M-Audio has announced shipment of their MicroTrack mobile digital recorder. Think of it as a recording iPod. It records 2 24-bit channels at 96kHz to CompactFlash aas WAV or MP3 files. It has the inputs you might expect, including phantom power for microphones. Looks interesting if you need this level of recording quality, but there are recording MP3 players out there that fulfil the basic function.

Another competing product is the Edirol R-1, which doesn’t look quite as groovy but has similar specs and may be slightly cheaper. It also has built-in microphones, which makes it more portable even though it’s a bit bigger.

Only Harmony Central seems to have the press release at the moment. (Oddly, it’s not on the M-Audio site.) They say: Only about the size and weight of a deck of cards, the MicroTrack 24/96 digital recorder is a mobile 2-channel digital recorder that records WAV and MP3 files to CompactFlash media or microdrives. While the unit is designed primarily as a professional field recorder and songwriter’s notebook, it will also be embraced by other markets including business, education and worship.

[Editor’s note: “worship”?!]

Despite its small size, leaps in miniaturization technology allow the MicroTrack 24/96 to deliver the same quality as M-Audio’s audio interfaces–up to 24-bit/96kHz PCM. The unit can record via balanced 1/4″ line inputs or built-in microphone preamps complete with 48V phantom power for studio-quality microphones. Balanced 1/4″ TRS line inputs also make it easy to take a feed directly from a studio or club mixer. S/PDIF input provides for recording the output of digital mixers and doing transfers from other digital recording/storage devices. Monitoring is provided via the 1/8″ stereo headphone jack or RCA line outs.