Aura Pro - new guitar amp from db audioware

[DaveB]

Hi all,

I'm happy to announce that Aura Pro, the new virtual guitar amp from db audioware, is now available...




Aura Pro is a warm, rich sounding amp simulation, capable of creating a wide spectrum of clean & overdriven tones.

It's available for both Mac and PC (in VST and Audio Unit formats) and also comes with a standalone player for practice sessions or live use. More information, sound samples and a trial version are available now at www.db-audioware.com

Cheers,
Dave

Dave Brown
www.db-audioware.com

[DaveB]

Forgot to mention - Aura Pro costs $79, but to promote the launch, we're selling the first 100 copies for half price.

Dave
www.db-audioware.com

[original flipper]

HI

Shame you can't do a 50% deal on QFX v2; at the current price it is a bit beyond many people.

Flipper.

[dry bones]

I'm auditioning the Aura Pro demo tonight- if it's what I'm after, I'll be buying it. I use a VAmp2 for most of my guitar recording, but only with one guitar. My semiacoustic doesn't get on with it, so I'll be testing Aura with a Digitech Bad Monkey switched off as a clean preamp ( this works really well ).
/edit Now demoed: I'm buying this. My Antoria makes the sounds I know it can through Aura.

[AndrewSimon]

Downloaded, will test tonight.
Thanks

[morelia]

Despite having Amplitube and impatiently waiting for AT2 I tried the demo and couldn't resist. This will provide the best clean and crunch sounds I have at present. Thanks for the intro offer DB. I love it.

[Ian B]

Tried this last night, and it's a damn good sound but has a couple of drawbacks. Cpu hit is a bit high on my P4 2.0, not massively high, (approx 20% sitting idle) but enough to make me cautious about using it. Then there's the backgroung 'hum' not the demo hiss, but even using a tele copy with fender vintage silent pickups (and they are quiet) the background noise is very noticeable, even on the clean presets. I know 'real' amps hum, but the hum on this makes it a no-go for me.

[Sascha Franck]

My current setup (main stuff is re-ordered right now) won't allow for testing it properly, but the demos (at least partially) sound quite organic.

However, as someone planning to use such things live, I'd like to recommend some things:
- Make the delay tempo-syncable (apparently it isn't, at least there's nothing in the PDF). An additional MIDI clock mode would be even better.
- Offer some tap-tempo function for the delay, probably the tremolo and other effects as well. Best would be to add a multiplier, so I could have a quarter note delay and an 8th note tremolo.
- Offer easy MIDI learn features, so things such as effects intensity and FX on/off status could be easily controlled through whatever you may use. Especially important for the Wah. I hardly ever use Auto-Wahs but I'm using pedal Wahs all the time.

Will give it a try after x-mas.

[omo]

after listening to audio demos i don't feel like trying it out. they all sound horrible, especially the metal one.

[DaveB]

Then there's the backgroung 'hum' not the demo hiss, but even using a tele copy with fender vintage silent pickups (and they are quiet) the background noise is very noticeable, even on the clean presets. I know 'real' amps hum, but the hum on this makes it a no-go for me.

Aura is not generating the hum. Like most all-digital algorithms, Aura has a perfect signal/noise ratio, in other words it adds absolutely no noise. The hum is already present in your guitar signal, and the high levels of gain/compression in Aura simply make it more noticeable - just as you would find with a real amp. That's why Aura has a good noise gate, it's essential for high gain presets (even the clean ones, which still use lots of compression and gain)

You can turn down the gain levels in Aura, but then it won't sound as good! The real solution is to improve the signal/noise ratio of your guitar signal, and there are a number of ways to do this. (My apologies if you already know about most of these, I'm just running through all the possibilities I can think of)

* Make sure your guitar is connected to a high impedance input. There are a number of different ways to do this - your soundcard might have a high impedance "Instrument" input, or you can use an external preamp, DI box or stomp box on bypass. See page 9 of the Aura Pro manual for more information.

* Don't run your guitar cable close to any A/C adapters or mains cabling.

* To get the best out of those fender vintage pickups, use a good quality guitar cable with heavy duty screening. A shorter length of cable is better, it minimises the chance of picking up hum.

* If you need to run your guitar cable a long distance in your studio, consider using a DI box. This converts your unbalanced guitar signal into a balanced signal, which you can them connect to a 3-pin XLR mic input on a regular mixer. (The secret here is that balanced cabling removes most of the hum being picked up along the cable run).

* Try using a different cable. Soldering in the connectors can degrade over time, don't assume an expensive cable is still good.

