Fernando de Izuzquiza wrote:
>Anyone have experience recording audio on a Nagra IV SJ recorder?
I've serviced them.
>As you know, this particular model was intended for scientific
>measurement and it records "direct" to tape, without inserting
>emphasis/deemphasis at record/playback, -theoretically- having
>excessive tape hiss because of that.
The ones I've seen have had the standard NAB preemphasis. I imagine
there are European ones with CCIR equalization. The tape hiss level
would mostly depend on how well it was calibrated for the tape being
used, and what tape.
>I'd like to know about any real experience with it, or well founded
>comments.
>
>It was used a lot to record subsonic sources like very low freq
>elephant talk, high frew insect calls, traffic rumble/industrial studies, etc.
>It's freq resp was 2,5Hz to 35kHz, and DC to 4kHz on the central FM
>channel.
You'd have to be running at high speed for the extended high
frequency response--with the consequent very short reel time.
What this Nagra model doesn't have is predistortion. Predistortion is
responsible for the Nagra's famous clean sound--more like digital
than common analog recorders. The SJ has the typical increasing
distortion with level experienced with most analog recorders. It also
has special mic preamps that don't accomodate ordinary professional
mics.
The SJ is very expensive to maintain, very heavy, and except for the
low frequency capability of the FM track, inferior to any of today's
digital field recorders. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a
collector and simply must have one.
-Dan Dugan
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