Review of the Fishman Aura Acoustic Imaging System
The reproduction and amplification of acoustic instruments has always been an art form. Sound designers and engineers are continually dipping into their bag of tricks in an effort to fill large volumes of space with accurate sound. The Fishman brand has been a leader in acoustic instrument reproduction and amplification for over 25 years. Fishman's relatively new line of Aura Acoustic Imaging products are advertised to "reveal the true unique voice of your instrument in any amplified performance!" The following is Fishman's description of their product.
"Fishman's Aura Acoustic Imaging Technology allows acoustic musicians to easily and accurately reproduce the sound of their instrument as miked in a professional studio." - Fishman/Aura Web Site
"Aura uses digital algorithms, developed in Fishman's audio labs, to create an Image of the natural sound that microphones capture in a professional studio. This Image, when played through and amp, mixer, or PA, blends with your instrument's pickups to produce an immediate and dramatic improvement in your amplified sound." -Fishman marketing piece
In a nutshell, Fishman will record an instrument (Let's say a Martin D-28) in a studio setting. They have developed a process that will capture the unique tone inherent to the D-28 (acoustic image) which will allow them to reproduce that tone electronically. Fishman has then devised several different hardware offerings that allow the user to input the signal from some sort of electronic pickup, apply the D-28 acoustic image, and then export the signal. This amplified signal, in theory, should then sound like a D-28 in a studio setting.
The aura hardware includes standalone pedals. These pedals must be purchased for each type of guitar played. There are pedals for generic guitar types such as dreadnaughts, Jumbo, Concert, Orchestra, 12 string, and Nylon String.
The Fishman Aura also comes in several other different forms. These include the Fishman Blender floor processing unit, the Fishman Ellipse, and the Fishman Aura Pro. The Blender is a programmable unit that enables you to download various images from the Fishman website and change them on the fly. The Fishman Ellipse is a guitar-mounted model that enables you to use your builtin piezo pickup. Lastly the Aura Pro is a product that is custom to Martin Guitars where the Aura is built into the onboard electronics.
While Fishman's undersaddle (piezo) and transducer pickups have been industry standards for many years, I was interested to see if the Aura hype is well justified. Additionally, I wanted to see if the Aura was able to improve on the weaknesses of current acoustic amplification offerings such as feedback, heavy attack noise "quack", timbral consistency, etc...
For the tests, I used a Martin JC-16RE which is outfitted with an onboard Aura. Like any Aura System, the pickup allows the blending of the Aura tone along with the stock piezo pickup tone. For the tests, I played the guitar (amplified of course) in various settings, including a 400 person auditorium, through a small P.A. in a bar, and into my digital recording gear.
PROS
I was pleasantly surprised to see that many piezo deficiencies were very much improved upon by the Fishman Aura. "No matter how hard I played on the guitar, "quack" was virtually eliminated. To get the guitar to feedback, the gain had to be turned up to a level that would cause any electronic signal to be distorted. It was great to see that this Fishman product was able to correct both of these annoying piezo deficiencies with their new product.
The aura pickup really did an outstanding job in the auditorium application where there was enough sound amplification equipment (plenty of good speakers) to bring forward the nuances of the Aura system. However, this sound was post equalization. The EQ was done on the mixing board as the 3 band EQ on the test guitar did not provide a sufficient amount of control for the room.
CONS
I found several drawbacks to the Aura system. The first that I noticed was playing through a small 2 speaker PA system that is standard gear for small gigging musicians. The Aura allows for you to change the mix of Aura vs. piezo pickup. You can go 100% Aura, 50% Aura & 50% piezo, 100% piezo (you get the idea). In the small room setting I found that higher levels of Aura produced a worse sound quality than 100% piezo. This may be due to the lower quality of the sound amplification equipment, but given the abundance of these rigs in everyday life, this is an important observation.
Even in the auditorium application, 100% levels of Aura were a little too much. The piezo produced a little more sonic clarity that when added to the Aura tone created something that sounded a little bit more realistic.
Realism is also another one of my points. At times the Aura system can sound digital. I do like some digital applications especially Line6 products. This is mainly because I can rarely tell that there is digital processing taking place, however with the Aura, the digital qualities were a little bit more noticeable.
In the digital recording application, I was relatively indifferent to the Aura. The sound was o.k. and much better after applying some EQ, which is nearly identical to the process that I use with just a piezo pickup.
As I briefly mentioned, the sound of 100% Aura was not as pleasant as song combination of the Aura and the piezo. In the auditorium it was 75% Aura and 25% piezo. With the small PA system it was 25% Aura and 75% peizo. In the digital recording test, I liked the sound of 50% Aura and 50% piezo.
Final Conclusion
While the Aura can sound overly processed at times, there are several benefits that make ownership of an Aura unit a benefit to your acoustic guitar setup. If you play hard, have feedback problems, or can benefit from the added fullness that an Aura unit can add to your sound, then you should be in the market for an Aura. For those that play through small PA's or those that do not suffer from any of the aforementioned acoustic amplification maladies, your money would be better spent on a good EQ effects to help you shape your sound. The theory behind the technology is really very cleaver, however in practice, I am a believer that the tone of the guitar comes more from the fingers playing it that simply by the makeup of the actual instrument. Aura is a good tool and can fit in a narrow range of applications, but I would not judge it as a must have acoustic amplification tool.