I have been researching minidisc recorders and settled on the all singing all dancing Sony MZ-N10 but Sony does not allow recorded (by microphone) music to be uploaded to a computer. Great for going the other way via USB. Most reviews don’t say much about the recording facilities. Does such a thing as I want exist?
frustrated 
Brian
I don’t think so. You may want to ask customer support at http://www.minidisco.com . If it exists, they’ll know it.
g
If you want to spend lots of money, you could get one of these:
http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=1582&CatID=19&SubCatID=180
They’re about $675 but would be great to use for recording sessions and music. They record directly to compact flash cards.
-Brett
These may be cheaper flash recorders than the one already mentioned:
http://www.jensofsweden.com/MP300.asp?base=2
May be.
They can use an external stereo microphone.
I use a similar model, only with 256MB and internal mic.
The only thing I wish for is hte possibility for external mike for better recording quality + more memory. This one has that (512MB + ext. mike).
I am in no way associated with JensofSweden, I just bought one of their mp3 players/recorders (the MP-100) two years ago.
Cheers,
Eivind
These may be cheaper flash recorders than the one already mentioned:
http://www.jensofsweden.com/MP300.asp?base=2 >
That looks like what I need but not sold in the UK yet it seems.
Brian
What quality are you looking for?
There are lots of MP3 recorders that are capable of recording and uploading: take a look at - http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/
I use a Panasonic RR-US360 voice recorder. It can upload files to my PC, and then I have to use the software that comes with it to convert it to a WAV file (and then on to MP3). I don’t know exactly how good the quality compares to MP3 (it uses an internal proprietary format). It has three levels of quality and at best quality will record for 2hrs.
The qualitt seems good to my not very good ears. It supports an external mic, headphones, it can play back slowly at constant pitch, it has a speaker. It cost $70 in the US but I’m not sure you can get it in the UK.
Paul
There’s also the iRiver:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=18581
It’s a hard disk rather than minidisc recorder, but it does a great job, talks to computers just fine (including Macs), and records MP3’s directly.
What quality are you looking for?
I want to record friends when they visit then play along with them when I am up to speed with their accompaniement after they have gone. Also swap parts by email. So good enough quality to sound good when I output through my HIFI and play along to get a duet. So quite good quality wanted if that makes any sense.
Thanks for the leads. I will follow them up.
Brian
Nope. MD’s don’t support digitally moving files from MD → Computer, and that’s the reason I won’t be buying another. Search my other posts for my full thoughts, I’m a bit bitter. 
If you were to combine the iRiver hardware with the MD ease of use I think you’d have the perfect device. I’m very tempted by the Marantz portable CF based recorder also.
Too many options. I am going to try my video recorder with an AVI2mp3 program first to see if that works well enough. Will report back.
Brian