Welcome Spring!

While Caesar may have been warned to "beware the Ides of March", we say bring it. The buds on the trees are ready to pop, and geese are already flying north overhead. Its in the air. We hope this finds you in good health, good cheer and avoiding the Theatre of Pompey.

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Grace Design Ships New m103 Channel Strip

Grace Design announced today that it has begun shipping production versions of its highly anticipated new m103 channel strip.

The m103 is the first channel strip that Grace has produced. Housed in a 1U, 19” rack mount enclosure, the m103 starts out with a channel of their renowned, transimpedance architecture mic preamp. The mic amp section includes a 12 position, gold plated rotary gain switch, 48V phantom power and ribbon mic mode, a 75 Hz HPF, ¼” front panel Hi-Z input and continuously variable +/- 10dB rotary trim control. The mic amp is followed by a precision, 3-band EQ section. The high and low bands can be switched to either peak or shelf mode while the mid band is fully parametric. An optical compressor follows the EQ. Controls for threshold, attack, release and ratio are provided and two m103’s can easily be linked to provide stereo compression when needed. The EQ and compressor can be independently switched in/out of the signal path and the compressor can be set to precede the EQ if required.

The rear panel contains a female XLR for mic input, XLR male for direct mic amp output and a line input on female XLR. Additional outputs, which are all “hot” simultaneously, include a balanced main output on male XLR, balanced main output on ¼” TRS jack and an unbalanced output via a ¼” TS jack. An additional ¼” jack is provided for stereo linking compressors from two m103 units or as needed as a sidechain input. Finally, a universal input AC supply provides main power to the m103 and will work with voltages ranging from 100 to 240VAC. As is the case with all Grace Design products, the m103 comes with a 5 year, limited warranty.

Commenting on the release of the new m103, VP of sales and marketing, Doug Wood notes “Customers have been asking us to build a channel strip class of product for quite some time. We were excited to take on this new challenge and we’re very proud of the resulting product. Seeing the first production units roll out of our shop is gratifying to all of us. We’re hopeful that our customers will enjoy using the m103 as much as we’ve enjoyed developing it.”

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m802's at the Grammys

Jake and Eben went to 2010 Grammys. Our friends at Music Mix Mobile were there with their 2 Freightliner M2-112 sleeper chassis, 50,000-pound GVW long-haul remote audio trucks. And 112 channels of Grace Design m802 preamplifiers. People, there is nothing cooler than that. Thanks to Joel Singer from M3 for having us as guests. Sunshine, celebrities and an amazing glimpse into one of the most technically demanding productions imaginable. Whew, what a weekend.

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About Grace Design
Grace Design was established in 1994 and is a leading manufacturer of world-class hardware for the professional audio industry. Grace Design’s mission is to provide audio professionals with exceptionally engineered and built products coupled with best-in-class customer service. The product line currently consists of the m801, m802, m802RCU, m201, m101, m501, m103, Lunatec V3 microphone preamps, the m902 reference headphone amplifier, the m904, m904B and m906 reference monitoring systems, and the Spacebar precision microphone positioners. The company’s customers include audio professionals in the music, film, television, live sound, education and corporate markets.

Thanks for your continued support!
-The Grace Design Team