Grace Design m102 Reviews

5.0/5.0 based on 2 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Sam
from Brooklyn, NY USA
February 5, 2013Music Background:
Podcaster

Exactly What I Was Looking For

I've been really thrilled with my Grace m101 pre, and wanted to complement the rich, clean gain with some smooth, transparent compression. I've had good experiences with the FMR Audio RNC, but have been frustrated by its unbalanced connectors, and also find that it can sometimes rob my recordings of some richness and detail. I record storytelling/narration pieces, and it's imperative that they feel intimate and present, so I decided to see how the m102 fared.

I'm here to report I couldn't be happier. As others have said elsewhere, you really don't know it's there until you really drive it hard, and even then it's still fairly subtle compared to other compressors I've used. It doesn't seem to color the sound at all on more gentle settings, and while I can't comment on how well it would be suited for recording music, it's pretty much perfect for the spoken-word work I'm using it for. Naturally, it pairs beautifully with the m101--but I can't imagine you'd have bad results with any pre's input.

For my budget, it's a lot to spend for compression on a single channel, but it's also delivered exactly the sound I was hoping for, and that's worth a lot! I was really happy to see that Sweetwater's carrying them--they're hard to find. You should buy one so that they continue to stock them!

Fred Freda
from Sea Isle City NJ
October 22, 2012Music Background:
Engineer Producer

A perfect Match

I have been looking at the Sweetwater catalogue for a long time now in search of a match for my Grace m101 pre-amp. So when they came out with the m102 it was a no brainer. I have a nice input chain for my DAW that consists of a Robbie pre-amp by Blue and a Summit Audio TLA-50 and love the warm sound that the tubes bring. But when i do background vocals with the same input chain the tube character makes it difficult to place the background vocals in the mix. No problem now though, with the ultra clean Grace pre and compressor combo placing background vocals is a snap. Also great on percussion because of the ultra fast attack and clean compression. I love both of my Grace products and dollar for dollar the just can't be beat.