Let’s say that I want to record a public speech (or an excerpt thereof), convert it to an .mp3, and put it on the web.
What hardware and software do I need to do this?
What is the best way to go about this?
What is the cheapest way?
You need a tape recorder (or equivelent) to record the speech, some sort of audio input on your computer (microphone input would work fine) and an mp3 encoder.
On my Mac, I use a nifty program called SoundJam. I don’t remember how much I paid for it, but it wasn’t very expensive.
You also need to get permission from the person giving the speech if you intend to put up the entire speech. If you just want a short excerpt or two (say <50 words), then it’s OK under fair use.