FetHead offers a strong signal without the needing to crank your preamp. In your search for solutions to passive ribbon or dynamic mics, you’ll likely come across many articles recommending preamps. These are honorable mentions, however, they are often too expensive for many newcomers to the music industry. My preferred connection is straight into the Sm7b then xlr to audio interface, people just don't see it as it looks just like some fancy xlr, that's what I mean about none intrusive, there is seriously minimal white noise, even at the highest levels.

Of course, the winner and the most popular mic was Shure SM7B– the legendary vocal microphone used by broadcasters and studios around the world. Radial Engineering’s McBoost unit is the first in this roundup to have some additional features in comparison to the other models. There are switches to change both the load and level settings and also a gain knob to turn the gain up and down when the level switch is set to variable. The Dynamite DM-1 from sE Electronics is closer to the FetHead in styling than any of the other options and is another direct-to-mic option unlike the Cloudlifter, the Durham and the McBoost.In simpler words, if the recordings seem too quiet or turning up the volumes make the outcome noisy, you can use Cloudlifter to streamline the audio output. There are two main types of microphones – condensers and dynamics and the difference is how these microphones capture sound. The frequency response range of the FetHead is larger than the CL-1. The FetHead is also, by and large, the flatter of the two responses, meaning that although this additional gain does bring up the noise floor somewhat, the gain is more transparent overall.

It has the capacity of reducing the impedance load on the mic, resulting in improved transient response and the range will be extensible. It can be used for recording in rooms with harder surfaces and higher ceilings (such rooms have challenged acoustics). If you want your Shure SM57 to perform to the best of its ability, you need to give it some gain. For most, an inline preamp like the Cloudlifter or Fethead will be a great choice – they’re portable, convenient and low cost. The phantom power doesn’t pass through FetHead, which means you can use it with a ribbon microphone, eliminating the chances of damage to the mic. A preamp is what provides amplification. Mic preamps can come in different forms though and it’s worth covering those first as each one has it’s pros and cons. My old Alice Mic-Pak outboard preamp – lots of clean gain and doesn’t cost the earth. Types of Microphone Preamps

TritonAudio FetHead In-Line Preamp Overview

The Triton Audio FetHead is an economical, portable, and easy to use alternative to a Cloudlifter. It does exactly as advertised, and it does that as well, if not better, than the competition at a significantly lower price point. I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t want to pay extra for bells and whistles and just needs to cleanly boost their mic signal.

Mic activators though need to be used with the existing preamps of a mixer or audio interface and they simply boost the gain of the mic which avoids having to crank up the mixer/audio preamps to a level which could introduce a lot of noise. Mic activators help us solve the gain problems of dynamic and ribbon microphone styles. One of the biggest draws of these devices is that they are considered a low-noise solution for quiet audio. This means you can spend more time recording and less in post-production working with audio you can barely hear. I had this microphone for years, and it served me well. I didn’t record much in the past, so I was okay with boosting the volume afterwards. However, as I started my Youtube channel and used the microphone more, the gain started to get annoying. The FetHead is a popular Cloudlifter alternative because it provides a similar amount of additional gain a lower price point and it does so without needing an additional XLR cable. With the Cloudlifter, you need to plug your mic into it and then run another XLR cable from the output port into your mixer or audio interface. It’s still inline but perhaps less convenient than something like the FetHead which plugs directly into your microphone.

Preamp for ribbon and dynamic microphones

Activators are essentially small inline preamps which takes the 48v phantom power from an audio interface (as dynamic mics don’t need phantom power) and uses it to produce a gain boost for those dynamic mics which need it. Your Fethead will latch straight onto any XLR equipped microphone, or anywhere else in the signal path between microphone and preamp/mixer.The electronics are housed in a robust metal chassis with a balanced female XLR input and a balanced male XLR output, rugged enough for use at home, in the studio or on tour.