In article ,
steve wrote:
I have an old but decent (I think) pair of panasonic microphones which I
could experiment with. I assume I would stick them into my stereo
amplifier (circa 1975), and then feed the output into my Minidisc player
and into the sound card of the PC.

I'd be amazed if your stereo amplifier had mic inputs.

I know my home PC (Athlon 1400 processor) seems quite happy at making
decent WAV files, using Musicmatch software. I haven't tried yet with
my work laptop (Intel 900), and I don't know what software I would use
on that.

Thanks for any (polite) suggestions, or any pointers to web sites that I
would find useful.

I'd hire an SQN mixer for the day from any broadcast etc hire company.
This has decent mic amps that will accept/power near any type of mic, and
a very good limiter circuit which will prevent over mods, although you
need to set the levels so the limiter isn't working hard for the best
sound. Feed this to either the PC or the MiniDisc. The MiniDisc would be
my choice, given the quality of many PC sound cards.

Not knowing your mics, I'd probably hire a decent pair - or stereo one -
also.

--
*Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn