Last winter I was wondering about ambient sound recordings and blogs. At that time, I made the noted short short film Snow Sound with the Sony DSC-P32 as I was thinking about sound but today I bought a Sony ICD-ST10, a dedicated digital IC recorder. Essentially it is a digital camera for noise with some basic editing software and a USB cable that runs the sounds into the computer. Apparently, it can carry hours of audio. As you can see by the photo, it is tiny - about half the size of my computer's mouse. Here are six reviews of the model, all fairly positive which bodes well.

With it, I should be able to do some ambient recordings as well as some on-location spots if I were to set up a radio station here. It has a stereo microphone and will allow you to add a better separate one - or any other audio source. I should even be able to record my 45s off the turntable with it with the right combination of cable and without moving furniture. I will have some more thoughts as I play with it but for now you can enjoy 560 KB of .wav file road sounds or an audio trip in an elevator [600 KB .wav]...as opposed to the movie.