Nagra still in use?

[Christian Holm]

Hi! I am new at this... :D

Purchased a nagra IV with a dolby SR stereo module.

My question is if any one still uses 1/4" nagra IV or similar?
If so:
Tape... which?
What about postproduction and dailies?!

[Eric Toline]

Nice machine to be sure but 1/4" tape is almost impossible to find these days. Add to that, that most post houses or transfer house have retired or sold their 1/4" tc playback decks.

Eric

[Christian Holm]

True. tape is rare...
We do post ourselfs so it´s all up to us to "sell" the idea to the client :D
Was thinkin of adding the nagra to my regular cart(cooper 106+ and Sounddevices 788t)
Mabey overkill or trying to hard with that xtra job of recording on tape?
And the trouble of synk? if delivering Wav from the SD machine... Then some how in the end replacing it with tapeaudio transfered to digital. Hmm :D

When I came into the business nagra was yesterdays news. And DAT was so hot!
Over the years as I do more and more Post and recording I`m really enjoying analog.
My first discovery was Cooper and now Audio Development.

So is it worth it? if I can find some tape... And convince my clients?

[Marc Wielage]

Most of the major LA and NY post houses are now set up to only handle non-linear DVD-RAM or DAT sound for dailies. Even DAT is beginning to fade out. However, the biggest companies usually still have at least one Nagra T playback deck in-house, so I think it would be technically possible to run Nagra sound for film or HD projects. I would talk to the post house first before starting the project to be sure.

The SR part of it is easy, because that can generally be patched by the post house, and most telecine houses still have Dolby 363 SR/A modules for mag playback. But I have to tell you, I haven't had to use a Nagra in post for at least five or six years now.

--Marc W.

[Christian Holm]

Hi Marc!
My company is based here in Sweden (far away from LA or NYC :)
The knowhow here is all based on digital workflow.

We do all the audio post inhouse (small post house here in sweden)
The plan I had was to transfer 1/4"
using the same machine for playback as recording
to wav via prism AD converter to 96Khz

Deliver Wav on DVD as dailies from Sounddevices 788t.

When we get the finalcut OMF´s in to protools use "titan" or some other audio wave analysis tool.

Again this is just in my head right now. Would be interesting to do some testing...
And as Steve pointed out WHY? :)

[Steve Foy]

With all due respect Christian, WHY ???

[Christian Holm]

Why is of course not easy to answer.
The main reason would be to get something different (and hopfully better) in the dialogtrack.


I guess from your question that you do not think it´s worth the hussle or that digital is better :D ??

[Steve Foy]

Hi Christian,
Pretty much, yes. It is certainly more hassle and whether you ultimately get something better or not is open to debate. In terms of specs, there is no question that Digital is better, however on the flip side some Musician friends of mine still swear by valve amplifiers (Marshall) because of the "warmth" of the sound produced and the ability to hear the "silence" between notes.
I'm not passing judgement, just curious !!!
Cheers
Steve

[Christian Holm]

Can have something to do with my collection of analog... :D
Tube mices... tube mice preamps. Analog console... Hmm?

Digital is a copy of analog. How can that be better?
:D

[Steve Foy]

lol, yes too true but by the same token how can it be worse?

[Christian Holm]

Different anyway... :)

[Neil Uchitel]

Hey Christian,

As a post guy, in my nearly all digital world I wouldn't want to get dialog recorded with a Nagra IV. First, you get tape hiss which you have to kill using some kind of NR plugin, and that can induce artifacting, which is a problem in quiet scenes with little support from music or BGs. Second, tape is "warm" but doesn't have as much clarity on the high and low ends, and for dialog that's more important than warmth. Now, for SFX recording, a nagra is a great unit to have for special situations, precisely because tape is punchy and I know some other sound designers that have them for this purpose. You can get nice fat sounds like hits, body falls, crashes, etc with good mics that have the range like DPAs or TLM170Rs. That makes for interesting SFX field recordings. But for dialog? I'd avoid it. You can always use a tube preamp, however, before you go into a SD 442 or other mixer. That will give it some warmth. Just watch out for induced hum from the amp when using wireless. I ran into that problem today. Because I wanted clean EQ, I had two Avalon 737s on set, one wired to a Schoeps mk41 on a boom, and the other on a lav. The Schoeps sounded beautiful, and the lav was super noisy and had a hum. Both units had just been serviced, so it wasn't the Avalons. When I bypassed the 737, the lav was fine. Because it was my fault, I'm have to go back and NR the lav track before I give today's audio to the editor.

My 2 cents.

[Christian Holm]

Hi Niel,

So u have hands on experience of the Nagra IVs and dolby SR?
And the post chain with prism converter?

And all my tube amps (yes I have 3 :) stay in the studio... Will not bring them on location.

Hmm... and what about all those thousand of productions done on nagra? Hiss?