Need a simple audio recorder

Can anyone recommend a *simple* audio recorder - either an app or a front-end.

I just want to record the occasional audio 'note' using the built-in mic.

I can do this in a terminal using 'rec' (from the sox package) but the quality outputting to .ogg files is terrible and although .wav files are ok they are too large. Strangely, if I use an external mike, .ogg files are ok, but I would prefer to use the internal mike.

Tried to install Audacity, from the repository, there were a load of dependencies to install, then it failed. Audacity is not the solution anyway, its not an audio editor I am looking for, just a one-click-start-recording-now app, I gave Ardour a miss as 'over-the-top' for this requirement. I have a LAME codec installed, need something as a front-end.

Any suggestions?

 

Answering my own question

I eventually found a small app that does what is required.

SoundRec - its a gui for alsa

http://soundedrec.sourceforge.net/

fortunately the download contains an executable for redhat, so no need to compile and it works (almost) straight off.

For those interested - unpack the archive.
Copy the exececutable soundrec to /user/bin
edit: the exec name is actually sound_recorder

If you want to save in .mp3 format you need to install the lame codec
lame-3.98-17.fc8.i386.rpm
libmp3lame0-3.98-17.fc8.i386.rpm

Do a google search or try http://rpm.pbone.net/ for these

Now for the strange bit. SoundRec must have been compiled sometime with windows in mind because it looks for lame.exe (lol)
So I renamed the lame executable in /usr/bin to lame.exe & lo-and-behold SoundRec will now record to .mp3 format.

The saved .mp3 file is in your home (/home/user) by default.

Do read the notes on the webpage, however for what I want, adding the enviromental variables was not required.

 

Hi,

I was just browsing for a simple recorder myself. I could need a multitrack recorder for simple guitar, vocals etc sketches on the fly, so I was checking out Ardour, but it seems somewhat large. Does anyone know if it will run on the AAO at all ?