I used to dream of having a portable DAT recorder so I could record audio in the field—the ambience of a peaceful lake, or even better, industrial noises—and use them as samples. Technology marches on, and now DAT recorders are nearly obsolete. Fortunately their solid-state equivalent is becoming affordable: The M-Audio MicroTrack is an iPod-sized recorder that can record from a microphone or audio source to CompactFlash media in MP3 or WAV formats.

For $400, this would be a wonderful sonic sketchpad and sampling tool, not to mention its other uses—recording live performances, bootlegging, podcasting…

A competing product, the Edirol R-1, has been around for a while, but is larger and has no digital input.

[via Music Thing and CDM ]