods too. In the “better safe than sorry” vain, no school for whom my daughter auditioned had speakers available for her to use.</p>
<p>Another tip that might help someone . . . my daughter created a separate playlist for each program she was auditioning for at Unifieds, even if some songs were common at different schools. Creating playlists probably seems logical for kids, but maybe not for we adults.</p>