MiniDisc recorders offer great (minimal) sound quality when it comes to people who want to sample field recordings for use in electronic music… where there will be lot’s of post processing going on over the raw sound.

I use 2 Sony MZ-R30 portable units. They are like mini field recorders and have multiple in- and outputs, and on-board editing capabilities.

If you can get your hands on a proper mic you can record good sound without spending hundreds -if not- thousands of dollars on gear.

If you really like it you can always get more expensive gear. But for beginners a MiniDisc is the cheapest portable recorder in CD quality audio.

Pro’s
- ultra portable
- low profile (you can pretend you’re listening music)
- cheap CD-quality audio
- cheap to buy multiple discs
- lot’s of spair batteries

Cons (subjective to convenience)
- “only” 44.1kHz 16-bit audio
- mini-jacks
- no USB or flash-cards, but real-time data transfer (SP/DIF optical, line)

Hope this helps someone

That said, one technique I’ve used to get around the use of compression in the field is a type of HDR technique, where you record using two matched microphones at different input levels – one significantly lower than the other. In this way, you can safely capture the attack of one sound with the mic of lower gain, and still capture the sound of the decay with the mic of higher gain. You’ll clip the attack of the higher gain mic, and you’ll lose the decay on the lower gain mic, but between the two you’ve got all the material you need to mix a great sound in post.