* You may be picking up hum from your computer monitor - even a TFT monitor. There's no real solution to this, other than to move further away while recording. Also try switching off any nearby mains powered items one-by-one, to check if they are contributing to the hum.

* Check the wiring in your guitar is sound, especially the ground shielding to the bridge.

* If you are using an external USB soundcard, try a different USB cable.

* If you get to this point and still have hum, it may be caused by a ground loop in your equipment. Ground loops are more tricky to locate, but there's loads of help out there - just Google for "ground loop". Two quick points - it can help if you plug all your studio equipment into a single wall socket (being careful not to overload the socket of course). Whatever you do, don't break the ground loop by disconnecting earth pins - this is a SERIOUSLY dangerous practice. If you are using a DI box, try hitting the "ground lift" switch - this will safely break any ground loop.

Hope some of that helps!

Dave
www.db-audioware.com

[DaveB]

However, as someone planning to use such things live, I'd like to recommend some things:
- Make the delay tempo-syncable (apparently it isn't, at least there's nothing in the PDF). An additional MIDI clock mode would be even better.
- Offer some tap-tempo function for the delay, probably the tremolo and other effects as well. Best would be to add a multiplier, so I could have a quarter note delay and an 8th note tremolo.

Thanks for the feedback, some very useful ideas. We'll try to add them for the next release.

- Offer easy MIDI learn features, so things such as effects intensity and FX on/off status could be easily controlled through whatever you may use. Especially important for the Wah. I hardly ever use Auto-Wahs but I'm using pedal Wahs all the time.

Aura Pro already has full MIDI Learn, just right-click on any control, select "Learn" and move a controller. It works in both the plugin and standalone.

All the best,
Dave
www.db-audioware.com

[Sascha Franck]

Aura Pro already has full MIDI Learn, just right-click on any control, select "Learn" and move a controller. It works in both the plugin and standalone.

So, could you control the on/off status of the FX as well? That'd be particularly required for a wah but also quite useful for the other ones.

In addition, I'd like to recommend upper/lower parameter limits. For instance, usually I don't want to sweep all through the available range of tremolo speed but just slightly alter it.
Of course, one could do so using a host such as Energy XT, but it'd be easier if things were available on the unit itself.

[Klemperer]

Hi Dave,

it's always good to listen to Sascha's suggestions, you can't easily find a more-pro-guitarist at KVR...(of course nobody needs that advice of mine).

I played with Aura pro, and as I like the little one in QuantumFX2, I couldn't resist and bought it immediately. Got a new budget-guitar (Samick Malibu, much underrated) and love to play with the Aura Pro with it.

I got EnergyXt, but I'd be glad too if we could set upper and lower parameter limits inside the standalone of Aura pro.

Very nice! Off for playing now. (I'd like to know your opinions about it, Sascha, once you tested it).

[Ian B]

Hi DaveB,
Thanks for the detailed reply I'm aware of most of the things you mentioned, and you're right about Aura not generating the hum, but it does amplify it a lot.

My setup > tele copy/noiseless pickups > Digitech RP50 in bypass mode > Audiophile 2496 analogue inputs > sequencer > Aura Pro, produces a lot of noise/hum. The pickups were professionally fitted, each one earthed seperately and are literally silent (at a average listening level) when used with the Digitech RP50, even when used sat up close to my monitor with a heavily distoted fx patch. The guitar lead is a budget job tho'

The 'hum' is not that bad tbh, it would probably be unnoticable in a full mix, but prior to that, it's a issue for me. I had the same problem (tho' not as pronounced, iirc) with the Revalver demo, which persuaded me not to buy that.

[Sascha Franck]

Digitech RP50 in bypass mode

This might be the weak point in your chain.
I used to use a similar routing with some guitar-based FX devices in bypass mode, thinking it'd give me some proper line level, very often to my dissapointment. Seems as if the output amps and converters just aren't all that good. Usually you may not notice things because there's only some power amplificatin following, but in case of a guitar amp simulation everything will more or less automatically become compressed.

And fwiw, sometimes these problems seem to be "just there", without anything that would be explainable in a scientific way.
Just recently I tried out some combinations of expensive D.I. boxes and preamps, running straight into a Hammerfall DSP, and I've been amazed about how few of those combinations delivered an even halfway useable sound to work with.

I also tried out M-Audios Audiobuddy in front of some Audiophile - that's actually been the most satisfying solution I've heard so far. And the Audiobuddy is a really cheap one...