Cloudlifter vs FETHEAD

this is the sm58 cloud lifter versus fed head example best as I can figure out how to do what's happening boot junkies Mike daube audio here back with another video on home studio setup for voiceover and I've got two microphones in the booth and this is not a microphone comparison this is going to be a comparison that's been done a million times on YouTube so I'm not gonna belabor it I'm gonna try and just tell you about these two products and see if that helps you make a decision on your own because there are a million comparison videos between these two products but a lot of people ask me will you compare the gain amplifiers especially for gain hungry microphones I'm using sm58 because it's the only one that I have - uh I don't have to seven bees I don't have two V's on - of any other the more expensive dynamic microphones but I do have two sm58 so reasonably gain gain hungry microphones not super gain hungry like the 7d but they're reasonably gain gain hungry so hopefully this will be a somewhat reasonable example but we're gonna compare the triton fed head if you can see that it looks like it's overexposed and the cloud lifter cl1 what do these things do well funny that you should ask the the whole purpose behind these products they're pre pre amplifiers for lack of a better word these are devices that you put in between your microphone and your preamp that will amplify the signal it gives you more game the signal coming from your microphone to your preamp will be louder then the same preamp setting without the device gain exciters pre pre amplifiers amplifiers and you hear a bunch of different things but essentially they just increase the gain gain being the amount of signal that's making it to your to your interface at the same preamp setting so right now I have these are both plugged into my zoom h5 and I have the preamps set at seven for both now what that typically means on my particular zoom unit is if I turn my preamps above five I start to get audible hiss maybe you hear it maybe you don't depend on what uh what YouTube's gonna do I'll be quiet for a second we'll see if we hear it it's not loud it's not killer but watch if I turn up the preamp so if I I'm just gonna turn him up to ten we'll see what happens that's gonna be super loud so back down so the idea here is that preamps if your microphone requires a lot of gain it means you have to turn your preamp all the way up and in doing so if you have to turn your preamp all the way up the preamps can often get hiss in them they just become inherently noisy and so if that's the case if you're getting unwanted hiss you're you need to turn your preamplifiers down but then the signal might be super quiet the microphone the signal you're getting on disk might be super quiet and then you gotta raise that up and you're gonna hear the hiss so that's where these come in I'm going to stop for a second plug the plug the devices in so that way we can hear the difference ow I can't even whisper without of being a cloud match give me here that is and then underlying hum apparently I have a ground loop issue still so this is now the same breed level as it was before but with the cloud left are in place and the Fed in place anymore super loud tons more gain okay so the preamps before were on seven really up high for an NH five and the at seven I find that I can't record with the preamps on their own because of a hissed at my h5 introduces when I added the cloud lifter and the fed head cloud lifter and fed head to the mix you heard how that signal went through the roof so all of that noise noise and the microphone noise in line it all got amplified like crazy it really super boosted up all of that noise so what I'm able to do now as I'm able to turn my preamps way down now instead of being at seven they're down at like four I probably need to add a little bit more to the cloud lifter because there's a slight difference in the amount of gain that they provide so I do need to provide a tiny bit more gain the clap the cloud lifter doesn't boost quite as much we'll talk about that in a second so I've adjusted it so the gain on the Fed head I turned it down to four on the gain on the cloud lifter it's it like four and a third almost almost the same but not quite exactly the same I'm trying to match it so the levels as I switch back and forth between them so that the levels will be close to even that way doesn't sound like there's a huge a huge difference between them sound wise quality wise perhaps you'll hear a slight difference I don't know if that's a difference between the two microphones or if that's a difference between the way the two devices themselves boost the gain they do claim to have different internal circuitry they approach the problem in a different way they both use these field effect transistors J FETs but they both claim to go through it in a different manner what that manner is I don't know I'm not an electrical engineer I don't know any of that stuff but they both use the same internal technology in a different way to achieve the additional gain perhaps that's why the form factor is different anyway so the the the the question becomes is do you make a decision between these two and what factors might influence that decision well