Michael West wrote:
Since you said simple, here is the simple system I've used for recording from the line-out of my mini-disc player of recordings I've made or of other audio I want a digital copy for portability.I would like to record single track audio to my computer. I do not need to sync to video, I have little interest in editing. However, I would like high quality recordings. What do I need from a software/hardware side to record org-vorbis or wav files from a high quality microphone?
Hook the line-out of the source device to the 1/8" line-in of your PC sound card. (Unless you have a better PC sound in option.) Use rec (from the sox package) specifying the data size, output file, format (WAV), and the sampling rate you want. Encode the WAV file to ogg-vorbis format.
I noticed that sox (at least the version in Sid) has ogg support. Maybe you could record right to vorbis if you have a fast enough computer. It's worth giving a try, since the WAV files will be quite large.
Recording a tape of Let Sleeping Vet's Lie (audiobook) to ogg to listen to from my computer instead of my tape deck later:
rec -V -c 1 -s w -r 44100 lsvl-2.wav oggenc -b 8 lsvl-2.wavSox is quite flexible. The manual might be a bit of a read and disqualify itself on the 'simple to use' grounds, but it's a 'simple system' of command-line recording that I quite like.
JacobP.s. Don't make the common mistake of recording by hooking to the mic jack on your sound card. Most consumer grade sound cards don't do a very good job of recording off of the mic, and even if they would people often give them the wrong type of input since they are made for a _microphone_ and not the output of say your headphone jack on your mp3 player. The best recordings will be line out to line in, and if needs be use an external mixer/equalizer's line out.