25%What do you record onto then?
There's nothing stopping you from simply plugging your mic directly into your computer and using Audacity for your chosen software but you'll probably find this process a little unsatisfactory (apart from the Audacity bit). You'll almost certainly pick up some noise from the system and you'll often find you recording settings can be limited. You could always put your system in a separate room from your recording session but if you're the only one there then it can be a right pain constantly running through rooms to start and stop recordings – I have done it though when necessary and it does work.
(NB – when running a long length of mic cable – especially of the unshielded variety – you'll often manage to pick up interference from other electrical sources – your cable's acting like a nice long radio aerial – try to ensure your lead doesn't cross any power leads as this is likely to generate more interference).
I prefer to record onto something else first then transfer the entire recording to the PC for editing afterwards. ¼” tape is really good if you have something like an old (but well maintained) Nagra or Uher – some other brands are OK too but make sure your tape is relatively fresh (and hasn't been used for previous recordings). VHS tape is excellent too – if your VHS recorder has a mic socket input you're laughing (as long as the machine runs silently). With a decent recorder (such as a Pro series Sony Walkman) compact cassette is a fairly decent recording medium too. Of course there are always DAT (digital audio tape) recorders which are fabulous with the no hiss advantage of digital but the starting price for decent ones was always around £400 so there are very few of these easily available – it's the same expensive sttory for decent 1/4” recorders too.
I now prefer mini-discs to most of these though (Nagras are mighty pricey as I mentioned and good Uhers are rather thin on the ground – and I've never owned a DAT recorder) for ease of use including small size and, with the later models, uncompressed recording formats, USB transfer to PC and 1GB space per disc - (plenty). They're relatively cheap (especially second-hand) with the top of the range Sony available for around £200 new.
MP3 type recorders, in my experience, always have poorer sound recoding capabilities – apart from the format being compressed I think there's a fair amount of computation having to be done to record mp3s on the fly and most machines just cannae take it (Captain) - Scotty never said it, you know. I have heard some good reports on large hard drive and solid state digital recorders made by reputable firms such as Nagra but I haven't personally tried them in the field so couldn't really say and mini-disc recorders are still a good bit cheaper.
Whatever you use
(excepting a minidisc that allows USB file transfer) make sure that
you use a decent quality set of audio cables to connect to your PC
when it comes to transfer time. Eg Cambridge Audio Atlantic mini-jack
to mini-jack (@£10).
See pic (if I remember the camera) my
normal set-up.