if you do notice a difference in the way these sound and you think that one sounds better than the other based on this little demonstration here then maybe that influence is your decision other things that might influence your decision are price there's a price difference between these form factor these look different and they're used in in your placement will be different where they're made might actually have influence and I say cost cost is always a consideration let's start with that one let's start with cost there is a difference in cost between the two devices the fed head is thus less expensive when I looked at prices it's 80 89 dollars for a FET head and a cloud lifter is almost always 150 bucks there's a price difference between them why I don't know something about the guts of them they're marketing material they both do the same thing but they have a different price point form factor there's a totally different form factor between these four in fact it means the actual packaging the actual way the thing looks the Fed head essentially looks like an extension jack to an XLR cable it's the same size as an XLR jack it just makes it about two inches longer and has a a ring around it with the with the Triton logo on it it's made to be used you see it in the in their marketing me tail it's made to be plugged right into the microphone it's right here if I move the microphone we're gonna see it it's right there that's the Fed head right there it just plugs right into right into the XLR jack itself on the microphone whereas the cloud lifter is a standalone device it needs a second XLR cable that will connect it those form factors could be advantageous or disadvantageous both have pros and cons if you're if you're gonna be using your cloud lifter in a lot of different situations maybe you're taking your microphone out on the road a lot I feel like the cloud lifter itself just by the way it's manufactured it's a heavy steel case it's got it's very robust I'm gonna say that the cloud lifter is probably the more Road worthy device if you've got one mic at your desk and it's always gonna be there then maybe the maybe the Fed head with the smaller the smaller form factor is the one you want I do think the cloud lifter is probably the more durable device although I'm not going to slight the Fed head I can't attest to the durability of either the long term durability it's just that the the Fed head is just a smaller it's a smaller device I'm guessing at the durability I'm really going off the way this one looks because it is a hard metal case it's got very robust jacks to it it's it's assembled with what looks to be a road worthiness that I don't think his present in in the Fed head the cloud lifter the way their cloud lifters mine the the Fed head is given to me unknown from Allen who I've mentioned in another video and he's loaned me a couple of his Fed heads for a demonstration and Thank You Allen so the four factor is what it is pros and cons to both I tend to keep the cloud lifter on my desk so I have a very short XLR cable that goes from my interface to the cloud lifter cloud lifter that goes along just like the regular cable over to my 7b is how I normally have this hooked up I've got a 7b and I keep that over there but I keep the cloud lifter over near the interface whereas with the the Fed head it lives near the microphone which one you like which one you don't like I don't know it's it's six one half dozen to the other country of origin may be a factor in your decision making the cloud lifter made in USA right here on the box the Fed head I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to make you so yeah it says you probably can't see this is made in Holland made in Holland country of origin where it's manufactured may make a difference now that's I think made I don't know sure I'm not sure how much made is they probably both inside use transistors and resistors that are sourced from China I don't know if they're even resistors and transistors made in the United States I have no idea that part I can't I can't attest but one does say made in America one to say made in Holland perhaps that's perhaps that's a deciding factor and maybe that that influences where you're able to obtain it it might be easier if you live in Europe it might be easier to obtain a Fed head than a cloud lifter maybe some of my European subscribers can could let me know if that's the case you know that you may input if the cloud lifter comes from the US you have to pay an import duty yeah maybe it may end up making it all more expensive that could certainly be a factor so it really boils down to one does it change the sound 2 is the price what you're looking for is the form factor where you're looking for and I don't know does where it come from have an influence on your decision making it might it certainly might but that's the difference those are the differences oh and and there is a slight there is a slight difference in the amount of gain so going back to the technical aspect there is a slight difference in the amount of gain you notice when I was when I was messing with the preamplifiers the Triton fed head claims to add 27 DB of gain to them to the signal whereas the cloud lifter adds 25 DB of gain not a ton of difference