DIY Broadcast mixer based on Nagra?

[Anthon]

Hi there,

I worked with Nagra III during my education (probably the reason why I fell in love with the sound in the first place), so I bought a working Nagra 4.2 of the eBay.

I'm still doing some film-on-location-audio-recording from time to time. I ussually use SoundDevices 442 (rented) as a field mixer... although I would like to have it, it's just too expensive.

I was wondering - would it be possible to create a high end broadcast mixer from scratch, based on Nagra circuitry?
Nagra is build from small modules, so you can actually see the preamp board very well, it doesn't look very complex either. I have the real thing, so it would be easy to evaluate the progress.
I think it could be a really interesting project.

What do you think? Where do I even begin?

[thaumaturge]

Sorry. This is in an unexpected group, so I didn't see it when you first posted.

If you are still around and still care; in answer to your question mixers go from simple to hellacious complicated depending on features. Nagra caters to the film world, so they are among the highest priced, but not necessarily the best. (I have no complaints against Nagra so don't flame me.) Biggest question is just what features to you want in a mixer. Will you need phantom power? That makes it a whole lot more complicated. Filters, more complicated still. EQ, more complicated still. What you might do though is to buy a much cheaper model with the features you want, then upgrade it with higher quiality op amps and such. To do a Nagra mixer from scratch is not a project for a beginner.

Looking at the Nagra III spec sheet, I see a mixer / recorder combo. Is that what you are after? If you haven't tried one yet I'd take a good close look at the Zoom digital recorders. Nagra also makes a portable digital recorder. But comparing the two at an NAB convention I chose the Zoom H4 over the Nagra due to better specs.... and a much lower price.

Doc