These days I have been interviewing a bunch of kids using a blogging system developed for use in primary and secondary schools. For recording the interviews I have actually used a digital camera.

The reason for this was partially that I wanted to video record the pupils using the system, but I also discovered that the audio recording was above average and I was able to easily transfer the audio (+ video) to my linux box or iMac.

My basic problem is that I can’t find a device that can easily do this. The problem with portable music players are that there exist no microphone input (internal mic or crappy accessories), dictaphones often save their recordings in properitary formats and miniDisc are not made for voice recording (’line in’ NOT ‘Mic in’) and are difficult to move over to the computer.

I would be happy to receive any experience or tips about the perfect digital audio recording device. It needs to record wav, ogg or another “platform independent” format, and operate via standard interfaces without properitary software with a linux box or a OS X system. Send me a message: baggetunREMOVETHESECAPITALLETTERS@netscape.net

btw, recording directly to a box is not good enough without a microphone with a pre-amp

This is a nice resource that answers a lot of my questions when it comes to recording interviews:
http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/res_audioequip.htm