- If you've ever set up a microphone
only to find that the audio level is just a bit too low,
it can be incredibly frustrating.😫
Sometimes even great microphones need a little help,
so let's see how you can use a boost
to get the moot out of your microphone.
(intro music to boost your mood)
In the whole wide wacky world of microphone boosters
and signal amplifiers
it can sometimes feel a little overwhelming.
So today let's talk
about what the differences are between them,
when you might need one, when you might NOT need one,
and some good recommendations for reliable
and affordable boosters.
So let's start off by talking
about what the heck is a microphone booster
or a signal amplifier?!
It's usually some type of little device
that goes into your signal chain
between your microphone and your interface, your mixer,
whatever you're connecting it to.
And what the signal booster does, believe it or not,
is boosts the signal. (shocked gasps)
And there are many different kinds of these,
but they pretty much all run on phantom power,
which every mixer and interface has.
You connect to these to that, turn on phantom power
and then this is going to amplify the signal
coming from your microphone.
And so, not only does a booster
go beyond what your mixer can do natively,
but it also introduces what's called "clean gain."
Some mixers do have a lot of gain built into them
like the Zoom P8 that I reviewed a few months ago,
it has like 76 decibels of gain, which is awesome.
That means it can even run a quiet microphone
like the Shure SM7B without a booster
and you can get a proper level.
However, it wasn't necessarily the cleanest gain.
So the next question naturally
would be when do you need a signal booster?
And the answer, hopefully,
is that you DON'T need one,
because why spend more money on something
and add something else to your setup if you don't need to?
If you're using a condenser microphone,
like the one I'm using right now,
which is the Earthworks Icon–
and because this is the most popular question I get asked,
reporterstore.com 👍
is where you can get these colored windscreens.
I'm not associated with them,
I have no affiliate links for them,
they don't know who I am or that I exist, (tears)
but that's where you can get these.
This is the SM7B Windscreen,
and it fits the Earthworks Icon pretty well as well.
So if you want all kinds of colors
of your pop filters and windscreens,
go to reporterstore.com because that is...
No matter what the video is about,
that's going to be the most popular question that I get.
But this is a condenser microphone.
And if you're using a condenser,
what that means is it's running off of phantom power itself.
And because of that, condenser microphones
usually have really high signal outputs,
which means you're getting enough level right off the bat
and you don't need to worry about it.
Dynamic microphones, on the other hand,
things like the PodMic,
the SM7B,
the MV7,
dynamic microphones like those
are usually the ones that need a signal boost.
But there are so many variables
that go into whether or not you need a signal booster.
Things like the type of microphone you're using,
the interface or the mixer you're sending it into,
the level that you speak at when you're recording,
the environment that you're recording in.
So it's hard to say, yes, you need one for sure,
or no, you don't.
But speaking of needing one for sure,
if you're using the Shure SM7B,
you probably just need a signal booster. (seriously, just get one)
That is a legendary microphone,
the sound quality is amazing,
but it's also a legendarily quiet microphone.
So to really make it shine,
like the way that you probably wanted it to
when you bought it,
you probably need a signal booster for it,
unless you just speak super loud and authoritatively
because you used to be like a bootcamp drill instructor
or something.
So my recommendation is to always get your setup going
and then see if it works for you.
And if everything sounds good,
then don't worry about any of this.
Save yourself the money and the time and the effort,
and don't worry about it.
But if you've connected everything,
and you're still finding that the levels
just aren't as loud as you need them to be,
then that's where you need a booster.
And if you're wondering whether or not you can use a booster
with a condenser microphone, the answer is generally no,
because these run on phantom power
and condenser microphones run on phantom power.
So, if this is in your signal chain
getting the phantom power,
it's not going to also then be sending power
to the microphone,
so your condenser won't even be turned on.
Now, there are a few very kind of limited
and hard to find models of signal boosters
that do have phantom pass through power
for condenser microphones.
I have no idea why you would need to use that,
but it does exist.
I've never used it, I've never needed it,
you probably don't need it.
If you know you need that, you know you need it.
If you're wondering whether or not you do, you don't.
(laughs in absurdity)
So, don't worry about it.
I have the Cloudlifter and the FetHead,
which are probably two of the most popular ones
that have been around for a really long time.
