For the rehearsals there will be two teams. Both with DVC-pro50 cameras, sound input will be stereo, fed through an SQN-4S or a Sound-Devices 302. Quite simple.

What I wanted was a "Wandering Soundie" who would be free to work away from the camera teams, just to pick up any choirs singing, or practicing, to add later as wild track. He'd be equipped with either a hard-drive recorder or a CF recorder. Since he/she's going to be working for ten days, hiring a recorder is only marginally cheaper than buying one. Hence my trawl for information.

Edit: For the final concert I'll probably keep it simple and either hire in an SNG van or an independant sound engineer with gear. Just taking a line-out from the hall's mixer to one of the camcorders isn't good enough. It's experience with portable recorders that I'm looking for, there seem to be a lot on the market.

The three in my price bracket are...

Marantz PMD-660 : M-Audio MicroTrack 2496 : Edirol R-09

Feedback appreciated...