The Gnome sound recorder comes from the gnome-media
package. A command line application sound-recorder
provides an alternative method of recording sounds.  
The rawrec
package provides a useful command line recorder
and might be used to record to a 320kbps mp3 as in:
  $ time rawrec -t 3600 | \
    sox -t sw -r 44100 -c 2 - -t wav - | \
    lame --alt-preset insane - recording.mp3
 | 
The gramofile
application is more useful for recording
from vinyl LPs, for example. It also supports track splitting and
filtering to remove thr traditional vinyl `pop'. For editing the sound
signal use the graphical audacity
application.
Copyright (c) 2003-2004