So far, so good.
The Nagra showed up well packed and, as far as I can tell, ready to go. I really didn't have to do much to it. I cleaned the heads and guides with Q-tips and alcohol, and the guides were pretty dirty. Other than that, the machine is remarkably clean. It looks almost new.
The first problem was the microphone input. The Nagra has a male XLR, which is backwards from what we use today. I made a female-to-female XLR cable and plugged in the Electro-Voice 635A.
Check. Check. One, two, three.
The VU meter jumped and I could hear signal.
In one ear. Naturally.
The Nagra is true mono, so I'll need a 1/4-inch mono-to-1/8-inch stereo adapter to get the signal into both sides of my headphones. The line-in and line-out cables are being made now, but in the meantime I found a way to pad the Nagra's input so I can feed it a line-level signal and use the microphone gain control as the final level going to tape.
That has been useful for testing.
I've been putting jazz records through the machine and listening to the repro while the tape is recording. It is a simple way to hear what the Nagra is actually doing to the signal. I've been playing with the EQ, limiter, and the new CTX Color Card and listening to how each stage changes what comes back off the tape.
I also muted everything, turned the Nagra preamp all the way down, and just listened to the tape.
It is quiet.
I was expecting more noise, especially at 7.5 ips, but the tape and the Nagra preamp are both quieter than I expected. I don't think tape noise is going to be much of an issue.
The bigger thing I'm hearing is the frequency response at 7.5 ips. There is a roll-off in the highs, with the machine getting out to around 15 kHz, and there is a little lift in the lows. Switching back and forth between the source and the repro while it was recording made it pretty obvious that the signal had gone through a tape machine.
Which is exactly what I wanted to hear.
I've recorded two albums onto the reel now, mostly just playing around and getting a feel for the machine. It has been fun. I'm only working with one mono signal at the moment, but I'm learning what the Nagra is going to do before I put the whole system together.
The 600 Ohm Comb Net - aka “The Chuck Box”
The summing box is finished too. It is built by Chuck and labeled the "600 OHM COMB NET," which I assume means combining network. It looks exactly like the sort of thing I hoped would come out of this project.
The next test is the real one.
Four microphones into the 501s. Into the combining network. Through the CP5 and CTX Color Card, the 511 and the XLA-500, and finally into the Nagra.
If everything behaves, I'll take it out to a local location with a grand piano and make a test recording.
I'll do the first one myself. If that goes well, I'll bring a few friends in and make a proper recording.
I want to set it up exactly the way I've been imagining it.
For now, I have the first reel, the RTM SM911. Right out of the box I really like this tape. It feels good in your hands and it sounds good coming back through the Nagra. There is something satisfying about having a reel of tape that you actually recorded something onto.
I want a shelf full of them eventually. Good music. Good performances. Good moments. All on mono 1/4-inch tape.
That's the idea.