AudioMedia - November 2008 - (Page 58)

NAGRA VI Six-Channel Digital Audio Recorder Nagra’s new toy pushes all the right buttons for ALISTAIR MCGHEE – a feeling not experienced since the very first excited whisperings of central heating. ack in the day when we were more excited about central heating than global warming, Nagra was the only name in professional location recording. Well not quite the only name – Stellavox too made fine quarterinch recorders, though to be honest, I never saw one in action. To this day in radio we still talk about a ‘Nagra job’, signifying a high quality stereo location gig. One of the surprising effects of the move to digital is the profileration of expensive location recorders. From Aaton to Zaxcom via Fostex, HHB, Sadie, Sonosax and Sound Devices, Nagra has plenty of competition. But when Nagra pitches into the market with a multi-track recorder everyone sits up and pays attention. B THE REVIEWER ALISTAIR MCGHEE began audio life in Hi-Fi before joining the BBC as an audio engineer. After ten years in radio and TV, he moved to production. When BBC Choice started, he pioneered personal digital production in television. Alistair is now Assistant Editor, BBC Radio Wales, but is allowed out occasionally. The Nagra VI is the all-new six-track hard disk recorder, with dual recording to internal hard drive and Compact Flash. The VI is an interesting mix of the old and new. The gain controls for the four mic/line inputs (the machine has two line only inputs with presetable gain) are distinctly non-Swiss traditional, but there’s still a place on the front panel for the classic Nagra multi-function bar, providing selection of Test, Rec, Play, and Stop. At the other end of the panel there’s a really nice bright colour screen that handles meters, menus, and routing. The machine ships with a GB hard drive, and offers removable media through Compact Flash. I was intrigued by the choice of CF as opposed to DVD, which is a more common solution amongst the competing pack. I’m sure you can make arguments on both sides, but Compact Flash is not too expensive (depending on the job, a Gb card should see you through most days), it’s robust and reusable (to an extent), widely available; and as a format popular in the photographic world it should be with us for a while. The Nagra VI currently offers either recording, or an instant copy mode to back up your files from hard disk to Compact Flash as soon as you drop out of recording. I’ve used other Nagra digital recorders from its Old And New Combine ARES range, and maybe because of that I found the menu system very straightforward and easy to use. Like professional cameras, high-end digital recorders take different philosophical approaches to menus as opposed to knobs and switches. Fostex is in the Sony (was Minolta) camp, with a high physical switch count, while Sound Devices outdoes Canon and Nikon with its almost totally menu-driven approach. The Nagra aims to strike a happy medium with gain and monitoring on the hardware, and phantom, etc, in the software. There are three user function buttons on the front, and software support for these is coming soon. The VI offers -bit kHz, which sets it apart from some of its rivals and will certainly appeal to the serious music market. You can mix tracks to down to and if you want to take away a finished stereo balance. The VI can also accept two AES digital inputs, and you can spend a happy afternoon working out how to clock everything. Over your shoulder the Nagra is big but not heavy, which is a bit strange really. The battery pack is chunky (the machine ships with a three hour battery, but a higher capacity version is available), but again doesn’t seem to weigh a tonne. Better that than the other way round. Did I mention that the machine has an onboard charger that charges while connected to the mains? No? – well, I have now. But to be honest when it comes to using one, the Nagra VI is designed to sit on a trolley. The strap handles even serve double duty as lifts to get the front of the machine to a nice viewable angle, but more on the subject of size later. I took the VI out for a music recording gig – Nagra see the appeal of the VI to both film and music markets. I found it a totally satisfying recording experience, easy to set up, easy to monitor what is going on, and capable of making very, very high quality recordings. I found myself > Weight y Issues 58 AUDIO MEDIA NOVEMBER 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AudioMedia - November 2008

AudioMedia - November 2008 Contents Recording News Post News Broadcast News Geofocus: Italy What's Up UK AES Review For the Record Studio Snapshot: Aquarium Abbey Road Plug-ins Brilliance Pack Neumann TLM67 Mercenary Audio KM-69 IZ Technology ADA Final Cut Special: Bond TC Powercore 6000 EP Productions Nagra VI Product Sampler: Location Tools Video Guide AMSR News Shure KSM9 Big Beach Boutique 4

AudioMedia - November 2008

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