Grace Design m101 Single channel microphone preamplifier

This is not a character or vibe preamp, so if you're looking for something that can do clean and dirty, this is not it. That said, when people ask for a recommendation for clean, transparent, or just solid affordable 1-channel preamps this is my #1. The M101 is clean, no character added, but these days you can add dirt in post if needed. You can't remove dirt easily from a saturated recording. In the voiceover/audiobook studio I worked at in NYC we had access to Neve, Avalon, Focusrite, Earthworks, etc pre's and about 50% of the time we reached for the Grace because it is neutral and reliable. The DI is overlooked at your own peril--it is great for bass and keys and front-mounted for ease. It's not expensive, but it's not cheap. It is worth buying new if you can, but they hold up very well so used is an option. Your SM57 or Neumann U87 will be free to be themselves with the M101.

For the past few years, my podcasting setup has included a Rode Procaster dynamic microphone, a CL-1Cloudlifter, and a Mackie Blackjack audio interface. As a dynamic mic, the Procaster isn't very sensitive and requires a high gain to get a decent signal. (This isn't a complaint about the Procaster, which has a very nice, professional sound; it's just the nature of dynamic mics, and given my noisy environment, a dynamic cardioid mic is what I need.) In fact, when I bought my setup, the reviews noted that without the Cloudlifter, the Procaster probably wouldn’t be able to drive the Mackie sufficiently.Even with the Cloudlifter, I’ve had to drive my Mackie pretty hard, but until recently I’ve gotten acceptable results. While recording my most recent episode, however, I noticed a significant and unacceptable amount of background hiss that I had to tackle with some aggressive noise reduction. I didn’t know if my equipment was getting old or not, but I decided, given the marginal performance I had always experienced, that it was time for an upgrade in the mic preamp department to see if that was the problem. After doing research in which I tried to identify mic preamps that had clean gain and a lot of it, I settled on the Grace Design m101 and, with a gulp, pulled the trigger.Make no mistake about it; this is an expensive unit, especially given that it is for a single channel of audio. You could buy roughly five Cloudlifters for the price of one m101. But having run it through tests against the Cloudlifter, I must say that you get what you pay for. With the ribbon mic circuit engaged, the m101 delivers extremely clean sound from my Procaster with a ton of headroom remaining. I have the gain knob on the m101 set at about the halfway point AND my Mackie input turned much farther down than with the Cloudlifter, and the difference is night and day I’m now as clean as can be, and neither the m101 nor the Macke are even close to their limits.I don’t mean to knock the Cloudlifter. It gave good service for years, and it doesn’t pretend to be in the same class as the m101; it is what it is, and has been a good value for the money. But if it isn’t enough for what you need, and you have the coin and can justify spending it, take a serious look at the m101.

This does a lot more than "what goes in one end comes out louder at the other end". We use this on vocals with Shure 57s and 58's all the up to Schoeps CMIT5UAG Shotgun. We have recorded voices and acoustic guitars. One studio musician will only record his electric guitar through this preamp plugged preceding everything else in the chain. Again, if you are going spend any money on a mic, this would/should come first - plug in your $99 mike and "believe what you hear actually came out of that cheap mic". And this preamp does wonders on violins and cellos. How do I know, I spent tens of thousands of dollars before bringing this Grace101 into the studio. I wish I had purchased it first - you will get so much more out of your equipment. Other equipment we use: ProTools, Focusrite Saffire Liquid 66, and Mac's latest with 24 gig of RAM (yes-24 gig/machine) and a DROBO 5 bay storage.

I ended up buying three of these (one for each microphone in a professional studio). That was after I tested every mic pre-amp under the sun, including ones that were $2,500. The Grace beats the pants of everything when it comes to crystal clear gain and adding NO extra background noise. I used to use Cloudlifters which are great for the price, but even they can't produce the amount of gain the Grace does. ART, Focusrite, Presonus - tried them all and ended up returning every single one to Amazon. Don't waste your time on anything else, invest the money in these babies, you won't regret it if you're serious about great, clean, and loud audio.

Love it. Can run an SM7b with clear transparency. I find that a lot of reviews on these items listed under "musical instruments" are by people who are actual musicians who know their stuff.As a "voice over" enthusiast these reviews don't do me any good at all. For other VO enthusiasts out there (or pros for that matter), I really wish I grabbed this piece when it was still $600.00 when it came out. Transparency in VO is extremely important if you're submitting your takes to a studio or group. If they want to add color or post-effects to your takes, then they can do so with your natural voice in mind.The Grace M101 is something special in that it has tons of clean gain and will bring out the truest form and qualities of a microphone.