Topic: Stefan Kudelski, R.I.P.

[DSatz]

Today's N.Y. Times carries an obituary for Stefan Kudelski, founder of Kudelski SA and inventor of the Nagra tape recorder, which was the first practical, high-quality battery-powered tape recorder.

[macdaddy]

NPR did a piece on him the other day...

link

[F.O.Bean]

 

[John Willett]

Today's N.Y. Times carries an obituary for Stefan Kudelski, founder of Kudelski SA and inventor of the Nagra tape recorder, which was the first practical, high-quality battery-powered tape recorder.

Yes, a sad loss.  I met him a few times; a great man and a great innovator that will be sadly missed.

Actually, the first Nagra was clockwork powered - the battery only ran the electronics (valves - about a decade before the transistor).  Very cleverly he thought why should I take power from the battery to move the tape when swill clockwork can do that and leave all the battery power for the electronics.

Stefan won the very first International Recording Contest with his home-made recorder.  While everyone else was stuck inside with large mains machines, Stefan was ou and about with his portable unit.  He so impressed Swiss Radio that they immediately ordered 6 from him - and that was the start of Nagra.

Nagra is Polish for "will record"

And the International Recording Contest is still going strong and celebrated it's 60-years the same time as Nagra.  See HERE.

[bluewingolive]

NPR did a piece on him the other day...

link

Thanks for the link...interesting stuff.

[TSNéa]

NPR did a piece on him the other day...

link

I heard that little fwap, fwap, fwap of the end of the tape inside the Nagra

Terrifying... when you are the sound man operating the Nagra... 

[kleiner Rainer]

BTW clockwork-operated tape recorders were built by AEG for the german army during WW II, they were used by the so called "Kriegsberichtserstatter", official army reporters that went with the troops. Try searching for "Tonschreiber c", or if you can understand german: http://www.magnetbandmuseum.info/w-bruch-artikel-nr49.html
The machine ran for 4 minutes before you had to rewind it, power was 4.5V for the carbon mic, no playback, only recording, weight was 12 kg. BTW one was used by paratroopers during the attack on Crete, that recording is preserved according to the homepage mentioned. After the war they were used by radio stations for portable use and rebuilt with better preamps.

I suspect Stefan Kudelski knew those machines...

Greetings,

Rainer

[fotoralf.be]

French public broadcaster France Culture has a programme on their website which had originally been produced in the late 1980's:

http://www.franceculture.fr/emission-l-atelier-de-la-creation-on-nagra-2013-02-12

In this programme, Kudelski explains some of the history behind the first Nagra. Interestingly, it had not been conceived as an audio recorder but as a data storage device for an automatic milling machine he wanted to build. Unfortunately - or luckily for us - he had to find out that noone was interested in such a machine at that time. Then an acquaintance of Kudelski told someone at Radio Geneva about this guy who had built his own tape recorder. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ralf

[John Willett]

French public broadcaster France Culture has a programme on their website which had originally been produced in the late 1980's:

http://www.franceculture.fr/emission-l-atelier-de-la-creation-on-nagra-2013-02-12

In this programme, Kudelski explains some of the history behind the first Nagra. Interestingly, it had not been conceived as an audio recorder but as a data storage device for an automatic milling machine he wanted to build. Unfortunately - or luckily for us - he had to find out that noone was interested in such a machine at that time. Then an acquaintance of Kudelski told someone at Radio Geneva about this guy who had built his own tape recorder. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ralf

Not sure exactly how true this was, but Swiss radio heard it directly.

Stefan won the very first International Recording Contest with his first hand-made clockwork recorder back in 1952 which was sponsored by Swiss Radio in Geneva - they were so impressed that they asked him to make some for them - and the rest is history.  Info HERE.

The international contest is still going strong - info is HERE.

[fotoralf.be]

In the programme by France Culture, it's only Kudelski himself and some of his very early collaborators who tell the story. But you surely know better than they do.

Ralf