AudioMedia - November 2008 - (Page 59)

NAGRA | VI > enjoying my re-acquaintance with a professional location Nagra, with everything from the meters to the multi-function control bar. Back at the ranch you can plug your VI into the computer with a USB lead and transfer the audio to your DAW for editing and mixing. Having had my initial fun I passed the Nagra on to Julian Howarth. I tracked him down to a Torchwood shoot – where his Deva V had pride of place on the sound trolley. Julian does front line sound on Doctor Who and Torchwood, and has a well-honed workflow based around the flexibility of digital multi-track on location. Interestingly with less Nagra time under his belt, Julian found the menus a bit more cumbersome. And I agree that Nagra will need to tread carefully as they augment the menu system with new features. And here the user definable keys really do need to come into their own. We agreed that the build quality is very nice, the screen and front panel controls easy to use and ergonomically well designed. I was surprised that Julian didn’t miss DVD – his rushes were running somewhere between - Gig a day, so you have to factor that into your budget for Compact Flash cards. Talking to the company about suitable cards, Nagra is concerned about Compact Flash performance. If you run six tracks at kHZ -bit, then you’re up at Mb per second, and Nagra have found that not all Compact Flash cards are going to stand that even if they claim very high speeds. One interesting point that Julian raised, was that when the VI is plugged into a PC over USB, then it reverts to drive mode and you lose recorder functionality, which means that if you are transferring rushes over USB then this will have to be at the end of the day. You can understand that crews working very long days want to keep the tidying up to a minimum. Key areas in all modern workflows are data management, and metadata creation and control. The Nagra does well with data file management, but without a keyboard it just doesn’t have the flexibility to keep up with the amount of text input required. Like all digital equipment of this complexity the promise of new functions keep us looking ever Alp-wards, and by the time you read this, the keyboard drivers should have arrived which will make metadata entry a much more joyous experience. One area that remains resolutely traditional is the Nagra transport control, which combines all your tactile operations into one mechanism. It still works beautifully, however in the world of the boot time you do have to be careful you don’t let your machine switch off between takes when you only really wanted to go into Stop. No one likes waiting for sound. of guys mostly steeped in video got their hands on the machine. We all love a toy and the finish of the Nagra drew admiring comments from all round the room. Interestingly these guys who are well versed in stuffing video on to Compact Flash cards didn’t seem as concerned about data rates as Nagra is. As if in answer to prophecy, by the time I had finished these words, Nagra had released version . of their firmware, and it’s worth just highlighting some of the new functionality… The chase synchroniser feature is now finished and you can GOTO any timecode location. Which gets a big hurray from me and anyone else dealing with long files. The User Programmable Keys can now take you to any menu selection with one press and a couple of standard short cuts on the arrow keys – which I guess will get a big hurray from Julian. There’s extra gain in the monitor circuits and timecode frame rate added to the display. Check out the other stuff at www.nagraaudio. com. It’s good see Nagra keeping users happy with updates – support is a key part of modern purchasing decisions when your recorders are half computer, half Gameboy. I’m thrilled to see Nagra continuing its long and noble tradition in location sound. The story goes that Mr Nagra is mostly yacht-bound these days, and of course the company has diversified into many different branches of digital technology. It’s good to see Nagra hasn’t forgotten its roots. Va Suisse. ∫ I N F O R MAT I O N £ GB£3,990.00 (exc.VAT) A Nagra Kudeslski (GB) Ltd., 3U St Albans Enterprise Centre Long Spring, Porters Wood, St Albans, Herts AL3 6EN T +44 (0) 1727 810002 F +44 (0) 1727 837677 W www.nagraaudio.com E audio.uk@nagra.com THE SYMPHONY SYSTEM The Most Powerful Audio Workstation Available The Symphony System combines Apogee’s legendary X-Series and Rosetta Series converters with Apple’s revolutionary Mac Pro and Logic Pro audio workstation using the 32-channel Symphony PCI card. BEST SOUNDING The most sonically advanced audio hardware interfaces combined with the most advanced music creation and production tool. HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 1.6 milliseconds at 96k and up to 192 simultaneous channels of audio. Introducing Logic Studio A suite of powerful, easy-to-use music creation and production tools, Logic Studio gives musicians everything they need to write, record, edit, mix and perform. GREATEST VALUE A fraction of the cost of popular card-based, DSP systems. Symphony PCIE Card 32-Channels of I/O per card & up to 96 channels per system. I think Julian and I are at one on the strengths – great sound, great controls, great display, great build quality. Good battery life and low dissipated heat levels are a plus. And for me a great price – here’s a Nagra that’s not leading the pack on the pounds sign, which has to be a first. The points to pause and consider will be mostly be around track/mic amp count, and size. On the first point, is / enough? And on the second the VI is a big machine – it’s not a heavy machine or a clumsy machine, but it does have a fair old footprint. This is a ‘suck it and see’ area really. I was present at the BBC DV forum when a gang Low Pounds, But Top Points The Total Package AUDIO MEDIA NOVEMBER 2008 59 http://www.nagraaudio.com http://www.nagraaudio.com http://www.nagraaudio.com http://www.sonic-distribution.com

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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