I got a new toy in the mail today. It's the brand new Zoom H2 portable recorder. The Minidisc recorder that I use to tape concerts has been flaky at best over the past year, so I decided to upgrade. I was planning to spend a ton of money for a decent Flash card recorder, but then I read about this being released - for only $199.

It kicks ass. It's one of those rare products that somebody obviously put some thought into designing. Among the coolest features:

• Four built-in small-diaphragm condenser mics that can record in standard stereo, as well as 5.1 surround sound! (And line in, of course)
• One-touch recording with an intuitive interface.
• Supports VBR MP3, as well as WAV files up to 96khz/24bit.
• Hook it up to the computer via a USB cable, and it shows up as a disk drive with WAV or MP3 files.
• It can be used as an audio interface, including a very cool mic stand adaptor.
• Runs on batteries, instead of a built-in battery that craps out after a year, rendering it useless.

The sound quality is surprisingly good! I recorded a guy-and-guitar demo sitting at my kitchen table that had good enough sound to put on a CD. I can see this being my go-to tool for songwriting.