Nagra

A Swiss brand of professional recorder originally designed to record on-location synchronous sound for motion pictures, the industry standard for thirty years, owing to the quality and ruggedness of the recorders. It uses 1/4 tape and is generally equipped with a crystal sync generator. Originally Nagras were portable, designed for use while being carried, and are equal in quality to high-end studio recorders. There are now various models and track formats, including some made just for studio use for making transfers, film mixes, etc. Nagra makes both digital and analog recorders, mono and stereo; use of a stereo Nagra on-location is almost always to record two separate mono tracks simultaneously, and does not usually mean a stereophonic recording. Nagra means “recorded” in Polish, founder Stefan Kudelski’s native language, and the recorders are manufactured by Kudelski S. A. See neo-pilot.