DS19 is doing a couple online music performance auditions and for the past, we had used digital camera but am finding it often generates some background noises. I used iPhone X to do a recent recording and found the sound quality to be better than earlier iPhone recordings. Has anyone used iPhone recording for music audition? If not, what equipment and/ap do you use when DIY?
Many thanks for your help.
My son (MA Berklee, BM New England Conservatory) has sent in recordings for several grants and applications with iPhone recordings. I have never liked that he does it, but he insists all his friends do it. I also can’t speak to how well it has served him. I do know that he was rejected from a residency twice with iPhone recordings and then accepted this past year into it when he submitted the recording that was done for his thesis at Berklee. But there are so many other factors to consider and I doubt it was just the professional recording that made the difference because really our son attended this residency at just the right point in his career and had he been accepted prior to this summer he would not have gotten as much out of it as he did this past summer.
Thank you @StacJip
Congratulations and good luck to you son!
I did use iPhone for DS’ competition yesterday and the quality is not bad and we will be using iPhone for his college supplements too.
We bought a Zoom H-2 which has come in handy over the years. Not sure if that is the current model! It sounds like the iPhone worked at this point so congrats on getting that done 
Thank you @compmom
DS is saying the sound of iPhone X is a lot better than my old 7. I did a google search and found there are zoom h6 now. And another article stating zoom H… is the best recorder out there for sound recording. I am considering investing in one soon. And yes, for this one that is due at the end of this month, iPhone will have to be it. Lol.
In general it’s wise not to rely on any built-in mic, i.e., cell phone, DSLR, camcorder, etc. for sound recording. For audio recording, it’s much better to go with a dedicated recorder, such as Zoom or Tascam. I prefer Tascam over Zoom simply because of the hardware. Zoom has had bad reviews due to parts, such as the battery compartment, breaking off, etc. But then that was a few years back and perhaps Zoom has improved on their hardware production. Audio wise, I’d say they’re about equal. Even economical units below $100 are quite sufficient and yield great results. If video is required, I just sync the audio and video using a cheap video editing software.
Not knocking iPhone use. If it yields the results you want, then that’s all it matters.
I just came on here to post about the exact same thing. My son, who is not applying as a music major but is submitting a music supplement (percussion) has a recording of a recital he performed on stage at school. His HS music director recorded it with a DSLR. There’s hissing background noise, like a fan or white noise machine. He can eliminate the noise with software he has on his Mac, but the notes lose crispness when he does that.
I feel strongly that he needs to rerecord it in a proper recording studio. He thinks it’s fine the way it is. Are the professors who evaluate the supplement just listening to his talent? Or are they expecting a perfect sound quality recording? Thank you.
You don’t need a recording studio to produce a good quality file. The problem with a built-in mic, such as in DSLR, is that it’s inherently limited in the range of pickup. The hissing sound could be from maxing the recording volume beyond its capacity, or it could even be from picking up a background heater or air-conditioning going on. With a dedicated recording unit, such as Zoom or Tascam, you can have a visual contact with the “level” of recording so there’s no audio clipping. You can’t get that with a built-in mic such as iPhone or DSLR. If there’s a hissing sound, I’d re-record it, but you don’t need to spend any money on a professional recording studio. Doing it at home is just fine. Just be careful with the sound coming out of heater or even your refrigerator.
Thanks. Now to convince him. I’m so surprised he thinks it’s OK the way it is. I think he’s just so overwhelmed with things to do.
Brantly I think for a music supplement for a BA that his current recording is probably just fine, and the added stress may not be worth it. Really. Other factors matter for this part of an application to a BA program, including of course academics but also the music resume, awards and performances etc., and especially letters of recommendation in music.
The professors are looking for talent that will contribute to campus life. I would think of it that way. I don’t know how bad the hissing is, but losing crispness is not a good idea probably. He could ask the school?? I speak from experience in saying that bad iPhone recordings can still land admissions offers.
One other tip that might help: he could ask the school how much of the recital they would like him to submit. My kid ended up cueing the best 3 minutes and the school seemed grateful she asked. These folks are busy! That might also mean he can find three minutes or whatever the school recommends, in a section that sounds good!
Yes @brantly
There is always pretty audible noises coming from our DSLR recordings as well and I know for sure they are not from ACs as I could even hear them when I was doing the recording, the visual of course is good, but for our music performance, it is really annoying.
Thank you @TiggerDad and again @compmom for the recommendations and tips. Only until recently did I realize that some schools would require audio files for music supplements, in that case, sound quality really can’t be compromised.
Thanks @compmom . Good to know. That’s a good idea to ask how long it should be.
This particular school wants an audio recording. He took the audio off of the DSLR recording. I don’t know if this makes a difference in what @compmom recommends.
Anyway, a friend of ours is a professional video editor. He said he can probably fix the audio with his professional equipment at work. We’ll give that a try.
For the OP, I think the new iPhones do a great job and are sufficient for prescreening and competitions. I’m glad you were happy with the results.
For anyone who is interested in going “overboard”, I can talk a bit about that. We have an old digital video camera which takes excellent video, but lousy audio. Over the years, we have submitted several audition videos from that camera. They were all OK, but I thought the sound quality was disappointing. I will say, I doubt we would have received different results if we had more professional equipment, but I decided to up our game and invest in some new gear. I hard not heard of the Tascam or Zoom products, so I went to Youtube and found several videos on building a home audio studio without spending a ton of money. The most helpful video was this one, which teaches you how to build a studio for under $350.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLXSqan3Jcs
I actually spent much less than that since I already had a few of the items and bought refurbished products on Ebay and Amazon. In the end, I bought a good microphone for about $90 and an interface for $130. After adding cables and a mic stand, it probably cost about $250. The interface allows you to connect your microphone to a laptop and record high quality audio. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to use the software. I use Reaper to record the audio and later merge the audio and video using Shotcut, which is a free program. Reaper has lots of post processing options, but I don’t use any of them. As others have said, enhancing the audio is a no-no.
I just finished editing all the audio and video for our daughter’s applications and I must say, the sound quality is the best we have every recorded. There is no hiss or camcorder buzz and the sound is clean, with no clipping or distortion. I am really happy with the result and, more importantly my daughter is too. But despite all this effort and new equipment, she is still submitting a casually recorded iPhone video for one of her songs, because she simply sang better that day than she did when we recorded with the fancy equipment. I don’t regret buying this stuff. I am a bit of a techy and I have enjoyed tinkering with it. My daughter also knows how to use it and plans to take the setup with her when she goes to college. It was a good investment for our family, but totaling unnecessary to record prescreening videos.