Fishman Aura

Very easy to use. Well set up. The software and downloading is a snap.

Well this is what its all about isn't it? When I first turned the Aura on and checked out the stock Dreadnaught patches I wasn't that impressed. I have a Larrivee DV 05 w/ a fishman stereo blender. The more I tweaked the eq compressor etc. the better it got until I finally got a very usable sound. When I downloaded some of the patches from the fishman website however is when things got really interesting. I downloaded a few larrivee L09 images w/ different mics all for the stereo blender. Very impressive to say the least. I than took the image I liked the best tweaked the settings. Voila, a good sounding acoustic guitar nice and loud through my Mackie mixer and Event monitors. Next I recorded a few minutes of different guitar styles fingerpick flatpick etc simultaneously with a condenser mic on two tracks so I could A b them. They both sounded very good but as expected slightly different (can't wait to have the guys from the acoustic act I play with do the live or memorex thing). For recording I would still use the mic but for live would use the box as it is dead quite. Please keep in mind that the image I'm using isn't exactly for my guitar. Can't wait to hear the exact patch.

Well built. Made to gig with.

I called them before I bought it to ask a few questions and the guy on the phone couldn't have been more helpful. I asked him whem he thought they would have images for my Larrivee and he told me they are building a new studio just to record images and the company expected to have more out by the end of December. Then he went on to tell me not to count on it since the holidays were coming up and he felt that even though the are pushing to get more images out it will be early next year before I'll see them. His honesty impressed me.

I play acoustic music in a band with Mandolin another guitar and stand up. We do an eclectic mix of rock covers jazz standards bluegrass or whatever we like w/ three part harmony. This is a big break thru for me as I never like the acoustic sound I had and was always searching. I didn't by this thing to record with but to play live. And for this I can't see whats not to like.

The AURA itself is quite simple to tweak. Well it includes a compressor and a limiter and it is helpful if you have an idea of what these tools are doing. But they all have quite useful presets. The whole AURA-thing is only useful when you make use of the MIDI download feature. And this demands a certain technical versatility. Also the names of the new files are terrible (what was the difference between "RE4FCS1KNTII1" and "RE4FCS1KNTII2"?)

I always strongly disliked the sound of any guitar pickup. And I was very much pleased with what the AURA can restore from piezo sound. It is not the promised microfone sound but much closer to it and very useful, especially if you mix it with the natural sound. I have still hopes that the quality will improve even further if only I could get a chance to have a custom made sound image (the downloadable sound data files). Maybe it sounds better if the file matches the guitar more perfectly. But sadly this feature does not get ahead until now (Nov 28. 2004)

The housing LOOKS strong but actually it is a glass chin! The top is a thick solid aluminium plate BUT it is connected to the bottom case by four metal columns that are kind of soldered to the top plate. This means any blow, the AURA gets from horizontal direction goes straight to these important mountings. Well my AURA made a strange sound after a few gigs, like something loose inside. Then I opened it and saw one of these columns hat broken off. Very bad construction!

And the round wings on both sides might look cool but they take uselessly much space in your suitcase.

Custumer support was nice and friendly although not always helpful until problems arose. Then it got a little scarce.

I would definitely like to have another housing for it.

And I am VERY curious to compare it to the D-TAR mamabear once it comes out in the next months.

Purchased at Manny's, 48St in NYC. Very simple to use.

Well, I wish I had something better to say. My acoustic steel and nylon string guitars sound better with the Aura out of the signal chain. Thats the bottom line.
The beautiful dynamics and clarity of my guitars sound muted through this pedal.
We tried to tweak it during sound checks at shows this summer, but could not find a use for it.

Seems to be built the way pro gear should be. Very well built.

No need to worry about customer support for gear that sits in a storage room.

I play all styles of music, I am a professional guitar player. I only play and use the very best gear money can buy. The Aura is a great idea, but does not meet high standards of sound quality.

This unit is easy - easy to use, IF you take the time to read the instructions. I am shock at the comments of some of the reviewers!
they either have ears made of mud, or really have a bad sense of tone, or most like work for one of Fishman's competitors!

Getting a tone is pretty easy, patch number 2 is a standard dread,
and I use my 12 string washburn in live situations, my fender POC
into my protools digi001 and a loaner d18 which I used live, all with stunning results.

