NAGRA 70TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION CD
To commemorate their 70th anniversary, the high-end audio equipment manufacturer Nagra joined forces with audiophile label 2xHD to compile and release a CD to be presented with their first-ever turntable. Mastered at 2xHD on Nagra equipment, the set is pure analogue from original master reel tapes. It includes tracks from Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong, Monty Alexander and Buddy Tate and other amazing audiophile tracks that were recorded on the legendary Nagra IV-S tape recorder.
The CD Album feature tracks from Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong, Monty Alexander and Buddy Tate along with some amazing audiophile tracks recorded on the legendary Nagra IV-S tape machine.
NAGRA: 70th Year Anniversary Collection CD
Record Company – Fidelio Technologies Inc.
Edited At 2xHD
Mastered By René Laflamme
2xHD Fusion based in Montreal and created by audiophile sound engineer René Laflamme and producer André Perry. All 2xHD audiotapes are from the original analogue master and transfer in analogue domain using a Nagra-T tape recorder, modified with high-end tube playback electronics, wired from the playback head. In the high-end audio world, René has carved out a reputation for the definition of excellence and uses his knowledge and unfailing instinct to match various audio components to create the best all-encompassing sound experience.
RENÉ LAFLAMME RECORDING
I began my career recording on analog tape using two tracks mixed live. In 1998 I used a DAT recorder as well as a Sony reel to reel machine. This was my standard equipment for a few years. It was in 2001 that I made my first recording using the legendary Nagra IV-S tape machine employing the NagraMaster EQ curve circuit. The piece that I recorded was The Seven Last Words of Christ written in 1867 by the French Romantic era composer and organist, Théodore Dubois. Returning to my studio after the session and upon first playback I was struck by the very big sound and the immediate emotional connection to the music that it provoked. Sonic standouts were the very lifelike lower registers of the work’s organ and the timbre of the soprano vocal. It was something that I had never heard before in my previous recordings.
Twenty years later this is still what I prefer to bring back to my Fidelio 2xHD Mastering Lab as a reference master of the recording session. Although I also recorded for 10 years with a digital multi- track system with good results, I never really experienced the presence and emotional connection with digital as I do with the Nagra IV-S analog tape machine. There is a humanness and organicity when the chain from microphone to speaker to listener is all analogue without any digital conversion of the original waveform. Direct to disc recording can be a step forward but it comes with cost. Because there can be no editing with this process, musical creativity often suffers. Great recordings require the preservation of the harmonic structure of the electric signal from the microphone. This is essential to the capture of the natural timbre of a performer’s voice or instrument. It is why I use mostly vacuum tube electonics combined with various custom equipment to record.
The signal to noise ratio of the Nagra IV-S using the NagraMaster EQ circuit and RTM SM-900 tape exceeds what I need in most of the recordings that I make in church venues. I prefer historic church venues because their characteristic reverb is a key to preserving the natural rich sounds of acoustic instruments and voices.
For playback I use a custom Nagra T tape machine with vacuum tube tape head electronics. I also use a high-end A/D converter with a NAGRA VII Anniversary digital recorder with SD card storage to make a great digital back-up recording of the session. The Nagra VII Anniversary with its large battery and SD card is by far more pure and sweet than most computers. The Hoodman Steel SD card that I use is essential to capturing the most transparent sound from the VII Anniversary.
