Thank you very much for this. I think I might settle on the Sony MZ-NHF800 with 1GB HI-MD tapes (I get the ones bellow) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-2Pack-High-MD...5560&sr=1-2 So if I get this, this is what I plan to do. Put tape into player, put mic (mic listed in first post) and headphones in (the headphone I have once on I cannot hear anything outside), then while recording I can hear what is going on so I can make sure I have the mic on for example it would be anoyying I get back and find the mic was off. Then I can upload via USB to computer ... this is the hard bit then use a software called Sonic Stage (I think this is a free software) then I can save in .mp3 or .wav (whatever better quality file) and there we go all done? There could be two things that could go wrong, can anyone clarify 1. I can't hear what I am recording, doesnt matter if like the person claps and I hear it after they done it. What is bad is if the HI-MD slowly picks up an dealy, so the more long the recording is the more out of sync it will be so when I do a sence of 5 minuites for example slowly through the duration of the film you can see the lip and the sound slowing getting out of sync ... bad 2. I hear all kind of hisssssssss and buzzing, I expect very little hiss otherwize its impossible but nothing too bad (are there any demo files?). I have made mistakes in the past got a memo recorded instead of an audio recorder and had loads of hissing, bad quality, buzz ect so I dont want to make this mistake. If I recorded on my computer this is what type of bad hiss and buzz i dont want to get http://www.mediafire.com/?9yepu9meem1 as long as it is much better than that Thanks for you help