Fractal Audio DRIVE models: Jam Ray (based on Vemuram Jan Ray)

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Jam Ray: Vemuram Jan Ray


The Jan Ray is a fabulous boost and overdrive, any way you look at it. It’s being endorsed by an impressive list of artists, including Michael Landau, Oz Noy, Scott Henderson, Pete Thorn, Matt Schofield and others.

It can act as a clean boost, or turn a clean amp into an overdriven one. The pedal provides natural-feeling compression, as well as crispness on the top, along with warmth and softness in the lows (quoted from MixDown’s review).

“BOOST-OVERDRIVE Pedal with Large head room

The Jan Ray was designed to recreate the punchy clear tone of the Blackface Fender amps from the 60’s. So-called the “Fender Magic 6” sound. An easy to handle overdrive keeping the characteristics of the guitar, with great sustain without any unnatural compression.” Vemuram

The “Fender Magic 6” sound refers to Volume and Treble on 6, Middle on 3 and Bass on 2 (6, 6, and 3x2), as often dialed in on a Super Reverb.

This pedal too has caused heated discussions on internet forums because of alleged similarities to the Timmy.

This boutique pedal sells for over 400 USD / Euros!! But we get it for free through a firmware upgrade. What a wonderful world it is.

The diode-based pedal has these controls:
  • Volume: output volume (model: Level).
  • Bass: bass cut (model: Bass Cut).
  • Treble: amount of treble (model: Treble).
  • Gain: amount of overdrive (model: Drive).












Link to the list of published threads

This (and more) information will also be included in the next edition of Yek's Guide to the Drive Models.
 
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The Jan Ray is a slightly modified Timmy (*cough* ripoff *cough*) which itself is a modified Tube Screamer (albeit heavily modified).

The whole drive pedal industry is a joke. $10 worth of parts sold for $200 and up. Very little innovation, most designs are variations of a Tube Screamer, Rat or BluesBreaker. Making variations of classic designs is fine but the prices for these things is ridiculous.

The designers talk about crappy old diodes that aren't available anymore (for good reason) like they have mystical qualities. They're frickin' diodes. The surrounding circuitry has as much, if not more, control over the clip shape. I wonder if any of these guys even understand fully how the circuits work.

One of the more impressive circuits is the BluesBreaker. Whoever designed that knew what he was doing. It's unique and the designer understood the role of resistance in series with the diodes.

I'm going to design a digital pedal with all the models in it, sell it for $199 and put all these crooks out of business.
 
The Jan Ray is a slightly modified Timmy (*cough* ripoff *cough*) which itself is a modified Tube Screamer (albeit heavily modified).

The whole drive pedal industry is a joke. $10 worth of parts sold for $200 and up. Very little innovation, most designs are variations of a Tube Screamer, Rat or BluesBreaker. Making variations of classic designs is fine but the prices for these things is ridiculous.

The designers talk about crappy old diodes that aren't available anymore (for good reason) like they have mystical qualities. They're frickin' diodes. The surrounding circuitry has as much, if not more, control over the clip shape. I wonder if any of these guys even understand fully how the circuits work.

One of the more impressive circuits is the BluesBreaker. Whoever designed that knew what he was doing. It's unique and the designer understood the role of resistance in series with the diodes.

I'm going to design a digital pedal with all the models in it, sell it for $199 and put all these crooks out of business.

I would buy that pedal in a heart beat, for the few times that I pull a tube amp out of the storage room :)
 
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I have to admit:

I once played a Hook 45 with a Jan Ray through a 1x12 (Alnico), and it was among the best clean sounds I ever achieved.

I set the model's Bass Cut to 8, Treble up, Drive between 4 and 5. Works great in front of a clean amp and thickens dirty tones.
 
The Jan Ray is a slightly modified Timmy (*cough* ripoff *cough*) which itself is a modified Tube Screamer (albeit heavily modified).

The whole drive pedal industry is a joke. $10 worth of parts sold for $200 and up. Very little innovation, most designs are variations of a Tube Screamer, Rat or BluesBreaker. Making variations of classic designs is fine but the prices for these things is ridiculous.

The designers talk about crappy old diodes that aren't available anymore (for good reason) like they have mystical qualities. They're frickin' diodes. The surrounding circuitry has as much, if not more, control over the clip shape. I wonder if any of these guys even understand fully how the circuits work.

One of the more impressive circuits is the BluesBreaker. Whoever designed that knew what he was doing. It's unique and the designer understood the role of resistance in series with the diodes.

I'm going to design a digital pedal with all the models in it, sell it for $199 and put all these crooks out of business.
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I'm going to design a digital pedal with all the models in it, sell it for $199 and put all these crooks out of business.
Woot! Strymon and Source Audio come to mind. They don't seem to outright market their digital distortion pedals as, "it has all the models in it and you can replace all your distortion pedals" though, but seems to rather play along with the silly drive pedal market saying things like "here's our take on the classics."
 
I'm going to design a digital pedal with all the models in it, sell it for $199 and put all these crooks out of business.

But people wouldn't buy it because it's digital. It HAS to sound bad or at least worse than the original. Even though it sounds exactly the same it will sound digital and therefore it won't be the real deal. :D
 
I’ll bet there are enough people who are willing to accept a digital pedal that it would be a big setter at $199. I know I’d buy one in a heartbeat if it delivered the same exact drive pedal modeling as this update!
 
Reading through all the drive model improvements and checking out the new drives that we're getting here makes me really grateful that I'm not constantly tempted to try out each new pedal that comes to market. Even through the Axe isn't a cheap piece of gear, I'm sure it's saved me a ton of money.
 
I’ll bet there are enough people who are willing to accept a digital pedal that it would be a big setter at $199. I know I’d buy one in a heartbeat if it delivered the same exact drive pedal modeling as this update!



I don’t know, Source Audio has their King Maker/LA Lady pedals which are digital drive pedals and darn good ones, and they have very few fans and you can get them used for $100 or less

It can do lots of different fuzz, OD etc, even has parallel processing so you can run one into the other, true stereo etc.

All and all and really cool and flexible pedal, super deep editing, great sound etc, and few seem to want it because it’s digital.

People seem okay with digital drives and mod in modelers, but seems like most people don’t want digital dirt on a pedal board

It’s like that cheap Mooer delay pedal that people thought sounded really good, and then they found out it wasn’t analog, and hated it lol.
 
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