Baggs Venue vs. Fishman Aura Spectrum vs?
 

I posted a thread recently looking for advice for a rack system. However, after looking at available items and prices over here in South Africa I have decided to look at more reasonable and smaller kit rather than go the route of cheaper components.

Any thoughts on the Baggs Venue vs Fishman Aura Spectrum vs possibly the D-Tar Mama Bear etc or other suggestions?

I am currently using the Baggs Para DI but suspect there may be improved pre-amps out there by now. I run direct to PA.

Havent used the other two, but thats mainly becauase of my satisfaction wiht the Aura Spectrum.

I use it when playing out and combine it with Fishman pups in my two gigging guitars. The images blend really takes out the piezzo quack and provides a warm, balanced tone which can then be tweaked through EQ and Compression.

Its a great unit and I have no intention of experimenting as Im really satified with what i get from the Fishamn pup / Aura combination.

Thx for the input.

It sounds like the Fishman is exactly what I am looking for but was a little worried about getting the "digital" glare or harshness that so many modeling processors use. I know the Aura Spectrum is not actually modeling though but I am concerned nonetheless. It is virtually impossible to demo any of these units over here either so one has to order "blind".

I can aussure you the Aura DI is NOT a modeller in any way. It simply makes your acoustic sound as if it was played through a microphone. And because you can download images for many guitars its very versatile if you use a number of guitars.

If you cant audition it just take a look at some of the youtube examples and the video on the fishman website.

One thing to note - it really does work best by far with fishman UST pickups like the Matrix. I tried it also on the Taylor EST system and and Baggs M1a and it wasnt so great.

Mu acoustics have and will have different pickups. Currently I am using a B-Band UST (I think it is the 1.2) in my Morgan OM and a Baggs in the Martin D-35. The Cornerstone will have a B-Band 2.2 UST and AST mix while others will have K&K in the future I think.

Is this a major problem - I have found that the B-Band seems to have a more natural sound through my Baggs ParaDI than the Baggs I had before, strangely enough?

This is probably a question to be answered by other folks who combine an Aura Spectrum with a non Fishman pup. My peronal experience has been as I said that it sunds far better with a fishman pup. It even made my Cort eart 100 with a classic 4 pup sound really good !

I suggest run a query in the 'search' sectio of the AGF for Spectrum DI or something like that, i know there were threads who asked same quetion in the past.

The other way is to order it and if possible have a return policy, try before you buy ?

Thx, will do the search now.

I can get nice results with the BBand into the Aura or Mama Bear... varies with amps and different guitars but still darn good. The K&K is fine with Mama but not with the Aura.

I was extremely skeptical about the Baggs Venus at first. I even bidded on ebay for a PADI as I have used it for many years and it is one of the most versatile DIs I have used that captures the essence of acoustic instruments.

However after looking over the owners manual, and talking to a few knowledgable friends, I decided to take a leap of faith and pay the extra premium for a venue when my bid did not win and I have never regretted the decision ever since.

The power of the venue is really remarkable, imagine the PADI but more refined controls with still the same ease of dialing in select frequencies etc. I owned a Taylor K4 before the venue and the venue is way easier to use during any live session just because it is ready to go almost instantly. The boost feature is very handy when I switch between strumming and fingerstyle.

In terms of recording with the venue, I was really put off at first with the white noise it generated, but after looking through and asking more questions on this forum, I dialed down the gain but increased the volume whilst setting my recording (input) volume lower. The results were awesome.

Is it a Para Acoustic DI? No.
It's way better (=

I've found that a Fishman Aura pedal also works well with a L.R. Baggs Element UST.

Regards,

SpruceTop

I'm using the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI with an LR Baggs Element Active VTC and it seems fine to me too.