Just to give the other side of the argument about DYI, my daughter has also always passed all prescreens–for college, grad schools, summer programs, competitions–always DYI. These are for top programs in instrumental classical music (not sure what your specialty is.) The accompanist is a big enough expense. She uses one of the Zoom video recorders, although as @indeestudios says, recent advances in iPhone technologies probably mean that those devices are good enough. But of course if you have the budget, there is not reason not to rent a recording studio. I just don’t think it’s necessary.