Thanks to all for responding!
Bernie, I had a Nagra once. There is a totally unique "scent" of quality
around such a machine. Just owning a Nagra is something special, and I had =
a
talk with Dan for a month ago about where to buy one.
But I would not use it, rather have it under my bed. If a nightmare took me=
,
I could look at it for a while and then go back to sleep again, reassured o=
f
"something". It's almost magical.
Did you read "how to mend a motorcycle" by Rob Pirzig? From a philosophical
point of view, he tries to analyze what "quality" is. He concluded, (I
interpret, as he never spoke right out) that quality was the emotional
engagement, invested in the product. Or something like it, I'm sure there
are list members with a better interpretation.
(Pirzig moved to Sweden after his son was stabbed to death in Los Angeles. =
I
was told he was asked a number of times to re-enter his academic ladder. I
think he had some seminars in Lund, Southern Sweden. Does anyone know what
happened to him, in the end?)
"They" say that Kudesky (Nagra) sat by himself late nights soldering fixed
resistors into each Nagra instead of using trimable resistors. "They" say
that he got a serious nervous breakdown. I can understand both. It doesn't
matter if it is myth or reality.
Today, "quality" must ne measured in very different terms. Each MD you can
buy in any local shop has a better precision than the NASA moon rocket. And
there are 6 dollar, 5 mm electret omnis perfoming better than a 2500 dollar
Neumann mic. Strange days, nowadays.
Klas.
At 07:06 2003-07-25 -0700, you wrote:
>>Yeah, that's what they said and what would have become the big problem.
>>Nobody thought that a computer would work after 200 years or whatever.
>>Somebody would have to sponsor an everlasting organisation keeping the
>>recordings updated to the current formats.
>>
>>But if that could not be arranged (which is a bit difficult, no
>>understatement...) they recommended the magnetic tape.
>>At the Swedish Radio they claimed that magnetic tapes could be stored in
>>such ways that they would never loose anything. They even recommended to
>>bury a Nagra with the tapes, with headphones and all.
>
>
>For what it's worth: In 1980, while on two month trip to the
>Antarctic to record orcas, I was exploring an abandonded US field
>station and found what appeared to be a dark object buried in a block
>of ice. The helicoptor was waiting and the pilot was screaming over
>the roar of the cavitating rotors that he was pulling out in five
>minutes because of changing weather and that he would leave me if I
>didn't get my lardy butt on board. But I kept chipping away with my
>trusty Swiss army knife as the perfectly preserved leather case of a
>Nagra 3 began to reveal itself. I hauled the thing from the ice
>(where it had been left to rot a full ten years before) and scurried
>to the helicoptor just as the pilot was about to take off. When I got
>back to McMurdo, I dried it out with a hair drier, put some new
>batteries in it, and switched it on. Except for some worn heads, it
>worked perfectly (I didn't know Dan Dugan, then, or would have
>brought it back for repair and to add to his museum).
>
>While on a film shoot in N. California one year, we were on board a
>helicoptor doing a long shot of a couple riding horseback down a
>beach. I was sitting on the edge in the open door with my legs
>dangling over and the cameraman shooting over my shoulder, when the
>'copter lurched and the Nagra IVs, formerly sitting on my lap,
>disappeared some 15 meters, wires and all, onto the beach below. With
>only a slight crack in the plastic cover, all else was fine, except
>for a little sand.
>
>Suggest trying either of those tricks with a Portadisk or a Sony TCD
>D10 Pro II or my PowerBook G4.
>
>Bernie
>
>
>--
>Wild Sanctuary, Inc.
>P. O. Box 536
>Glen Ellen, CA 95442
>707-996-6677 tel
>707-996-0280 fax
>http://www.wildsanctuary.com
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/=
>
>
>
Telinga Microphones, Botarbo,
S-748 96 Tobo, Sweden.
Phone & fax int + 295 310 01
email:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|