You don't say if you need it to be portable or not. If not, I'd probably just plug a mic into the PC and use Audacity as mentioned before.

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Re the Zoom range, I also have an H4 and am very happy with its recordings although like Maryrrf I don't find the controls/interface that easy to do more than a basic recording.   The (current model) H4N seems to be round about $300 at (US) amazon.com though.