Fishman Ellipse Aura in Gibson J185 Question

[Guinness]

Hey Folks,
Brand new to the forum here....

I'm curious how I might find out what the 4 images are on the Fishman Ellipse Aura that came in my Gibson J 185. I bought the guitar used recently, and I haven't been able to find any info on what mic's/images were installed.
I believe the guitar was built in 2011.

My other question is whether different images can be downloaded? I see they've got plastic over where the usb port is so I'm assuming the answer is no.

I'm actually quite happy with the tones I'm getting, especially in pos 4....I just want to get a better idea of how it was set up

Much appreciated

[guitaniac]

Guinness,

One way to try additional sound images would be to set the blend on 100% pickup and run through a Fishman Aura Spectrum DI to audition a variety of different sound images. I had a little Cort Aura guitar at one time, and I much preferred one of the Spectrum's OM guitar images to any of the factory installed images on the Cort.

I've noticed that the Martin website has a listing of the various sound images for each of their Aura models. (Each sound image is described by the mic{s} and miking technique used to make the studio recording which is used {along with a direct-from-pickup recording} to derive that specific sound image.)

It took me a bit of searching to find these listings on the Martin site. Perhaps the Gibson website will be equally difficult to search.

[guitaniac]

I gave the Gibson site a quick look and found a general description of the Aura electronics for the J-185. No specific info on the sound images, however.

Perhaps they figure that specific knowledge as to what mic(s) and miking schemes were used to create a particular sound image isn't terribly useful to the average person. How it sounds to the listener is the ultimate test. FWIW, the Fishman folks recommend a sound image blend in the range of 30% to 40% for live sound.


You may be able to get specific info on your J-185's sound images from Fishman tech support.

Here's are some examples (from the Martin website) of what the information looks like.


OMCRE (Aura Pro)
Image Microphone Type Position
#1 Neumann U87 Lg. Diaphragm Condenser - Close (miking)
#2 Schoeps CMC 64 Sm. Diaphragm Condenser - Close
#3 Neumann M147 Lg. Diaphragm Condenser - Close
#4 Neumann KM 184 Sm. Diaphragm Condenser - Close

It seems like most of the Aura sound images are derived from close-miking these days, but some of these jumbo sound images (below) employed far miking.

JC-16ME Aura (Onboard Aura)
Image Microphone Type Position
#1 Soundeluxe E47 Lg. Diaphragm Condenser - Far
#2 Neumann M147 Lg. Diaphragm Condenser - Far
#3 Shure SM57 Dynamic - Close
#4 DPA 4011 Sm. Diaphragm Condenser - Far
#5 Schoeps CMC 64 Sm. Diaphragm Condenser - Close
#6 Earthworks QTC 30 Omni Condenser - Close

I suspect you can tell when far miking is used, as the sound would tend to be more ambient and less focused.


When a sound image is created, they first record the guitar (using a specific protocol). They simultaneously record with a mic(s) and directly off the pickup. Then they work backwards to create a computer algorithm (the sound image) which tells the Aura processor how to process the direct-from-pickup signal to make it approximate the mic recorded signal.

[Guinness]

That is some excellent information Guitaniac....Thanks very much!!!

I will have to experiment as to whether the images sound close or far. I hadn't thought of that. I will definitely hop on Fishman's sight to see if they have any info.

Thanks again!!!

[guitaniac]

Go ahead and send an email inquiry (with your guitar's specific model and year) to Fishman tech support. Its worth a try.