but there is a difference between them in it and did have an influence on the preamps I actually get to put the preamp a little lower with the fed head maybe that has an influence maybe that adds it takes just a little tiny bit of noise away I will also say I noticed that when I had my gain up really high there's something about the signal that's in here I have the zoom h5 is what we're plugged into that is being powered over USB can we see that here is being powered over USB over to my Mac so this is right now this is acting as an interface I did notice and I'll put the maybe up right here I'll put that section back in that there was a difference in the quality of the sound when it was up really high I heard something that really made me nervous the fed head I heard I think I heard the ground hum yeah I don't know why I'm hearing a ground hum could be the zoom h5 could be because it's going through a USB hub there's a lot of factors I did hear what I think is a ground loop hum with the fed head I don't think it's caused by the fed head I think it exists in this room and I think it was there even before I think the fed had just made it louder but the cloud lifter I feel like I didn't hear it or didn't hear it nearly as prominently so it could be that the cloud lifter does act as what they call it ground lift - and it may eliminate some ground hum so if you do hear a sixty Hertz hum when you're not using the device it's possible the cloud lifter would get rid of it or it could be that the fed head is just passing through whatever signals there it's not doing the blocking could be something in their design I did feel like I noticed the ground hum on the fed head Channel but not on the cloud lifted channel why there's a hum in here I do not know I don't hear it on any of my other preamps but I did hear it just now distressing kind of figured that out I don't know why I'm hearing that anyway so but that's the difference between these two what makes what influences are just your decision I don't know if it strictly comes down to price get the fed head if it comes down to durability maybe the cloud lifts there's no one to want the one you want the cloud lifter is gonna be more expensive just in the swarm it's $150 more and you gotta buy an extra XLR cable so you're gonna it's gonna cost you another 70 70 bucks or so more than the fed head that's my comparison between those these two devices I hope that helps so if you have a done if you have a dynamic or a ribbon microphone either of these devices I think are really gonna work well there is one other option in this scenario so if you're trying to make a buying decision because you have like a shure sm7b and you need the gain there is one other option that you can consider and that is for another $50 more than the cloud lifter at like a hundred and ninety dollars us you can get a dbx 286s preprocessor which is a rack mounted a whole device you can go back and look at my other my other video on that but that is essentially your whole signal chain in a box so it's got a preamp with a ton of gain it'll run an sm7b just fine but then it also has the other things that you would need in your signal chain so it's got it's got some like an equalizer for changing the tone of voice it's got a gate to eliminate background noise attenuate certain background noises and it has a compressor what's handy about that is if you're if you're buying a dynamic mic because you're streaming and you've got your monitors blaring at you and you're trying to eliminate that route that that outside noise and so you're using a dynamic microphone and you need to have the gain then you might not have the processing power to also run vsts for gate and compression and so forth you might want to have that all happen in hardware rather than in software and so getting something like a dbx 286s is your vocal chain in a box with a preamp that's got plenty of gain to run a power-hungry dynamic mic like an sm7b or an RT 20 by a lecture voice or a high lpr 40 or any number of dynamic mics rode procaster all mics that want a fair bit of gain and so the dbx 286s any of these devices are going to give you plenty of gain the DB X also has the processing hardware processing so that you don't have to use VST s on any of your signal maybe that's important if you're a streamer you know but that's that's my comparison of these devices I hope that helps I hope that helps you make up making make a do by buying decision I don't have a strong allegiance to either one of them I will say I own the cloud lifter the the Fed head is on loan from our friend Alan Thank You Alan for sending these I appreciate it and so I hope that helps I hope that helps so if you got a dynamic microphone get your exciter and get out there and record something amazing we'll talk to you next time Thanks

Channel: Booth Junkie

Views: 169,882

Keywords: vo, va, voice over, voice acting, voiceover, voiceacting, voice work, voicework, vocal booth, home studio, microphone, acoustic treatment, soundproofing, reaper, cad, cad microphones, tlm-103, e100s, mhk416, mkh 416, 416, neumann, sennheiser, cloudlifter, fethed, fethead, triton audio, mic activator

Id: VlCIZ60NCfk

Length: 19min 43sec (1183 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2017