Fishman Aura Spectrum-a review

[jimmy bookout]

I took part in the Fishman Aura Spectrum beta test program (thanks again to Joe Barbieri and Dave Fournier) and now that the unit is offically announced, here's my review of it. The Aura Spectrum answers the main reason I never bought an Aura pedal before, even though I had tried them and liked them a great deal. I use 2 guitars (and an ukulele!) on a lot of gigs, a Collings 000-2H and a Ted Ramsay Classical, both guitars have under saddle transducers only. The thought of plugging and unplugging 2 different boxes didn't have much appeal. The Aura Spectrum combines all the other Aura Image pedals into one (Dread, orchestra, nylon,etc) with 16 images per guitar type. It differs from the other Aura Image pedals in that it has 3 bands of EQ, a very well executed feedback control that truly gets the offending note without killing everything around it, phase, tuner, blend (Spectrum/Pickup level), trim, compressor, and volume. It looks similar to other Aura pedals, just bigger. It is very well built with 1/4 inch and XLR out, FX loop, and can be powered by battery (1-9V) or AC. Also, the 3 EQ controls have a detent at 12:00 (Flat) which is helpful. Also, all the controls move with a nicely damped feel to them (like the controls on my wife's Audi!).

And the sound: For all of us that have been playing and attempting (?!) to amplify acoustic guitars (in my case, 20+ years), this box is the ticket. When I got the Aura Spectrum from Joe, I sat in my livingroom and plugged in (Centaur Acoustic P.A. amp) and started experimenting, one guitar at a time. My method was to set the trim level for the guitar, set the guitar type (Nylon, concert, etc), set EQ flat, set the blend all the way to the right (5:00 if you will) so that I am getting the Aura Spectrum only with no pickup tone (we all know what piezo pickups sound like!), set the compressor at 12:00 and then start with Image #1. I had pad/pen and made notes on what I liked or disliked about the particular image, and then moved on to the next one. After the first round, I had a smaller list of images and repeated the process again, and on and on until I had a winner. This process took about an hour per guitar, and I played the same tune each time. At this point, all that's left is a little tweaking of EQ (on all my guitars,I ended up Flat on High/Low and a little out on the Mid on one of the steel strings, the other guitars are all flat. I find Fishman's recommendation on Blend levels to be spot on, which are 10:00 (or about 60% pickup, if that makes sense) in live situations and anywhere from 12:00 (50/50 Spectrum/Pickup) to all the way up (5:00) (all Aura Spectrum) when recording. This pedal, for me, is the Answer I have been looking for since I started blowing (throwing) money away on pickups/preamps/effects/etc 2 decades ago. I could have that Monteleone Radio Flyer for all the money I spent! The first time I used it live, Tom, my pal and playing partner, looked over at me and said: "After all these years, that's what a plugged in acoustic guitar should sound like". What the Aura Spectrum does for a nylon string guitar is amazing. It gives the trebles great presence and definition, eliminating the "tubby" sound (especially the G string), the basses sound natural and NO quack. On a steel string, the trebles get that shimmer without, as Leo Kottke calls it, "jang and tingle", that tinny, junky sound that I used to deal with by taking ALL the treble out on the preamp and the board. The basses sound like your guitar sounds (go figure) and again, the duck is dead. All in all, this box is the deal, IMO.

There you have it, a great box and very well thought out. I highly recommend you try one out when you can.

Jimmy

[SpruceTop]

Jimmy,

Thanks for the great review of the new Fishman Aura Spectrum! I've loved all the various renditions of the Fishman Aura system. I have the original Aura Imaging Blender, an Aura Dreadnought Pedal and a Martin DC-28E with Ellipse Aura and a Martin DC-16RE AURA with Onboard Aura. I think the Fishman Aura system is the best live-sound reinforcement guitar pickup/preamp system out there bar none and it's great for recording too!

Although I've been touting Fishman Aura products for a couple of years on this board and others, it seems many players who've never tried a Fishman Aura setup don't want to believe the results that can be obtained from these products. Use an Aura product and gone is the menagerie of dual-pickup systems and outboard EQ pedals and this and that and the other thing! The new Fishman Aura Spectrum looks like the best Aura pedal yet and I'm going to buy one when they become available.

Regards,

SpruceTop

[john57classic]

Thanks but it doesn't sound like that much of a step up from the original blender. Might save a little time since the blender only holds 16 images, but you generally only find a couple that work with your guitar anyway. Then you can download a bunch for a different type of guitar etc. The blender had the other features you discussed and the capability to store various images/programs that you could toggle through say if you went from pick to fingerstyle and wanted some differnt compression or higher output gain.

Are there "tech spec" type things or other sound technology improvements over the orginal blender?

Thanks again

[rmyAddison]

Even though I have migrated back to microphones any time I can use them my OMC-Aura has a lot of stage time under its belt.

I was wondering when the Image Blender replacement was coming out, is the Aura Spectrum 32 bit?

Will definitely check out the new Aura Spectrum when my GC gets them, thanks for the review............

[Joe Barbieri]

Hi Folks,

Here is some info on the Spectrum that may be helpful:

Award-winning Aura® Acoustic Imaging

128 pre-loaded Images for use with the most
popular acoustic instruments

Instrument Preamp with Balanced XLR D.I. out

Volume, Blend, and Image Select controls

Three band EQ

One-knob compressor

Automatic anti-feedback with up to 3 notch locations

Built-in chromatic tuner with bypass/mute

16 user-configurable Image locations

USB interface for Image downloading from
Aura Image Gallery (software included)

Feedback-fighting Phase switch

Automatic D.I. Ground Lift

9-Volt Battery or optional adaptor operation


Specs:

AUDIO I/O:

1/4" mono input & output w/input trim control

Balanced XLR D.I.

