jlaing96 wrote:Cheers, Dan.. I'm not an Audio expert, so I know very little on all this stuff. But can a cloudlifter work without a preamp? If I'm not mistaken, the BMPCC 6k pro would act in a way like a preamp?
Yes! I will try to explain.
One problem with all microphone preamplifiers is noise. The more amplification, the more noise is introduced. A good (as in expensive) preamplifier has less self-induced noise compared to a less good (cheaper) one.
Most preamplifiers like the one found in the BMPCC6K is well suited for use with active microphones that contain their own amplifiers that is powered using the phantom power provided by the preamplifier. The amplifier built into the microphone boosts the signal so that the preamplifier doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting (and add that noise we don't want).
When using a dynamic microphone, like the SM7B, you need to have all that amplification in the preamplifier since the mic doesn't have any built-in amplification. The SM7B specifically causes problems with most common preamplifiers today since it requires almost 60dB of gain to be usable. That is a lot of gain and requires a very good preamplifier and most are not up to the task.
That's where the CloudLifter comes in. It is a very low noise amplifier that is hooked up in line with the microphone and provides a gain boost (around 20dB for the CL1 version if I remember correctly). The CloudLifter itself is powered using the phantom power from the preamplifier so there is no extra power supply needed.