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  #1  
Old 01-16-2017, 06:04 AM
Thisisme Thisisme is offline
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Default Xvive mic pedal WOW!

Hello.
I purchased a xvive mic pedal. It suppost to make your acoustic sound like its getting miced up (and it does this very well.
Its amazing will never go without one. I played it on my crap fishman electro-acoustic pickup and it sounds 10 times better, 10 times more natural. my artec vertex active soundhole pickup (which is very nice, cheap, volume and tone control adjustable magnets and in my opinion better than the fishman rare earth pick up) also sounds amazing. I even use my electric guitar with it. When used with an electric guitar (on certain settings of the pedal) it gives the amp a very natuaral sound. I used it on my street cube ex with electric and it gives it a woody tone and makes the overdrive clean, not fuzzy in anyway. Think about that clean overdrive soundthat SRV has. Each strings is clear and doesn't overlap each other. Its perfect. Not tried it on my orange valve amp yet.

Tried it with my acoustic on my street cube ex and my roland ac33 both sound amazing. I have not tried the tc bodyrez so dont know how it compares but man its insane it seriesly does make the guitar sound way better to the point where i turn off the pedal and hate the way the guitar sounds straight into the amp, very very natuaral sound

Im getting a k&k installed on my guitar so once i have that will let you know how that sounds through the pedal.
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  #2  
Old 01-16-2017, 09:33 AM
bobwl bobwl is offline
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Seems interesting, but man is that thing ugly.
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  #3  
Old 01-16-2017, 09:41 AM
Neon Soul Neon Soul is offline
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Looks like a cross between the Aura (in that they've based their EQ curves on certain mic and guitar models), and the TC Bodyrez (in that they don't use modelling and use EQ and compression to get their sound).

Looks interesting, would like to see a side by side comparison with the Bodyrez.

Not a fan of the lack of blend control though. I feel like that takes away your option to use the effect subtly.
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  #4  
Old 01-16-2017, 09:47 AM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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Paging Cuki! Come in Cuki!

Glad to hear this pedal is working out for you. As a matter of fact, I was reading the UK Guitarist magazine acoustic edition while watching my kids at the children's book store. They had an expose on this pedal and compared it to the TC Body Rez pedal, which is not "modeling" per se. This pedal would be similar to the Fishman Aura and Zoom A3, albeit with a single dial control. The magazine review was mostly complementary. They did suggest that some might prefer the Body Rez for it's ability to blend. I think this is especially true if you have a very good pickup system and want to preserve some of its character. For cheap USTs, I think the modeling is genius.

Personally, I'm a big fan of this modeling technology and I hope the trainable product from Tondexter is also a success.

What a great time to be an acoustic guitarist needing amplification.
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  #5  
Old 01-16-2017, 09:47 AM
canerod canerod is offline
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This one?

http://www.xviveaudio.com/productInfo.asp?id=299
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  #6  
Old 01-16-2017, 11:49 AM
Thisisme Thisisme is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by canerod View Post
Thats the one

Its really good. I would checkout the bodyrez pedal aswel people say its really good, i havnt tried it but as i say this xvive mike pedal is really really nice
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  #7  
Old 01-16-2017, 04:58 PM
Petty1818 Petty1818 is offline
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They make some cool gear. I purchased their wireless U2 system and it's awesome.
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  #8  
Old 01-17-2017, 06:42 PM
Thisisme Thisisme is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Petty1818 View Post
They make some cool gear. I purchased their wireless U2 system and it's awesome.
I also purchased there U2 system its amazing. Shame they had to call it "U2" haha

I also got an xvive nano verse/chorus loop pedal with top quality sound playback thats amazing. I should start using it again. Dont use loopers much nower days
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  #9  
Old 01-17-2017, 07:31 PM
Petty1818 Petty1818 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thisisme View Post
I also purchased there U2 system its amazing. Shame they had to call it "U2" haha

