Step 6: Make a Tape
Most competitions still require individual cassette tapes for each number.
Others are beginning to allow “CD Singles”, where only one song is recorded
on a CD, to be submitted in lieu of a cassette. Maybe all of the competitions
will accept one CD for each studio in the
future. Wouldn’t that be great!
Assuming that you do need to make a tape, consider these things:
 | A beautiful song will be compromised if you put it on cheap tape. |
| A beautiful song will be compromised if you record it with a cheap tape
recorder. |
| Rewind all tapes once before you use them to “even out” the tape
tension. This will prevent song speed variations. |
| Don’t use DOLBY noise reduction. Your tape will sound terrible in
performance it you had DOLBY on and the technician’s deck doesn’t use it
(most don’t). |
| Play part of the song in REC/PAUSE and set the levels so that your volume
peaks at +5DB but doesn’t spend too much time in the “red”. Try to
balance volume while avoiding distortion. |
| If you use a tape with a leader, wind it by hand until the tape appears
and cue the music to start immediately after you take the “PAUSE” off. |
| Play the tape back at significant volume and re-record it if you hear
excessive hiss or distortion. |
| Different tape recorders record at different speeds. Play the tape and the
CD on different systems and change recorders if the song pitch or key is
consistently different from CD to tape. |
| Some competitions will allow you to adjust your playback speed. Be
careful here - we've had our songs played too fast because the last act had
their tape sped up and the technician did not slow it back down! |