And then I've also got the Coda MB-Stealth
and the Klark Teknik CT 1.
I paid for all of these myself at full price,
except for the Coda Stealth,
this one was sent to me like eight months ago.
There were a lot of other ones out there,
but these were just the ones that I happen to have
and I think they can at least give you a good baseline
of what might or might not work for you
and then you can make your ultimate decision from there.
I'm also filming this video with an anamorphic lens
for no reason other than funsies.
And I'm trying to be sparing with how much I move
and let the lens flares come in and out, but it's fun. Anyway..
We'll just go through each of these
and talk about the pros and the cons.
This is the Cloudlifter CL-2.
The reason it's called the "2,"
is because there are TWO connections,🤯
so you can run two microphones through this.
The regular Cloudlifter, the CL-1 looks exactly like this
if you just broke it in half like a Kit-Kat bar.
But this is two because it's actually cheaper to buy this
than to have the individual ones,
and I needed two at the time that I bought this.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price,
the MSRP for the CL-2 for this one is $299,
the MSRP for the single channel one is $179.
This came out in 2011,
so it's been around for over a decade at this point.
These are known, trusted, reliable,
it's built really well, it's just a metal thing.
I really love the design of this.
And if you care about where your stuff is manufactured,
this is made in the good ol' U.S. of A.
And the way that you would use the Cloudlifter
is you just run your microphone into it,
and then you use another XLR cable.
Typically, usually it's a short patch cable like this,
that then goes into your mixer or your interface.
And that way,
this can just sort of hang out right next to that
and be connected to it.
You don't have to use a short cable,
you can use a longer cable and position this somewhere else,
wherever you need it.
But you are gonna have this box
that's kind of hanging around somewhere in your setup.
And just so you can see the difference,
let's do some sound test comparisons.
So I think the SM7B is going to be the best microphone
to test this out with,
since the difference will be so drastic.
And now, I'm gonna switch over to the SM7B,
which has a plus 35 on the gain.
That's kind of where I normally keep my dynamic microphones.
And its fader is at the unity mark,
a little higher than this one.
So this is the Earthworks,
and now this is the SM7B.
So it is a lot quieter.
I can bump up this channel fader all the way to the top.
I'm just gonna connect the SM7B's cable
into the Cloudlifter,
and then I will use one of these small cables
to go into the RODECaster.
Turn on phantom power.
And now, with the same settings as we used before,
this is the Icon and this is the SM7B.
So it is significantly louder.
I still have the fader at about...
Like a little above halfway,
kind of right at the unity mark, as they say,
and the gain is set to plus 35.
The Cloudlifter adds 25 decibels of clean gain
to your mixer.
And now, you can kind of start to hear the SM7B sounding
like it should sound.
It's a great, rich, full sounding microphone
and that's what it sounds like now.
And since I mentioned the gain and volume,
you might be wondering what the difference is,
and the best way that I've heard it explained to me (thanks Chris!)
is that gain is like the water main
that goes to your house or to a house,
and volume is like a faucet.
Meaning that to get water into your house,
there's a big water main outside
that has just a ton of water
running through it all the time.
But instead of using all the water possible at all times,
you use your faucet to adjust exactly how much water
you want to come out at a given time.
On your mixer, you can set the gain level
and that's gonna be the maximum signal
that's coming from the microphone at all times
and then you can use the volume fader,
if your mixer has one,
to then adjust exactly how much of that signal
you wanna put into the recording or the final output.
If you're using something like the Scarlett 2i2,
you can adjust the gain and then you would adjust the volume
on whatever software application you're recording into.
So let's jump back over to the Earthworks
and talk about our next entry into the booster category,
which is the Triton FetHead.
So the FetHead was released in 2018,
it adds 27 decibels of clean gain to your signal
and the MSRP is $92 for the FetHead,
and it's made in Holland, so "Holla-and...stuff."
Now, this works exactly the same as the Cloudlifter.
You plug it in, you connect phantom power,
but there's one big difference,
which is you don't necessarily have to use a patch cable
like this.
You could, if you wanted to connect this directly
to the back of your microphone and then run a cable
to your mixer,
or you can do what I like to do,
which is just connect this directly
to the back of the RODECaster,
and then run a cable from the microphone to here.
