Interesting Cloudlifter Application

[Bob Womack]

A colleague of mine was recently tasked with supporting and capturing a university graduation ceremony. He would have three feeds to supply - front of house, broadcast, and post-production (an edited, remixed version would be issued later). His concern was that he wanted the mic to sound its best and to be supplied to all three feeds at a reasonable level, even though it would be positioned a good foot below the speaker's mount at the podium.

He brought me into his work control room, played his final mix for me, and asked, "What mic did I use?" I took a listen and said, "Well obviously you didn't use the usual SM57/58 because the midrange bulge isn't there." He smiled broadly and said, "I got you!" It turns out that he WAS using an SM57 under a big fuzzy-wuzzy pop and wind filter



but he then ran the SM57 through a Cloudllifter to raise the level. Normally the SM57 has a midrange bulge and it is further emphasized by the roll-off created by those big thick windscreens necessary for windy days.

What he discovered was that the Cloudlifter changed the output impedance that the SM57 presented to the preamps and the midrange bulge virtually disappeared! When combined with moving the mic away from the source, thus eliminating the mic's low-end presence, the result was a remarkably flat, human-sounding voice rather than that midrangy SM-sounding voice we all know.

Bob

[lkingston]

I absolutely agree, but it doesn’t have to be a CloudLifter. A 57 with a good preamp is magic. Fetheads also work well, though they do brighten the EQ a hair. I really like them with big foam windscreens as well. It cuts the breath noises and makes you position your mouth right. I would go as far as to say that a 57 or Beta57A with a big foam windscreen and inline preamp is hard to distinguish from the much loved Shure SM7B.

[Brent Hahn]

Cloudlifters can also be effective when used in situations where you don't "need" the gain. A 57 on a snare is plenty loud, but add in a Cloudlifter and it'll slightly clip the preamp in a way that may or may not be pleasing. Into my API or Avalon preamps is pleasing, into my friend's Scarlett interface is not.

[DupleMeter]

Anytime you can make 57/58 not sound like a 57/58 is a good thing.