I also got an xvive nano verse/chorus loop pedal with top quality sound playback thats amazing. I should start using it again. Dont use loopers much nower days
My only complaint with the U2 is that I am getting major interference through it. I haven't tried the other channels (need to learn how), so it's just the channel it cam pre-set to. Tried it at a show this past weekend and the tones were awesome but the interference was huge.
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  #10  
Old 01-21-2017, 05:11 PM
Thisisme Thisisme is offline
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Ok so i got my k&k installed and i actualy prefure the k&k with out the mike pedal. The k&k sounds amazing just like the guitar unplugged tried it both with my ac33 and street cube EX and wow both sound amazing. K&k is also much better than other types of pick ups for slide it sounds just like the guitar but sometimes i play slide with overdrive and k&k and overdrive sounds so will continue to use soundhole pickup for overdrive slide but for non-overdrive slide and acoustic stuff. Not used the k&k at a gig plugged into the pa and that yet, expecting i need a pre amp for that so i can adjust the middle treble and bass. But when i have my amp i can do it on that. Im gonna get a k&k installed on my other guitar eventually. Even all that said the mike pedal is still amazing just not so much with the k&k becuase the k&k is so perfect

Last edited by Kerbie; 01-22-2017 at 04:05 AM. Reason: Removed masked profanities
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  #11  
Old 01-21-2017, 08:23 PM
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fitness1 fitness1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thisisme View Post
Ok so i got my k&k installed and i actualy prefure the k&k with out the mike pedal. The k&k sounds amazing just like the guitar unplugged tried it both with my ac33 and street cube EX and wow both sound amazing. K&k is also much better than other types of pick ups for slide it sounds just like the guitar but sometimes i play slide with overdrive and k&k and overdrive sounds so will continue to use soundhole pickup for overdrive slide but for non-overdrive slide and acoustic stuff. Not used the k&k at a gig plugged into the pa and that yet, expecting i need a pre amp for that so i can adjust the middle treble and bass. But when i have my amp i can do it on that. Im gonna get a k&k installed on my other guitar eventually. Even all that said the mike pedal is still amazing just not so much with the k&k becuase the k&k is so perfect

If you want it to sound even better, get even an inexpensive small diaphragm condenser and use it externally. Set the bass frequencies to be more dominant with the pickup and the mids/trebles more to the K&K to get the "air" or transparency of the acoustic. Takes a while to get it tweaked, but you will never sound better.
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Last edited by Kerbie; 01-22-2017 at 04:09 AM. Reason: Edited quote
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  #12  
Old 01-22-2017, 01:52 AM
Cuki79 Cuki79 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by martingitdave View Post
Paging Cuki! Come in Cuki!
Hi everyone,

if it is only EQ then it's a bit different than Aura and Tonedexter (Impulse responses (IR) convolution).

It was explained on soundonsound http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/fishman-aura

Quote:
[Fidhman Aura:] Effectively it's EQ, but very sophisticated multi-band digital EQ along with some phase manipulation within the very narrow individual bands that make up the whole transform. The Aura divides the spectrum between 20Hz and 20kHz into about 2000 bands, each of which may receive individual amplitude and phase adjustment to get to the desired target response.
Aura is a 2048 bands EQ with phase. It means that each frequency band is adjusted in amplitude like in a traditional EQ but also in phase.

Phase means that each frequency is slightly delayed to match the real acoustic sound. It's a bit complex to explain...

Note that with DSP you can make very simple EQ curves like for example the dBx gorack curves but also very complex ones (like Aura or my DIY IRs). The more complex, the more specific they are and the less they would match to anyone's guitar.

For example, if you want to make a very generic product (ex: Xvive), you'd better make the EQ simpler with rough corrections and no fancy phase corrections.

That's why Fishman had to make a database of Images and eventually made it accessible to every customer. (Remember at the begining there were pedals for every guitar shape and 16 images for each). Their IR definition is too acurate to be generic.

For example the IR (with 66150 bands) I made for Doug seemed to totally fail with another guitar he has (also equipped TA Amulet)... This information is still to be confirmed though.

It does not mean generic correction is not going to sound good. It will do the job intended. It may not be as accurate with respect to the miced sound.

