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Originally Posted by evollove

Talking to people has been (part of) the problem. I've sought information from various sources and I've ended up with conflicting opinions and extremely expensive answers.

Man, back in the day I was a four-track cassette wizard. Now I'm a digital dope. Humbling.

talking to people is only a problem if you don't understand what you're doing.

back in the days of the reel tape there were also dynamic and condenser mics, there was mic level and line level, there were mic preamps, and balanced lines and what not.

if you don't know then maybe read this:

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/EMS/music/t...eces_20.html#V.

and this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance...#Audio_systems

http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/12238

if you already knew that then what you're missing i suppose is how to translate the analog signal to digital-- audio resolution, formats and what not. 22 or 44 or 48 or 96khz, 16 or 24 bit, wav/aiff, etc. then read wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio

to record your audio signal digitally: you can do that with a computer or you can do that with a dedicated recorder. i personally prefer the recorder because a) it's cheap, b) it's fan-free and silent, c) it's lightweight, d) it doesn't go to sleep, launch alarms, get spammed, etc. e) it's already got decent microphones for simple recording. i also use protools+computer+hard drives for some things every now and then but it's a more complicated situation and not everybody likes protools and it's fucking expensive anyway and i hate that.

in your case, think of the portable recorder as you cassette recorder-- same shit, different medium. except that you get only 2 tracks at this price point instead of 4, and you get a couple of onboard mics.

btw, those tascam recorders hypertonic posted look great. they start at $99.

now you gotta do your homework and pick one ffks8x