I hate tape recorders and tape recorders hate me. On at least a half-dozen occasions, I've tried to tape an interview for a story I was working on only to discover the recorder didn't capture the conversation. Half the time it's been my fault (not hooking up the cables between the phone and the recorder properly) and half the time the recorder just didn't do its job, as far as I can tell. It's embarrassing when that happens!
A few weeks ago, I discovered Audio Recorder, a freeware program for OS X that records audio input as MP3 files. The interface couldn't be simpler. I've used it three times so far and the results have been flawless. I use it with the $25 RadioShack Wireless Phone Recording Controller, which is also great. I play back the interviews in iTunes and transcribe them in BBEdit. Man, I'm set. Link
