Cloud Microphones builds in Tucson, Arizona, and holds the patent on the discrete Class A JFET circuit at the heart of every Cloudlifter. The company grew out of Stephen Sank's restoration work on original RCA ribbon microphones combined with Rodger Cloud's engineering, and when it released the CL-1 it created the mic activator category outright. The design principle throughout is that a gain stage should let the microphone sound like itself, with no transformers, capacitors or resistors sitting in the direct audio path. The range splits in two. Cloudlifters run from the single-channel CL-1 through the two-channel CL-2, the impedance-shaping CL-Z and the CL-Zi with its combo instrument input, the Cinemag-loaded CL-X, and the four-channel rackmount CL-4 for installations and touring racks. The ribbon microphones cover the active 44-A with its switchable Voice and Music response curves, the hand-built JRS-34P designed with Stephen Sank, and the 44 Midnight Edition bundled with a matching Cloudlifter. Every ribbon element is cut, corrugated and installed by hand, and the whole line is manufactured in the United States.