mics - these are (arguably) the most important part of the setup. They are the "ears" that hear the music. spend the most here.
pre-amp - this does 2 things: provides power for the mics, takes the signal that the mics are sending out, and boosts it to line level. line level is the best for recording
a/d (or analog/digital converter) - this is best done externally (apart from your recording device) it takes the analog signal and converts it to a digital signal
recording device (DAT/MD/PDA/CD burner/etc) this is where all your music is being stored. It's advisable to go with a recorder that has the following:
no compression of the incoming signal (md compresses)
Digital output capability (Sony portable DAT decks have this but you must use a special cable) most md decks (portable) do NOT have this. If you go the md route AND you desire to have pure digital transfers to cdr (preferable way to do it) you will need a home MD deck with digital output capabilities (coax/optical/toslink/all)
Once you have your recording, you probably want to put it to cdr. This should be done digitally and can be done a couple of ways:
- Get a standalone cd burner (phillips, otari, hhb) that has digital input which matches the output on your recording device
- Get a soundcard with digital input capability that matches the format used by your digital output machine.
That's enough for now....let's see how long you want to do this hobby now!