If that doesn't work for you,
of course, you could connect a cable to it
and run it through your line somewhere that way.
But I like connecting this just directly
to the back of the mixer.
If you have a mixer or an interface that has the connections
at the top and you connect this there,
sometimes it can be difficult to fit multiple FetHead
next to each other,
just depending on the design of your interface,
but at least you always have a workaround with the ability
to just use a cable.
So, I actually do prefer this design.
This is the SM7B running into the RODECaster Pro
at gain set to 35 and fader at the unity mark.
And now without me changing anything,
this is the SM7B running through the FetHead.
I actually need to turn the fader down just a little bit,
because we were clipping.
So I know that this says it only adds one
or two more decibels of clean gain,
but it really feels like it makes a much bigger impact
than the Cloudlifter does.
That could just be my very scientific setting
that I have this all happening in,
but you know, hear for yourself the difference.
I can actually turn the gain level down to 25
and then boost up the channel's volume,
which should help give me even a cleaner signal
because the less gain
that you're using in your mixer interface,
the less noise you're going to introduce into your signal.
So, up next let's talk about the Coda MB-Stealth,
and you might be MBious of what it can do.
This is rated to give 28 decibels of clean gain
into your signal,
so more than the FetHead, more than the Cloudlifter.
This was released, I'm not exactly sure when,
but it was either 2021 or 2020,
this is a very new entry.
I believe the company is based in the Seattle area,
but the device itself is actually manufactured in China.
And the MSRP is $109.95,
so right in line,
less than the Cloudlifter, a little more in the FetHead,
but all kind of right in there.
This was specifically designed,
I believe with the SM7B in mind.
And so, one of the reasons it's called the stealth
is because it's supposed to be very stealthy,
it's just a black tube,
which means if you have your microphone connected
to a boom arm
and you've got this running directly into your microphone,
it doesn't really stick out that much,
it's just gonna kind of look like a part of your boom arm
and it's gonna be very covert and...stealthy.
Now, a thing to note about that design
is that unlike the FetHead,
you cannot connect this directly to the back of a mixer.
You can connect it to directly to your microphone,
but this won't fit in the back of a mixer.
So the FetHead can connect directly into it,
the stealth cannot,
which means that if you don't wanna connect it
directly to the output of your microphone,
you're just gonna need to use the patch cable method
that we talked about earlier.
And so, as has been the case with our previous tests,
this is the SM7B plus 35 gain
running through the RODECaster, NOFX, no processing,
and now we'll connect it to the Coda stealth.
And now, without me changing anything,
this is the Coda Stealth and the SM7B.
I have to kind of whisper because the level is so high.
So again, even though this was only one more decibel
than the FetHead, I had to turn my gain on the RODECaster,
all the way down to 13 from 35,
to get a level that wasn't going to clip
and my channel fader is still right at the unity mark,
just above halfway.
And that's something I've noticed about the code of stealth
is that it must really spend a lot of time at the gym
because it has a ton of gains, 💪
which can sometimes be a pains because getting levels...
I've actually kind of struggled with a little bit
with this one.
If you're using the SM7B, which as I mentioned earlier
is kind of a notoriously quiet microphone.
I think it's a great choice because it's really designed
to be paired with the SM7B.
However, with other microphones like the PodMic...
Let's try this actually.
So the pod mic is still something
that I do think benefits from having a signal booster
a lot of the time,
however, with the Coda stealth,
I had to turn the gain on the cast down to five
in order to get it to a level that wasn't gonna clip.
And that might be something that you want.
You wanna use your microphone
with the gain turned all the way down to five.
If however, you're using the SM7B, it's a great choice
because it's going to be more than enough power
to make this thing really shine.
And last but not least on this little experiment today
is a very interesting booster,
which is the Klark Teknik Mic Booster CT-1.
Basically, it's the same idea as the FetHead,
but it's in a package that's a little more similar
to the Coda,
meaning that you can connect it right to the back
of your microphone,
or you can use a cable to connect it
to the back of your interface.
But the FetHead of these ones that I'm using
is the only one that is able to be plugged in directly
to an interface or a mixer.
The CT-1 is also just too big to fit into those connections.
But this is why this is an interesting one,
and why it's one of my favorites with a couple of asterisks.
It came out in 2019,
the CT-1 says that it brings 25 decibels of clean gains.