Again, I have used several guitars, and when you hit the aura button,
you get it. It brings my guitar to life in a live situation, and
I would rather use it, than my Rode mics ( I sound my neumann to buy
other gear. )

Getting itno the editing mode requires a bit more deep thinking, but
man this unit sounds great.

have used it on 10 gigs, built like a tank. pick it up and
you'll be surprised at the weight. It's heavy, but I don't want cheap and light when I'm performing. Fishman has a rep for great pro gear... this piece fits the bill, pro quality

top notch, fishman are pro's and helpful.

I'm a strummer, and singer. I plug into a variety of amps, and
have found this unit has replaced a fair amount of gear. I am
a telecaster player mainly, but find myself doing more and more acoustic gigs. This piece is an absolute no brainer. $300 bucks
for the best "effects" I have ever bought. I've been reading about
the "mama bear" that that rick turner's been promoting on AG forum,
what's up with that... kind of lame to be blowing your own horn saying it's better than this or that without having the market decide.. So decide for yourself.. I think the AURA is the piece.

Within about 20 minutes I had the sound I was looking for, extreamly easey to use, intuitive system. Knobs are good, I'm tired of adjusting parameters with arrow keys, the aura is very easy to manipulate on the fly, the "data" knob adjusts whatever parameter you have selected. The other plus is that there ain't to many buttons, there's an UP a DOWN and a TUNER OFF. Very simple, no bullshit.

I've been searching for months to find the right peice (or peices) of equipment to make my accoustic sound good live & loud, I play folk/weird stuff, like Pages "Black Mountain Side". I have a piezo under saddle pickup on an old accoustic (suzuki violin co. copy of a gibson, the one with the dove on the scratch plate). I play it through a PA. I'm new to the world of piezos and accoustic amplification, and what frustrated me on my search was the "quack" of the piezo and the severe lack of that accoustic sparkle or life. The aura was my last ditch effort at finding my live guitar sound, and I must say I'm very impressed. True, there is a little noise, but the sonic life that I've heard the thing produce so far is quite good in my books. It has that "real" sparkle that I was searching for, even the sound of my fingers draging on the strings sounds more life like. Some of the presets are a little top end heavy, but are not outrageously bad, and can be adjusted. Even if you want that piezo sound, you can select a straight piezo setting & choose no digital blending. The only other equipment that impressed me was Fenders' surround sound accoustic amp, with a fishman preamp, but the aura is much more maleable and a quater of the price. To me, a middle weight performer, it sounds good.

Its made out of thick metal, the jacks are very sturdy, and its quite small, and much lighter than what I imagined. Aye, I'd use it at a gig, its probably going to end up being the heart of my set up.

This peice of equipment has really got me excited about playing, where as before I was never really to happy about how the guitar was sounding. For its size, fairly competitive price, build, ease of use & sound, its well worth a look see. I would replace it in an instant. As I stated before, because its what my guitar is played through, how it sounds is paramount, this is a very important part of my set up. I no longer have to whinge and moan about how crap my guitar sounds (my guitar has an excellent natural sound, so its not like making a peice of crap sound good), or having to worry about mics or any of that. I play stuff like Led Zep, Tool, The Tea Party, Pink Floyd, Loreena Mckennitt, America, to my ears it sounds good. I actually read these reviews before purchasing mine, and the love/hate rate is about fifty fifty, so I was taking a bit of a gamble, but I'm a very happy camper.

I bought the Aura thinking that it would be good for classical/flamenco style guitar, but I was quickly dissapointed with the lack of sound images created for the nylon acoustic. These sound for the one patch is beautiful, but if Fishman can't release more sound-images quicker and distribute them equally for all types of acoustic guitars then they are doomed. Currently, I'm waiting for fishman to respond. however, I'm still contemplating returning this unit.

Fairly easy, plug in and scroll through the patches, I also dowloaded patches from the aura website to try and match my guitar sound..the download worked good, the sound is another issue.

Manual is good, and plenty of info on the website for more info.

I use a Taylor 814ce, with fishman blender under saddle pickup. etc.
Some of the patches are a bit noisy, and the compression effects on the box are pretty hard-hitting(too much for my taste) I tried it out to record direct and plan to try it through a PA system. So far I think its not a great sound. It does sound like a mic'd guitar, but a poorly mic'd guitar with way too much compression. I haven't used it for very long, hopefully I can dig up some more useable sounds..for live work used conservatively It might pass...to record direct simulating a mic'd guitar I don't think so. It certainly makes a dramatic difference to the sound.. I wish the sound was less compressed sounding and the patches were a liitle bit less noisy.