There were very interesting posts in the forum stating that you may not need an accurate image of your acoustic sound when playing live. I believe it's true. Fishman understood it very soon. I believe The Fishman aura images have less bass to avoid feedback for example and are a bit more mid focused. When you turn off the amplifier to compare with the direct acoustic sound you hear that Eq choice. In this case, having a less accurate image is not important since the EQ is mostly there to correct the default of your pickup than to reproduce an accurate acoustic image.

I went to a Martin roadshow the other day. I was with my former band mate. He said the Aura sounded great. Then I asked the demo guy to turn of the amp to compare the sound with the direct sound of the guitar. The difference was obvious. So I said to my ex band mate that my IR did better with the on/off test. He agreed. However I have to admit that the Aura sounded great when they were playing songs and sang along (The retro did better than the aura enhanced in my opinion).

I am not sure my "more accurate" IR would have sounded as good... This is question can only find an answer if a Martin Aura equiped guitar owner sends me "wav" files so I can make an IR for him. Then he could post his opinion.

Cuki
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Martin 00-18V Goldplus + internal mic (2003)
Martin OM-28V + HFN + internal mic (1999)
Eastman E6OM (2019) Trance Audio Amulet
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Gibson Les Paul Standard 1958 Reissue (2013)
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http://acousticir.free.fr/
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  #13  
Old 01-22-2017, 08:13 AM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuki79 View Post
Hi everyone,



if it is only EQ then it's a bit different than Aura and Tonedexter (Impulse responses (IR) convolution).



It was explained on soundonsound http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/fishman-aura







Aura is a 2048 bands EQ with phase. It means that each frequency band is adjusted in amplitude like in a traditional EQ but also in phase.



Phase means that each frequency is slightly delayed to match the real acoustic sound. It's a bit complex to explain...



Note that with DSP you can make very simple EQ curves like for example the dBx gorack curves but also very complex ones (like Aura or my DIY IRs). The more complex, the more specific they are and the less they would match to anyone's guitar.



For example, if you want to make a very generic product (ex: Xvive), you'd better make the EQ simpler with rough corrections and no fancy phase corrections.



That's why Fishman had to make a database of Images and eventually made it accessible to every customer. (Remember at the begining there were pedals for every guitar shape and 16 images for each). Their IR definition is too acurate to be generic.



For example the IR (with 66150 bands) I made for Doug seemed to totally fail with another guitar he has (also equipped TA Amulet)... This information is still to be confirmed though.



It does not mean generic correction is not going to sound good. It will do the job intended. It may not be as accurate with respect to the miced sound.



There were very interesting posts in the forum stating that you may not need an accurate image of your acoustic sound when playing live. I believe it's true. Fishman understood it very soon. I believe The Fishman aura images have less bass to avoid feedback for example and are a bit more mid focused. When you turn off the amplifier to compare with the direct acoustic sound you hear that Eq choice. In this case, having a less accurate image is not important since the EQ is mostly there to correct the default of your pickup than to reproduce an accurate acoustic image.



I went to a Martin roadshow the other day. I was with my former band mate. He said the Aura sounded great. Then I asked the demo guy to turn of the amp to compare the sound with the direct sound of the guitar. The difference was obvious. So I said to my ex band mate that my IR did better with the on/off test. He agreed. However I have to admit that the Aura sounded great when they were playing songs and sang along (The retro did better than the aura enhanced in my opinion).



I am not sure my "more accurate" IR would have sounded as good... This is question can only find an answer if a Martin Aura equiped guitar owner sends me "wav" files so I can make an IR for him. Then he could post his opinion.



Cuki


Great post! I agree 100%. The Martin Retro Aura is a great example. It's an IR from another guitar! They intentionally transform your pickup signal into one the Martin museum guitars. Now the image is very detailed, but it intentionally does not represent your purchased guitars. As long as the image improve the default tone of the pickup to sound more like a guitar, it should be useful. That's why I think the products with less specificity can be effective. If you have the desire to use Tonedexter, or Cuki's IRs, you'll get a much more accurate representation. But, accuracy isn't necessary for your average open mic and jam session. For accomplished players, like Doug and others, it might be a huge benefit.


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