Fishman aura

[craig.collas]

Hi
Has anyone tried the fishman aura on their mando and have you used the donloads to create a mando libary?
Its raining here but its sunny inside.

[Trip]

I got one last year and had ok results, but it isnt really designed to#give you a library of mando tones, its just a solution for amplifying an instrument(I also use the recommended Fishman p/u Bridge)........ the Aura works mostly as a preamp and the modeling is not really significant for the mando in my opinion......I talked extensively with the tech guys at Fishman, and they said once you find your favorite tone, you can have a progression of volume increases to click up through the programs so, for example program 1 thru 6 will be exactly the same except progresively louder for lead breaks instead of getting up closer to the mic.
I eventually found a better solution for my particular setup, I am using a guitar multi effects that I have programed to give me complete control over all aspects of my sound, works as a preamp and EQ plus I can dial in revebs, tiny delays and compression, etc....
...but on the other hand the Aura seems to really give a great deep round tones to my Taylor Grand Auditorium.......I spent alot of time downloading and tweaking, I really wanted this to be my solution for live mandolin play.....but I ended up using it for guitar.....my guitar already sounded great and now it is even better http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Eliot Greenspan]

I agree w/ Trip. I use one Aura for both my mando and guitar, w/ an A/B switch, and the results are much better for the guitar.

That said, I'm using an internally installed McIntyre Feather in my mando, and Fishman highly, highly recommends a bridge embedded piezo. In the end, it's a reasonable solution if you're interested in a decent amplified sound, that's very easy to set up (once you figure out the Aura's logic) and dial in through a mix of different amps and PAs, and is pretty feedback resistant, even at pretty good volumes.

Once you find a sound/mix/model you like, it's nice to program a series of the same set up w/ steadily increasing volume, so you can easily switch from lead to back up playing, although a volume pedal works just as well...

[erick]

I've had great results with the Aura on my Hilburn F5 and I also used one with a Heiden F5 that I sold about a year ago because the neck was too skinny. In both cases, I was using a Fishman piezo bridge pickup out through the endpin jack. The company does have a few different mandolin downloads on their site, and I found that the Gibson Wayne Benson model worked best for my Hilburn. I think Fishman is trying to encourage Aura owners to have their instruments individually sampled at their facility, because you'll get the best results. My Heiden had a custom sound sample made for it, and it was the best, most natural , non-microhone sound I'd ever heard from a mandolin, and I've tried probably ten of the best known systems.

I use the Aura in a pretty loud swing band I play in , and I sometimes combine it with a micrphone ( ATM 350) mounted on the mando. The combination of the two makes a very loud and feedback free mando sound that can compete well with electric guitars, horns, bass and drums. You may not need something like this in your performing band, but it's been great for me.

Eric Kilburn
Swing Cafe