So far so good

I think I will try some other stuff out to get the sound I am looking for, and keep tweeking the Aura to see if it comes to life. It certainly doesn't replace a good mic in a good room. (no big suprise)

Fairly simple to operate, with a decent owner's manual. Pretty intuitive operation.

Here's where the dissapointment begins. I have a Taylor 410 with a Martin under the saddle piezo. I already had a Fishman Pro EQ which I was hoping to improve on. To my ears, the Aura made the guitar sound like it was being played in 16 different sizes of a shoebox. The best sound I got out of it was with the effect button turned to the off position. Perhaps if you have a guitar that doesn't sound great, this could improve your sound, but if you have a good sounding guitar, don't bother. This was running into a Mackie 16 channel powered mixer into two Sunn cabinets.

The unit was quiet and the built in tuner worked pretty well.

It looks very well made and solid. I was shocked at how heavy it was. I've only had it for a few days though.

Haven't tried contacting Fishman---I'm sending it back anyway.

Overall, I was dissapointed in the sound quality of this device. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it, but it dounds very boxy and artificial to my ears. On the plus side, it definitely is ruggedly built. I'll stick with my old Pro EQ--it sounds better to me.

Easy to use even it works a little bit different to most other units in the saving process.
The numbers of the images are a little bit strange to me (P1-P4 an 01-12) but who cares.

That's the most amazing part of this unit. I compared it at my home studio directly to Boss AD-8, Zoom, AG-Stomp, Toneworks AX10 and miced with AKG C414TL-II and C451.
To me the result was totally clear: Still I like good positioned mics a LITTLE bit more than the picked up sound with Aura.
In a comparison with Boss, Yamaha, Toneworks, Zoom and my internal and external other preamps Aura is far far better!
All my guitars (Martin CM, Takamine??, Larivee D-09) sound great with it.

Also my cheap Cort 12-string sounds good.

I also tried to use it with my mandoline and slide guitar, but it does not work really well with them. The AD-8 was very nice with my full metal slide guitar.

On most settings it's not noisy. I plug it directly into the (Sub)mixer.

I have it for one week now but it looks reliable. I use it without any backup in a pedal board together with an ABC-switch and 2 Di-Boxes. In the case of damage I take out my Palmer Di-Box.

No experience. I use some Fishman parts for several years and had no problems with them.

I play in a 8-piece country/bluegrass band - 2 guitars, banjo, fiddle, upright bass, squeezebox, mandoline, slide, pedal steel.

I would replace it in a minute if it was lost/stolen.

It seems I fell in love again after years now! ;-)
It even doesn't bother me that Aura is obviously much more expensive here in Austria compared to the rest of the world.

Very well laid out and easy to use. Patch editing is simple and well explained in the manual.

I used the Aura with several guitars including a Carvin Cobalt, and a Aspen Luthier handmade acoustic both with Fishman systems; and an Ovation deep bowl. The unit was dead quiet so that was great, but I did not get the results that others have discussed here, and the only real application I could see using this pedal in is playing live. I used the unit for recording only in my home studio with a Korg D1600 16 track recorder, Resolv Monitors, and a ART TPS tube preamp. I also compared it side-by-side with my Magicstomp pedal with AG Stomp patches in it. And I recorded with it and then recorded the same thing with Condenser mics and then the Magicstomp. No matter what patches I chose on the Aura, I could never get a sound even close to that of the same guitar recorded with the Rode NT1-A or Octava condenser mics and that was without even taking time to find the sweet spot. The Magicstomp sounded at least as good for recording on each guitar, and I could tweek it better with the included software on my laptop but it certainly isn't great for recording either. I could see the Aura being useful live with several different acoustics, or making one acoustic sound like several; but to me it just wasn't any improvement over the Magicstomp, and the Magicstomp also has all the other effects in it like delays and choruses and distortions etc, so it was obvious that the Aura wasn't for me. The best thing you can do with this pedal is to buy it from somewhere with a great return policy just like any other pedal and see if it's for you. I use my Magicstomp with AG Stomp patches now live to take away some piezo quack, but it doesn't really sound like a good condenser or tube mic to my ears either. Just a workable solution...but not perfect. I've been a paid musician and played and recorded professionaly for over 15 years, and maybe I'm just too picky, but to me these pedals don't come close to real mic'd guitar sound. They emulate it, and you can get away with that live, but not in the studio. It's hard to explain, but if you hear them side-by-side recorded then it's plainly obvious. Good live tool though.

Recorded with it for about 6 hours. No problems. If I liked it, I would certainly gig with it, cuz it's solid metal, and looks to be built to handle the road.

No dealings on this.

See above.