Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter CL-Z 1-channel Mic Activator with Variable Impedance
Cloud Microphones
Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter Zi 1-channel DI and Mic Activator with Variable Impedance, 1-channel DI and Mic Activator with Variable Impedance.
Indispensable DI Box/Mic Booster
If you're an instrumentalist or vocalist, we have a product you should know about. Cloud Microphones' Cloudlifter Zi is a DI box and "mic activator" that boosts the clarity and strength of your instrument or microphone signal while lowering the noise floor. It also lets you manipulate impedance to shape your tone in a beautifully musical way.
The Cloudlifter Zi is phantom-powered to sidestep many of the common problems that occur with mics and instruments. It delivers up to 25dB of clean gain for lo-Z sources and XLR mics; up to 12dB for 1/4" instruments and hi-Z sources. In typical Cloud fashion, build quality is outstanding. Incorporating top-shelf parts like a Neutrik combo connector and hi-Z to lo-Z Cinemag instrument transformer, the Cloudlifter Zi lives up to Cloud's usual outstanding quality standards.
The forums are full of love letters from satisfied engineers who've used their Cloudlifters to get new life and energy from their low-output broadcast mics. However, the amazing Cloudlifter can make even cheap handhelds sound like studio standard mics by bringing out those frequencies that are normally too quiet to notice. And now with the Cloudlifter Zi DI box/mic booster, you've got an indispensable Swiss army knife for your direct as well as microphone sources. Your engineer's toolkit isn't complete without it.
The Cloudlifter Zi provides up to 25dB of clean gain, variable input impedance, and a variable highpass filter. Cloud's patented Vari-Z impedance control is sweepable from 150 ohms to 15k ohms and allows you to creatively load a mic's output transformer, opening up a broad range of tonal variations for each microphone.
Ribbon mics are wonderful, but many microphone preamplifiers are simply too weak to get enough signal out of them. A Cloudlifter Mic Activator will turn your preamp's harmful phantom power into as much as +25dB of extra gain, transforming even a budget model pre into an effective ribbon preamp.
Cloud Microphones designed their Cloudlifter series around direct-coupled, discrete JFET circuitry, engineered to preserve the natural sound of your mics. So, no matter how dramatic of an impact this transparent technology may have on your recordings, you can be sure you're really just hearing your mic at its best.
If you work in a large, multi-room studio or an auditorium like the Sweetwater Performance Theater, then you won't believe what a difference a Cloudlifter will make. With its extra gain boost driving your signal, even cable runs over hundreds of feet won't drain the life out of your sound. The result is nothing short of remarkable.
Many preamps sound great until you push them, resulting in all the hiss and crackle produced by the amplifier itself ending up in the mix. The gain boost provided by your Cloudlifter Zi lets your mic pre work more efficiently, giving you the levels you need, without the noise.