I would go digital. You always have a hiss problme with tape unless you buy
an expensive tape recorder and microphone and use them with care.
Minidisc was a reasonable way to go a few years ago but now there are
quality solid state recorders and solid state memory have gotten much better
and cheaper. The newer Sony MD recorders, called Hi-MD, do let you upload
recordings to PC via USB but you have to use Sony's SonicStage software and
a converter to remove the digital rights wrapper. My two cents: complicated,
slow and probably unreliable.
If you are doing lots of recording and want a serious professional tool buy
something from Marantz, PMD670 or the PMD660. Reliable, good quality audio,
easy to use. Both record to CF cards. Audio and quickly be uploaded to PC or
MAc vis USB for transcription. These cost from $430 to $700 in the US. No
idea what they cost in the UK. You can read a review (and discussion) of the
PMD660 here:
http://www.transom.org/tools/recording_interviewing/200503.pmd660.html.
Another option that offers similar features is the Edirol R-1.
If you want to use something cheaper, the little Olympus recorders may be
the way to go. The newer models are better than the ones from a couple of
years ago. They have significantly higher sampling rates and save at higher
bitrates so better quality audio. Take a look at these models DM-10, DM-20,
DS-2200, DS-2.
Transcription. Olympus provides transcription software for their digital
recorders. For the Marantz and other recorders there is free software that
works well. Take a look at Express Scribe or Transcriber. The latest version
of Transcriber is available here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/trans/.
Transcriber syncs up the transcript to the audio--nice if you want to check
the transcript or go back to listen to a section of audio.
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