Accessory 8 of 9

Preamps & Cloudlifters — clean gain for quiet mics

If your interface doesn’t have enough clean gain for an SM7B, the recording is hissy. The fix is a $150 in-line booster called a Cloudlifter. Here’s how it works and what else exists.

Cloudlifter price~$150

Boost amount~25dB clean

Famous useSM7B on entry interfaces

What they are

Boosters that add clean gain before your interface

A microphone preamp takes the very low-level signal coming out of a microphone and boosts it to a level your audio interface can record cleanly. Every audio interface has preamps built in. The question is whether they have enough clean gain for the mic you want to use.

Quiet mics like the Shure SM7B and the Electro-Voice RE20 need around 60–70dB of clean gain to sound right. Many sub-$200 interfaces top out at 50–56dB, which sounds hissy when you push them hard. The fix is an in-line preamp booster.

The Cloudlifter and friends

Cloudlifter CL-1 — the famous one. Adds about 25dB of clean, quiet gain. ~$150. Runs off phantom power. Sits in-line between mic and interface.
Cloudlifter CL-Z — Cloudlifter with adjustable impedance and high-pass filter. ~$300.
Triton Audio FetHead — same idea, smaller, about $90. Some prefer its tone.
sE Electronics DM1 Dynamite — affordable +28dB booster, around $80.
Klark Teknik CT 1 — Behringer’s budget Cloudlifter clone, ~$70.

Standalone preamps

Not just boosters — character

Beyond simple boosters, the world of standalone microphone preamps is enormous. Names like Universal Audio (Solo/610), Neve (1073, 1084), API (512c, 312), Avalon, and Grace Design represent a different category entirely — preamps that add their own sonic character to anything plugged through them. These start around $700 and go to $5,000+. They’re what professional studios use in front of even the best Neumann mics.

Should you buy one?

Buy a Cloudlifter whenYou have an SM7B (or similar quiet dynamic) and an entry-level interface. The combination of $150 Cloudlifter + $130 Scarlett Solo gives you a working SM7B setup for ~$700 total including the mic.

Buy a standalone preamp whenYou’re running a serious commercial studio and you want sonic character — Neve color, API punch, Universal Audio warmth — that an interface preamp won’t give you.