So it's right in there with the Cloudlifter,
right a little bit below the FetHead,
and the CT-1 has an MSRP of $43.50,
which I was able to purchase mine
for a little bit less than that.
So it is by far even at full retail price,
the least expensive of all these by half or more.
And that's why I really do like this because it works great.
I think it sounds good, I think it's super reliable
and it helps me not feel bad
about recommending a signal booster to people.
Let's connect it and I'll explain.
As is tradition, here is the SM7B
with no signal booster, gain back up at 35
and here's the SM7B at 35 running through the Klark Teknik.
I'm gonna turn the gain down just a little bit.
So now to get to a level that I'm comfortable with,
I was able to turn the gain all the way down to 25.
So this is a pretty clear signal
coming through the SM7P with the Klark Teknik.
At this point, I've been talking about
and recommending microphones to people
for a couple of years,
but I always feel little anxiety...
...not only from existing,
but also from recommending dynamic microphones.
Because even though they're great,
I know that kind of inevitably
somebody is going to come back to me and say,
"I got the PodMic, I got the SM7B, I got the MV7,
whatever it might be, and it's just not loud enough,
what do I do?"
And then I say,
"Well, you need to look into getting a Cloudlifter
or a FetHead," which is not a big deal,
but now, especially if they spent $100 on a microphone
and now they need to spend another $100 on a booster,
sometimes people are like,
"Well, now I just spent $200, I thought I was spending $100,
plus I needed to get an interface or a mixer,
which is another 150 to $600."
And it can just feel overwhelming if you're somebody
who's diving into this kind of gear for the first time.
I think the CT-1 makes things a lot more accessible
because at its price point it's just less intimidating,
and I think a lot more people are more comfortable spending
that kind of money and it works great.
It sounds good, I've had no issues with it,
I've been using it for months and months now.
There are, however, two potential negatives within,
I'll leave this up to you to decide if there are negatives.
One it is made in China,
so the Cloudlifter is made the US,
the FetHead is made in Holland,
the Coda and the Klark Teknik are made in China.
The other one is Klark Teknik.
It's a company that was incorporated in 1974,
so they've been around for a long time.
However, in 2009, they were purchased by another company
called Music Group, which is Behringer.
So they're basically owned by Behringer.
Behringer can sometimes be sort of a controversial name,
so I'll leave that up to you to decide if that's something
that's gonna push you away from the Klark Teknik,
or if you don't care because it's a good thing
at a good price.
Because it's so accessible,
they're pretty much constantly back-ordered.
So if you want one,
I would recommend just putting in the order
and then you know, playing the waiting game. (the Waiting Game sucks, let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos)
And the reason I bring that up
is because something like this microphone right here,
the Lewitt LCT-240,
which is a condenser microphone, has an MSRP of $160
and does not need any kind of signal boost.
And I think this is an outstanding sounding microphone,
it's one of my favorites actually.
So in a lot of ways,
it almost makes more sense to recommend,
especially to someone just starting out
a condenser microphone,
because all they're going to need is a simple interface
with phantom power to connect it to,
and then they're good to go and they're all set,
and that's a lot less frustrating than recommending
a dynamic microphone,
which then they might also need to dive into the world
of signal boosters.
However, condenser microphones aren't always ideal
because they do pick up a lot more environmental noise.
I think condenser microphones are amazing
and I, in a way, maybe even do prefer them
to dynamic microphones,
but they're not as good at noise rejection
and stuff like that.
So it's always tough to say,
you could get a condenser that might be less expensive
if it's something like the Lewitt,
but then you're gonna have background noise,
or you can get a dynamic microphone,
which is gonna be better
at rejecting environmental noise.
So, if you don't have the best treated room in the world,
this could be a great option for you,
but then you might need to also invest a signal booster
to get a level that you want,
so that it sounds as good as you hope that it sounds.
So there are a lot of options out there
and it's just important to know
that if your dynamic microphone
is not getting the level that you want,
it's not your fault, it's not you, it's the microphone
and you might just need to give it a boost.
And speaking of things that give boosts,
thank you to everybody who supports my channel
through Patreon and YouTube channel memberships,
I very much appreciate that.
And if you want to give your knowledge a boost,
check out some of my other microphone videos right here.
(Buck out.)