1/4" effects loop

24-bit A/D/A conversion

PROCESSOR:

32 bit processing


POWER:9-Volt battery or optional adaptor power

BATTERY LIFE:20 hours

[sdelsolray]

Good. Hopefully, the newer design results in sonic improvements over the earlier products.

Joe: Any further word on whether the product will be released as a software plugin for studio use in, say, VST, RTAS, DirectX and AU formats?

[Doubleneck]

Any word of price?

[guitaniac]

Very, very cool - sixteen image locations where custom sound images can be stored, or (alternatively) already-available sound images can be downloaded from the Aura Sound Image Library. Add the 128 preset sound images (for a variety of body styles) to that and this DI will be a great bargain for Aura users with multiple UST-equipped guitars in a variety of body styles.

The only thing missing, from my perspective, is sweepable midrange capability for the mid tone control. What can I say, Joe. My Fishman Platinum Pro EQ preamp has spoiled me rotten.

Gary

[Joe F]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

The only thing missing, from my perspective, is sweepable midrange capability for the mid tone control. What can I say, Joe. My Fishman Platinum Pro EQ preamp has spoiled me rotten.

Gary

I'd have to echo that. I have found the sweepable verses fixed mid range control to be one of the most useful features of my Baggs PADI, Acoustimax, and K4.

Still, the Spectrum sounds very promising!

[urlkonig]

Thank you for the review. I've been using one of the Aura pedals for a while now, and I'm constantly asked by other guitarists how I get "that acoustic sound." It's not perfect by any means -- but very few live situations offer the opportunity for "perfect" sound reinforcement. For the average gigging situation, I'm very pleased with what the Aura pedals can do, and can't wait get the Spectrum.

[guitaniac]

I sprang for the Aura Spectrum DI this morning. The means to access and experiment with hundreds of sound images (for a variety of acoustic guitar types and body styles) was just too tempting to resist.

I have to give the Fishman folks credit for winning me over. There was a time when I was pretty skeptical about Fishman gear. As recently as three years ago, I sold a nice Walden guitar at a big loss because I couldn't tolerate the quackiness (with hard strumming) of the Fishman Eclipse system in it. More recently, however, I've been very pleased with my Fishman SoloAmp, my Fishman Platinum Pro EQ preamp and the Fishman onboard Aura pickup system in my little Cort guitar. (The onboard Aura system has adjustable gain to accomodate hard strumming.) I'm hoping that the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI will continue my winning streak with Fishman.

Gary

[Churchman]

Gary,

I too sprang for the new AURA to add to my vast array of pedals. After all, my birthday is coming up this week so it gives me a good reason to buy something!!!!

I've got a question though.....

I've been using the M1 passive for the most part. It's a love/hate relationship with the M1, Dread AURA and LR Baggs PADI, which is what my signal chain is. My question is, should I be running the M1 thru the Baggs and then the AURA or vice versa. Funny that I haven't experimented with this first. I use the Baggs to knock out some of the edgey mids.

Also, I have an active M1 as well. Wonder if that would sound better than the M1 passive. Guess that I will just have to experiment.

I think that I do agree though that the AURA sounds better thru a UST than a soundhole pickup. I've just never put one in my J45 which is my main guitar.

Churchman

[sventvkg]

This new spectrum is close to the original Aura Blender that I owned for years. I'd have to check it out.

[guitaniac]

Hi Churchman,

I usually put the EQ device first in the signal chain, when using my DTAR Mama Bear digital processor. With my onboard Aura-equipped Cort guitar, however, I have no choice but to place the EQ device (parametric EQ or sweepable mid EQ) after the Aura. It seems to work fine, certainly better than using the onboard Aura's fixed-mid (at 1KHz) tone control. (My little Cort seems to prefer a mid cut around 1.5KHz.)

In your particular case, putting the Para DI before the Aura pedal would be best - not only because of the EQ thing, but also because you'll want to buffer and boost the passive M1 signal before feeding the signal to the Aura pedal (making sure that the Aura pedal's trim control is set low enough that its not being overdriven). My guess is that the Aura pedals were designed primarily to accomodate active pickup systems. I recall reading somewhere that they don't work particularly well with a weak passive input signal.

Regarding the M1, I never did manage to get satisfactory results using Mama Bear with that pickup. I presume that the M1's top-responsive quality made it somewhat incompatable with Mama Bear (which is designed for use with USTs and string sensing mags). Perhaps the Aura can be more compatable (than Mama Bear) with an M1-equipped guitar. There certainly are a great many sound images which can be auditioned in the search for a good match. It should be noted, however, that the Aura technology (like Mama Bear) is designed to be used with USTs and string sensing mags, not top-sensing pickups (which the M1 is, to some extent). While it may be possible to get lucky with one or more of the sound images, its not a sure thing.

Regarding using the Aura with a J45, I recently ran sound for a young player using an Aura pedal with a beautiful old Gibson J45 (originally his father's guitar) which was equipped with a passive Fishman Neo-D humbucker. He was certainly getting a good sound with that combo, although it must also be noted that he was using a Fishman Platinum Pro EQ preamp (to EQ, buffer and boost the signal) between the passive Neo-D humbucker and the Aura pedal.

Hope that helps,
Gary

[Dank]

The acoustic side of my stage rig is an Anderson Crowdster>L.R. Baggs Para DI>Bose L1. Does anyone know if the Aura imaging complements the Crowdster?