One for you audio folks...

[Billfred]

Alright, so I'm plotting and scheming up the Next Big Thing (tm) in college radio. And one element of that is the ability to record things out in the field.

I've got the ability to record something to my laptop, with an arrangement that looks like this:

Source -> Mic port -> Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net)

However, since I'm all for taking it to the next level, here's my current plan:

Sources -> ??? -> Mic port -> Audacity

What I'm trying to figure out, in a nutshell, is how to do ??? on the cheap. Given my experience with headphones (and high school physics taught me they're related) and the slider some have on them to control volume, I believe a potentiometer in series with a source could do the job. Put a few in a nice and neat project box, and I think it could work for the job.

Thus, I have three questions:
1) Will such an arrangement fry my laptop?
2) Will such an arrangement deliver audio I can play on the air without flinching?
3) Is there a better solution for this?