Recording - December 2015 - 22

BY ALEX HAWLEY

Grace Design is highly respected in the
audio industry for its microphone preamps,
converters, and monitoring solutions. I was
first introduced to Grace while working
with an m201 at a studio in Boulder,
Colorado. Certain traits stuck with me-
clean, transparent, high headroom, great
transient response, and very low noise.
That Grace has since become a workhorse
preamp for me in the studio; its reliability
and consistency has kept me coming back
time and time again. After having such a
great experience with the m201, I was very
excited to get my hands on the FELiX.
FELiX is a brand new release from Grace,
which covers new ground by bringing its

Grace Design FELiX
The famed Grace clarity in a guitar preamp for studio and stage
high quality, studio-grade preamplifiers to
the stage. This two-channel acoustic instrument and microphone preamp comes
armed with a versatile EQ section and
blender.
Meet FELiX
The FELiX, like all Grace products, features
a slick and pristine design equipped with
silky-smooth pots and durable footswitches.
The pots on the faceplate are certainly roadworthy, with clearly marked labels for easy
identification on a dark stage. The floor unit
chassis is made with anodized aluminum
and steel, and is built like a tank to thrive in
the studio or on the road.
The front panel follows signal from left
to right. The two rows of pots control two
independent instrument channels, which
can be blended into one output or can be
used as individual channels (more on
these configurations later). There is an
XLR input for channel 1, as well as 1/4"
instrument inputs for either channel. The
input LED indicator flashes green when
signal is present, and turns red before
clipping. Both channels have alternate
impedance settings for different types of
pickups, accessible from a toggle switch
on the back panel labeled 'Z'.
Next comes the EQ section. The first band
is changeable between a highpass filter and
a low-frequency notch filter. This is selectable
from DIP switches 1 and 2 on the side panel
for channels 1 and 2 respectively. The HPF
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(for those of you keeping score at home) is a
Thomson-Butterworth filter with a 12
dB/octave rolloff. It does a great job of cutting unwanted rumble and mud out of the
signal. It ranges from 20 Hz to 1 kHz, so you
have plenty of flexibility for any instrument.
The notch filter, which has the same range as
the HPF, is very useful to remove specific
problem frequencies that can be causing
potential feedback on stage.
The low and high bands each have a
gain control (±12 dB, detented at 0), and
fixed frequency shelves. The low shelf is
fixed at 125 Hz (option to move to 250
Hz via internal jumper) with a 40 Hz
peak, and the high shelf is fixed at 2 kHz
with a 12 kHz peak.
The midrange section of the FELiX is fully
parametric, allowing you to have control
over gain (±12 dB, detented at 0), frequency (70-880 Hz, or 670-8.0 kHz via DIP
switches 3 and 4), as well as Q (0.5 to 5).

Just to the right of the EQ is the Mix
function. This will be enabled with DIP
switch 6. Here, you can create a blend
between channels 1 and 2. Setting it to
12 o'clock blends both signals 50/50. If
the DIP switch is set to A/B mode, then the
footswitch will be used to toggle between
channels 1 and 2 (an LED indicates which
channel you are currently on). The A/B
mode is exclusive, so the channel not currently selected will be muted. This mode
can be useful when switching between
two different instruments on the fly.
Next in the chain is Boost control. Boost is
activated with the corresponding footswitch,
and ranges from 0 dB to +10 dB when fully
clockwise. This is a global setting that will
add boost to every output signal. Exercise
caution if you are using a microphone or
pickup that is prone to feedback; start small
before you try to push the FELiX to 11. The
sound crew will thank you for it!
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2015
