Nagra

Nagra is a series of mostly battery-operated portable professional audio recorders produced by Kudelski SA, based in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland.

The machines were initially designed by Polish inventor Stefan Kudelski, and his company won numerous technical awards for their precision and reliability. Nagra means "[it] will record" in Polish, Kudelski's mother language.

Nagra-brand tape recorders were the de facto standard sound recording systems for motion picture and (non-video) single-camera television production from the 1960s until the 1990s.

Nagra recorders are identified by a number that indicates their technological generation and features:

In addition to these field recorders, Kudelski S.A. produced a studio recorder called the Nagra T-Audio, designed mainly for use in telecines for transferring dailies. All of the above machines use 1/4" tape.

Kudelski SA have also produced a series of miniaturised reel-to-reel recorders using a special tape (width 3.81 mm) slightly larger than the conventional 1/8" cassette tape. These machines are referred to as SN (for Série Noire) and production was originally ordered by President Kennedy for the United States Secret Service.

The SN range comprises the following models:

A special version of the SN using unique tape cassettes was made in cooperation with JBR Technology and widely used by US domestic intelligence agencies.

The Nagra IV-STC was the standard for film and classical music recording until the mid-1990s, when DAT recorders became reliable enough to use in the field. In response, Kudelski produced two digital recorders to compete:

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