Your Tascam DR1 is already a spiffy little all-in-one package, what with its high storage capacity and built-in electret stereo mic pair. But perhaps you feel it's lacking a little. . . direction, shall we say.

In rides the plucky TM-ST1, a stand-alone stereo mic that, when tethered to your DR1, provides more directional recording capabilities, as well as other features designed to upgrade your recorder to a professional setup.

The main feature of the TM-ST1 is it's variable stereo field. The user can select between a 90˚ pickup for a narrow focus, or 120˚ pickup for a wider field. This makes the mic equally suitable for concert recording (unless you're recording Metallica -- they'll come for you) and choirs (provided you suspend yourself above the ensemble T.-Cruise-M.I.-style from the concert hall rafters -- either way Lars has your number).

The capsules are self-powered, back-electret designs, meaning they offer a "crisper" fidelity than the DR1s integrated electrets. The TM-ST1 will come packaged with a desktop stand, a windscreen and a mic clip for boom-mounting, which, I suppose, means you wouldn't necessarily need that suspension harness for overhead micing.

Though the TM-ST1 terminates in a 1/8" stereo jack (for plugging into a DR1), they'd like to remind us that there's no reason you couldn't buy an adapter and hook it up to your laptop's USB interface (say, a US-122L). The TM-ST1 is available now.