Acoustic Tone Matching and the Fishman Aura

200man

Power User
First, I haven't got off the dime with my jazz box because I am having too much fun,
but I am interested in producing some patches for some of my other guitars...in this case
it is a Martin acoustic with the Fishman piezos under the saddle.

Question...is the tone matching of the Axe-fx essentially comparable to the Fishman Aura's method?
I ask this because I was able to coax some pretty good sounds out of my Aura and it seems that the Axe's
tone matching is similar in approach...well except you can do it yourself...
...and it seems more powerful what with the effects and all.

Another question is whether there is any feedback control methods available in the Axe
for "live" acoustic applications?

Thanks for responding!
 
After reviewing hundreds of threads last night I couldn't find anything that said otherwise WRT the 2 units.

Well the next thought I had was multiple tone matches of multiple mics and positions and mixing
multiple tone match blocks in the axe. Anyone done this?
 
Again...I see I am answering my own questions.
Save the tone match blocks...as cab blocks...if up to 2 cab blocks can be placed
on a page... I assume 3 is the max number of tone matches that can be incorporated into a preset.
 
Personally I hate the Aura. Possibly the IRs can be used and sound better with the de-phase parameter. Otherwise, they are super-phasey.

The concept is brilliant but the Axe can do this so much better.

Actually, you can have two cab blocks, each with X/Y state and then a TMA block so you can have 5 tone matches saved in a single preset. I only ever use 1.

You can do several tone matches, save the IRs and use cab lab for mixing and finalizing your IR then save that and use it as the main IR for your patch.

The EQ blocks can be used for feedback control, but I use a solid body electric with piezo so I never have this problem.
 
Fishman Aura applies a number of pre-determined EQ-curves to whatever is put into it.
A while ago IRs made from the tones of the Fishman Aura were posted on the forum. Fishman objected to that so they were taken down.

So it is possible to have the cab block of the AxeFx behave like an Aura, if you make a Tone Match of the Aura's precessing.
But you can also match your own guitar to an acoustic recording you like very much. So it's actually way more flexible, but takes more work.

Why would you want to save many tone matches in one preset? You will not likely use more than two at the same time.
Just make more presets.
 
Why would you want to save many tone matches in one preset? You will not likely use more than two at the same time.
Just make more presets.

I was thinking in the tradional sense of recording an acoustic in multiple locations with multiple mics.
 
...

Actually, you can have two cab blocks, each with X/Y state and then a TMA block so you can have 5 tone matches saved in a single preset. I only ever use 1.

You can do several tone matches, save the IRs and use cab lab for mixing and finalizing your IR then save that and use it as the main IR for your patch.

The EQ blocks can be used for feedback control, but I use a solid body electric with piezo so I never have this problem.

Thank you...looks like I need to get my head around the X/Y state.
I do not yet have the cab lab...I think I'm needing to understand the box a little better first.
Great info...appreciate it!
 
...
So it is possible to have the cab block of the AxeFx behave like an Aura, if you make a Tone Match of the Aura's precessing.
But you can also match your own guitar to an acoustic recording you like very much. So it's actually way more flexible, but takes more work.

Yeah...I didn't consider tone matching the Aura ...it never crossed my mind.
I was thinking to take several shots of the guitar with a mic at different locations and narrow it down from there.
Thanks for responding!
 
I was able to record 3 different tone matches at the fretboard, sound hole and the bridge tonight.
Then I figured out how to use the front panel to save to user cabs.
Then I built a preset with 1 tone match and 2 cab blocks...3 graphic eqs before the blocks,
1 tube pre in front of the whole thing and some delay and verb at the tail.
I need to isolate, eq and mix...but it came out scarily good.
Thanks again Fractal Audio!

I'll be happy to share this once the Quantum release and associated tools are working.
 
I was able to record 3 different tone matches at the fretboard, sound hole and the bridge tonight.
Then I figured out how to use the front panel to save to user cabs.
Then I built a preset with 1 tone match and 2 cab blocks...3 graphic eqs before the blocks,
1 tube pre in front of the whole thing and some delay and verb at the tail.
I need to isolate, eq and mix...but it came out scarily good.

Are you using the Aura? Are you just using the piezo on 100% wet and letting the preset do all the work?
 
I use the Aura and love it with my 80's Takamine with UST pickup and onboard active preamp.

It takes some auditioning of the Aura images and careful setting of the blend control, but the result is really good for FOH for live acoustic guitar.

You can use the Fractal to tone match the Aura.

Here is what I learned in tone matching my Aura:

- Be careful to setup a mono signal chain.
- Reference is the Aura
- Local is the under saddle pickup
- Use Live mode in the tone match block.
- I just strummed a first position chord sequence: G -> C -> D -> Am for the tone match.

I eventually stopped using the Fractal for acoustic guitar and just use the Aura -> TC Electronics Voice Live 3. The TC has a guitar layer that has decent efx and I already need the TC for background vocals. So it saves me setting up the Fractal for acoustic gigs.

The details of how to hook everything up are same as live amp matching. Check out the forum.
 
I've owned the Aura for years and what the fractal did last night after the tone matching is a Quantum step above the Aura...no contest.
 
What I've wanted to try but never got around to it was:

To setup an SDC X/Y mic pair on my acoustic and tone match each microphone separately. Then convert the tone matches to IR's and set these up in a stereo cab block.

I bet that would be incredible for live sound with the Fractal.
 
Yes...I bet that would work real nice.
Well...I used a 414 for the tone matches, and while the sound hole match was a natural,
after wrestling with EQ...I wasn't satisfied with the fret board tone match.
The bridge tm was good...just not as good as it could be.
Maybe less is better here like you folks have already suggested...but a stereo shot like you say
I think is the ticket...and this might spur an investment in a pair of nice SDCs...which
i could find other use for.
Having said that, in comparison to the aura it is wonderful to have a piezo pickup with the axe sound like my guitar...and not a facsimile based on a different guitar's profile. And we can experiment...gee this axe can be downright fun!
 
This really fascinates me. Can you post a youtube video of your process and outcome? I'd love to see it and how it can work. I hated the aura as it was too phasey but I still haven't got to grips with this feature in my axe.

Thanks
 
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