How can I transfer mp3's to my iPad using an SD card?

Question

Here's the deal:
I am a reporter and I use a portable audio recorder to record material. I would like to import the recordings on my iPad via SD card, edit them (I only need to splice/join/trim), and e-mail them out. This is a very basic function for any mac, pc, or even a netbook, but I am yet to find a way to do this on the iPad, which is much more portable then my macbook.
I have read about people attempting to use the iPad camera connection kit to import mp3's, but this doesn't work. I don't need to open them in the native "music" app with all of my music from iTunes, I just need to edit them.
So I have a few questions:
1. How can I import recordings with the iPad via SD or USB?
2. Does anyone know of any simple, reliable audio editing apps that can join, splice, and trim recordings? Doesn't have to be fancy.
3. Pretend I solve problems 1 and 2. How would I then e-mail them out or throw them in a dropbox to deal with them later?
Again, this is a very simple task for OSX or Windows, but I would much rather carry an iPad around then a Macbook.

Answer 1

The first thing you need to do is find the app of your choice at the app store (I'm not familiar with the type you need).  Everything depends on the app - can it import mp3 from Dropbox?  Can it import from iTunes (this should be possible).  Once a file resides with an app, the only way to email the data is if the app supports that.  You can't begin with the mail app and expect to somehow attach the mp3 file from there, it has to start with the app that stores the file.
So I would suggest you begin looking for appropriate apps.  For each, read about its import features and whether it can email out.
And yes, a mac can easily do this.  The problem with iOS is that each app is sandboxed, it cannot reach out to other apps and copy files from them.  In shortl, iOS is a different kind of operating system than OSX.
(Having reread your post, the real trick is getting the mp3 from your recorder to some other location, like Dropbox or iTunes.  I don't know what features your recorder has.  I know of no way to transfer the mp3 from SD to an iPad directly.