I'd agree with McGrath if all you want to do is practice or hear what arangements sound like.
Trouble is you get tape hiss!
That doesn't matter if it's``just for fun´´.
BUT if you want to use the recordings for something a bit more serious at later date,then mini disc is a good media.
Believe me,I learned that from experience,having recorded the first three Irish Music Festivals we had here in Oslo.
I did that onto ordinary tape(very good quality),and regret very much afterwards that I didn't go digital.

Melbert:When I mentioned``doctoring´´,there are several things you can do.
I've got some very good``live´´recordings by plugging a mini disc straight into the mixing desk(I have the advantage of being the sound guy sometimes)and I might add.....with the artist/groups permission.
You can just let the disc run,and chop it up into individual tracks afterwards.
I have a SONY MZ-R30 Portable recorder and use a Sony stereo ECM-MS957 mic.which gives excellent recordings.
The recorder notes the times of recording automatically on the disc,and you can write in song titles.
In adition I have a Yamaha MD4(which is a 4 track digital mixer)and a Yamaha DigitalReverb.
By running the mini disc into the MD4,I can then adjust tones,reverb. ect.

You can of course plug the mini-disc into your sound card and edit there.There are plenty of good programs on the market.

Greetings John