Acceptd is an online application portal used by various programs within the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts and other arts programs all over the country. It is widely used to help facilitate college applications and auditions and even professional symphony orchestra auditions. Once you create an account, you can save your information to be used for other Acceptd application programs.
If this is your first time using Acceptd, click this link to create an account. Once you've created an account and signed in, click "Start Application." Select the Toledo Symphony Youth Orchestra as the organization and TSYO Auditions as the program.
Audition Repertoire can be found under the Resources Tab. Required etudes and excerpts are listed by instrument in score order. You will need to be logged in to your Acceptd account to access the PDFs of the audition repertoire.
Don't worry! You don't need any fancy equipment to record your audition! A cell phone will work just fine! Here are some tips on how to record high quality audio using a phone:
Built in apps (like voice memo on iPhone or voice recorder on Samsung) can work perfectly fine if you take a moment to make sure you are in a quiet recording space that won’t interfere with your sound and you tweak a few app settings. Recordings should be submitted per instructions below.
Guidelines
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DO NOT TALK during your recording.
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There should be no audible assistance during your recording. I.e. the use of a metronome, accompaniment, or counting aloud is prohibited.
Room isolation
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Locate a room that doesn’t produce a lot of ambient sound (furnace/air conditioner noise in a basement, people talking, TV, Kitchen, etc). Close doors, windows, and curtains if possible.
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Position your phone so that you are not too close or too far away from the microphone (usually on the bottom part of the receiver where you would talk on a phone call) - find the “sweet spot” by testing your position and phone placement with a throw away recording - set phone on it’s side to make sure you input is not muffled.
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Mute your device or put it in “airplane” mode so you don’t get interrupted while you are recording (or accidentally record ringtones and vibrations on a good take)
Change your phone’s default recording settings.
Most phones will default to a compressed audio recording to save space. On an iPhone: Go to settings > voice memos > audio quality and change this to Lossless. Recording controls on Android phones are also available inside the app under settings - make sure you set the recording quality to high.
Use a 3rd party App / external microphone
There are several 3rd party apps in both the iTunes and play stores. Like the stock apps, be sure to take a moment to adjust the quality of the recording. Some third-party apps will also allow you to adjust the level for the mic input - be sure to have a strong signal set without clipping (going into the red).
Most add-on mics will capture a much better signal but can vary in price and this can get expensive quickly. Unless you have experience using these types of devices - stick to your phone!
Once you have recorded your piece(s), save them as MP3 files with the following filename:
ensemble_instrument_title
For example:
symphonic_cello_etude.mp3
You will be prompted to upload your recordings to Acceptd during the application process.
