Yes, it has been a requirement for at least the past two years. They are pretty lax if someone has forgotten it, they just ask you to mail it in ASAP. Scatterbrained me, I actually completely forgot to mail in anything, and I was still accepted. Now, this doesn't mean I'm advocating not sending one in, because that is NOT the case, just saying that you shouldn't stress if you don't have access to a studio and can only record with a handhold recorder or something similar. It doesn't seem to play a huge part in their decision.
