Dave, Can I suggest using a DV cam with an external (powered) condenser mic (you can pick them up for about £30). You'll get nice uncompressed quality (and of course the additional advantage of being able to record pictures too!).
Likewise though, even if you stick with the minidisc option get the mic anyway, you'll get much better levels and you won't get the noise of the motors etc in the recorder itself.
I do audio recording on my DV cam and the reproduction is really good and the portability does reduce the feeling-like-a-tititude. That said, I'm comfortable enough feeling like a tit to talk to myself in front of the PC too!
http://www.dv247.com/invt/2700/
And regarding software, totally depends on if you're affecting the voice afterwards, layering etc etc etc... Download trials, try them out, find out what features you want and what you don't need.
Pretty much anything will have a host of basic effects on it starting at the price of nothing... going all the way up to higher end sample manipulation software boasting an array of features most people will never use.
Likewise though, even if you stick with the minidisc option get the mic anyway, you'll get much better levels and you won't get the noise of the motors etc in the recorder itself.
I do audio recording on my DV cam and the reproduction is really good and the portability does reduce the feeling-like-a-tititude. That said, I'm comfortable enough feeling like a tit to talk to myself in front of the PC too!
http://www.dv247.com/invt/2700/
And regarding software, totally depends on if you're affecting the voice afterwards, layering etc etc etc... Download trials, try them out, find out what features you want and what you don't need.
Pretty much anything will have a host of basic effects on it starting at the price of nothing... going all the way up to higher end sample manipulation software boasting an array of features most people will never use.