Do you need a preamp for your SM7B with a Behringer Uphoria USB Audio Interface?

TL;DR: Yes, you will need a mic preamp.

My daughter has been singing for a few years now. Even though we're in a pandemic, lots of cool stuff has happened for her this year. She has an amazing music teacher and mentor that plays guitar in a successful touring (pre-pandemic) alternative rock band. She recently started producing music with Pro Tools. We bought a house that had an exercise studio that we are turning into a music studio. Music is so much more fun than exercising!

She wanted a good studio mic for Christmas this year. I wanted to get her the legendary Shure SM7B. She sings really loud, and from researching mics I knew the SM7B could take whatever she could throw at it. However, I also learned that many people need to use a mic preamp with it because the SM7B requires a lot of gain (~70 db). Also note that the SM7B isn't a condenser mic, so it doesn't need phantom power. 

Behringer UMC404HD

Her audio interface is the excellent Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD. You really can't beat it for the price. The Behringer includes very clean Midas mic preamps that work well with other mics such as the SM58. It also works great with a guitar and bass directly into it. And it's built like a tank. However, the built-in preamps do not have enough gain for the SM7B. I knew there was a good chance I would need a mic preamp, but it was worth waiting to make sure. With the SM7B plugged directly into the interface, the gain knob needed to be turned almost all the way up, which introduced quite a bit of noise.

It's DYNAMITE!

Of course I had several choices for preamps. I didn't want to spend a lot (the mic cost me plenty). I thought about a tube mic preamp like a Presonus TubePre V2 or the ART MP Studio V3, but I read that they are likely to introduce noise (which is a bummer because I love dials and meters!)

I decided to stick with an active inline preamp, which would provide clean, transparent gain. They are powered by the 48V Phantom power of the UMC404HD.

I was considering:

• Cloudlifter CL-1
• Triton Audio FetHead
• Klark Teknik CT1
• sE DM1 Dynamite

The most popular (or most marketed) and most expensive is the Cloudlifter. I skipped the CL-1 because I didn't want another box on the desk. It was tough to find a FetHead at the time and impossible to find the Klark Teknik (not surprising since they're only 30 bucks!)

I bought the sE Electronics DM1 Dynamite because not only was it available, but at +28db, it provided the most gain. I can say that it absolutely works. The gain knob on the Behringer now sits at about 1/4. I assume that the DM1 will work fine with the other Behringer U-Phoria series interfaces (UMC202HD, UMC204HD, UM2, UMC22, etc)

Hopefully this post helps someone else that is considering the SM7B + Behringer U-Phoria combo. I could not find anywhere that documented exactly how much gain the UMC404HD's mic preamps provide, so I had no way to know if I needed a preamp. It's a great mic and audio interface.

On a side note - I did order a Klark Teknik CT1, which I just received yesterday. It's about an inch shorter and probably 20% wider than the Dynamite. It provides +25db gain. I'll make another post when we get a chance to use it. If it works as well as it's supposed to, that will be a screaming deal at 30 bucks!

 

 

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments!