Sadly, it appears when some say "pretty good sound quality," they mean, "It sounds less muffled than recording through a foot of concrete." Don't get me wrong, the T60 seems like a fun little MP3 player, but I wouldn't recommend buying it for the built-in recorder.

Marantz PMD 660 and Conference Grabbers: costly, but just right
A colleague of mine, upon hearing of our recorder woes, recommended dropping about $500 on a Marantz PMD 660. The Marantz PMD 660 uses removable flash drives to record MP3s. It offers near-radio quality, and it might be overkill, but my colleague left me with no doubt we'd be satisified. And we were.

As you can see in Figure A, the PMD 660 isn't very cute, but it's all business. It comes with a surprisingly decent built-in stereo mic, and you can adjust the recording levels for the left and right channels independently.

FIGURE A


It's not the cheapest digital voice recorder out there, but it's hard to go wrong with the top-notch Marantz PMD 660. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The vendor we ordered our PMD 660 from threw in a pair of Martel Conference Grabber omnidirectional microphones -- as seen in Figure B -- free-of-charge. They're battery-operated and retail for about $60 apiece.

They're not absolutely necessary, and we find the PMD 660's internal microphone is just fine for recording just the two of us. If you wrangle more than a couple people into doing a podcast with you, consider going with something like the Conference Grabbers.

FIGURE B


Conference microphones such as these are one possible option for use with your digital recorder. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can plug the Conference Grabbers, or conceivably just about any professional microphone into the left and right ports on the PMD 660, as seen in Figure C. The far-right port you see in Figure C is where you plug in the last piece of essential recording equipment: your headphones.

FIGURE C


The Marantz PMD 660 has left and right channel microphone ports that let you record in stereo. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Listening to yourself over headphones as you record is the best way to be sure you're capturing your voice at the desired volume and sound quality. The other way to find out is when you download your audio to your computer and discover it's all bungled up! So, yeah, you'll want those headphones.

In my next article, I'll tell how to take what you've recorded and prepare it for distribution to your worldwide listening audience. Until then, it's time to sign off.

Heather Wardell received her first Palm handheld in 1997 (from a boss who couldn't get the hang of Graffiti) and has never looked back. She worked in banking as a systems analyst for four years, and then moved into elementary education, teaching computers at a private elementary school for four years. Heather is now a full-time women's fiction writer, and her first novel, "Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo" is available for free download through her Web site at http://www.heatherwardell.com.