[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Hip Priest

To start with, I don;t want to go above £100, although that amount itself is no problem. I have a basic flash drive (128mb), but I can get a bigger one, and I can certainly buy other accessories at some point soon.

I can see that the fostex stuff looks imppressive, but at the moment I'm happy with some thing basic. I can go a bit more professional at a later date if I get into it enough.

that's why i suggested the usb mics; you get a fairly decent mic and you can jack it directly into your computer without the extra money.

if you get the usb interface toko showed you'll have to add 1) a microphone, and possibly 2) a microphone adapter.

most quality mics come with an XLR (3-pin) connector. cheap flash recorders or flash interfaces do NOT have XLR inputs. if you want XLR input you have to go with something like the edirol r09rs that are about $400-- and then get the mics. these mics also require phantom power...

the usb mic skips all that.

now, there ARE also some small mics that have been made to work with the minidisc and other portable units, but then you have to store, digitize and transfer to the computer and that adds to teh cost.

heres a list of 27 usb mics and setups:

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...5/category.cgi

this one is the priciest, records in stereo, jacks to the laptop, it's an audio-technica which as i've said are not top of the line but are an excellent value
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...m/IMIC-PRO-ISI

this podcaster looks good too:
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...m/RD-PODCASTER

this is a large diaphragm condenser by marshall
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cg...em/MXL-USB-007

i believe those are better quality than the blue mic, they cost more, and they will eat up your budget with the best microphone possible-- which is a good thing.

if you have a laptop (i believe you do), then external storage becomes an unecessary expense that will EAT into your microphone budget, and since the microphone is #1 in determining the quality of your recording, this works best.

the usb interface is nice to digitize your vinyl, but it wont' solve your microphone problem.

and yes, sennheiser are superior mics, but unless you have a budget of 300 pounds or more for one microphone alone, not counting anything else, i wouldn't bother.

--

ps- all you *really* need to record your vinyl into the computer is a cheap cable. not the best method, but certainly doable.

[Hip Priest]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

...ps- all you *really* need to record your vinyl into the computer is a cheap cable. not the best method, but certainly doable.

I'm not ignoring the rest of your post, as it is all very helpful and very much appreciated, but I want to concentrate on the above bit. In the past hour this comment has inspired me to actually look at the laptop, read the manual for once, note the 'line in' hole, download audacity, download lame, and convert some vinyl to audacity file, then to mp3, then burn it to cd. Pretty basic I imagine, but I never knew it was that easy. It sounds OK too. I did it just connecting the headphone socket on the hi-fi to the line in socket on the pc. Thank you so much. Fantastic.