I'm new to recording and pretty lost with all of it. I know the goal of clear recording is a quiet environment, but what if that is not possible? What is the best way to go about recording a conversation in a loud environment? I only need it for transcription purposes, so it only needs to be clear enough to be understood to be written down. Is there a certain type of recorder that could help me with this or some technique I could do specifically?

Thanks

Most digital recorders have fairly good built-in noise cancellation so this probably wouldn't be an issue for recording single person dictation in close microphone proximity (within 2 to 4 inches) but if you're talking about recording a two-party conversation, in conference mode, than you are definitely going to pick up a good deal of environmental noise. You can use specialized conference microphones but they're still going to pick up noise.