Olympus have just released a new recorder in Australia, about a month ago, called the LS-10. Nothing on the Olympus Australia website yet, they are usually a bit behind updating their site after a product launch ( Olympus Communications - Home ) but you will be able to find some info on it on the US site here :- LS-10

I have a business selling digital voice recorders and often get asked which voice recorder is good for music, the answer to which is usually none. Voice recorders don't cope well with large volume fluctuations so Olympus have filled a gap here with the LS-10.

Looks like a very impressive recorder, most of the ones I have sold have mainly gone to various government departments to record nature sounds!

Have a look it may do what you are after with high quality recording.

Sorry to rain on your parade. But, those mics will be useless. Rule of thumb - for big sounds (vocals, guitar etc) large diaphragms are generally better. Mics whose capsule is smaller than a 5c piece will have no chance at say a bass drum or bass guitar.

And compared to a even an mbox mini - they suck.

Once again, not being nasty - just honest

Big ups for all of the advice so far. I'll have to research some of these options before I can say anything meaningful in reply.

okay - i just record for a bit of fun and as have a macbookpro i cant plug in a another soudncard so i use a usb interface - a line6 toneport ux2 and record with ableton live.

its a great way to record two track simultaneously.

Got a JTX XLR mic into that and plug my acoustic/electric into the interface and fiddle around with the virtual amp settings with the Line6 software.

Its a great budget alternative.

I've recorded my band, The Breed, a few times, using nothing more than Audacity on my iBook 14", 4 Sony Singstar USB Adapters and a USB 4 way hub. (Some adapter cables needed to patch the Singstars across the mic inputs on the desk - XL to XL with a lead coming out to a 3.5mm mono phono plug, attached between + and ground) You have to aggregate the 4 Singstars as one virtual device in Audio/MIDI Setup.

I'd recommend (if you have the budget) getting something like a Presonus Firepod if you plan to do this regularly and professionally, but the Singstars work well.

Google Frogmeter, too. If you use this metering software to set your record levels, you'll make better recordings. You need to make built-in audio as your clocking device for your virtual device in order for Frogmeter to recognise all your inputs. Use the fader for each Singstar input in AudioMIDI Setup like a channel sensitivity adjustment to get -12dB (where 0 is clipping) on each channel Frogmeter.

Oh, and I should add, one of the very few portable stereo recorders even worth looking at is the Marantz PMD range

Some excellent advice here.
Best way to learn is to work through the advice from least sophisticated to most sophisticated. Try it and see what works.
Good mics, good compressors, good interfaces and remember the advice - it's an art. Practise, practise, practise.

My recommendation for a reasonably priced interface... Mackie - Satellite FireWire Recording System
it seems to eat the competition for breakfast.

Garage Band is a good place to start, but if you want to get the most out of that interface, you'll need to go to Logic.

Anything MOTU is good (software, hardware), but you'll pay.

Home Recording Network :: worldwide podcasts about home recording, project studios, and digital audio has a great selection of podcasts that may help with the ART side of things.