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Greetings Soundlings

Just a quick question... Has anyone used Nagra Audio sound recorders or pre-amps before?

I'm just trying to get some first-hand testimony before I consider investing in such expensive equipment.

Cheers

Hi Headphaze

Look at Sound Devices as well. I have a 302. A 3-channel field mixer. Was only € 700 second hand. Useful together with your Roland recorder.

"Only."

Yep Mr Speck, that's the price us audiophiles have to pay for decent equipment. Luckily I don't have a wife and kids, so I can spend whatever I please on tasty gear.

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In response to Klankbeeld:

I checked out the device you recommended, and i'm partially familiar with Sound Devices. I know they have a very good reputation, but I've heard better things about Nagra. I'm actually looking for a portable pre-amp + recorder unit, not just the preamp/mixer. The reason for this is that I want to move away from using the R26 for professional use, because it's not designed to be used on set; so the fuctionality is limited in that respect. Plus, the preamps in the Roland are not up to par for clean dialogue recordings. Even if I were to use SD mixer as a preamp then record into the R26, I would still get a slightly noisy capture, it's just not a top-teir recorder.

I'm not convinced on the calibre of the upper ranges e.g. R88 & R44 because the preamp technology is exactly the same. I was told at the BVE show by the Roland representative it was that way.

I'm using Nagra LB for a quite while now.

+ preamps and converters are really really good, I have no problem using it instead or side by side with highend studio stuff, and it's in the rare non-sterile yet natural sounding category
+ very robust build
+ the imporatent stuff is all on knobs and switches

- it drains batteries even when it's in storage... not much, but if I don't use it for some time (months) and forgot to check and recharge the batteries it can even kill them
- menus are ok, though it's more-or-less a 90ties way of thinking about the interface
- secondary display and edit functions (only works with 16bit) seem pointless waste of money
- if the memorycard isn't right for the machine you'll get some clicks and drops in audio and it's hard to know what card will work 100%, there is also internal 2GB memory that is 100% reliable though

Overall I'm glad I bought it and it serves me extremely well. I have no experience with sound devices though. The only other portable recorder I have is Sony D50 which is surprisingly good for gathering FX at times even with the internal mics. Though full nagra/sennheiser mkh/schoeps rig has way more depth, smoothnes and detail to it. The difference is not really obvious for "on my laptops speakers" people and it won't make up for bad mic position, yet it doesn't fall apart in postproduction when you need to push things a bit.

Worth the money (esp. with nowadays exchange rate)? That depends just on you and your preferences.

Thanks very much for your detailed testimony matucha. Much appreciated.

There is more info about Nagras (and Sound Devices) on Gearslutz Forums (www.gearslutz.com). So you may try to find some answers there.

matucha wrote:
There is more info about Nagras (and Sound Devices) on Gearslutz Forums (www.gearslutz.com). So you may try to find some answers there.

Yeah, Gearslutz is a very useful source of information. Cheers