Jam 2
by Acustica Audio · Saturation · Analog saturation suite
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Jam 2 is a saturation suite with 28 emulations of vintage and modern analog saturation, from transistors to tubes and pushed circuits.
It includes Jam and the lighter Jam Mix; no price was shown on the product page.
Best for: Mix Bus, Mastering, Drums, Bass, Vocals. Genres: all genres.
Keywords: analog-sounding, metering, hardware emulation, modern, drums, vocals, classic, full mix, oversampling, bass, bus processing, gentle, mastering, mid/side, mix bus, mixing, preset-driven, resizable UI, sampled hardware, single-band, transistor, tube, vintage, warm.
What it does
Jam 2 is Acustica Audio's saturation and preamp suite, sold by the developer as "The King Of Saturators". Its idea is breadth: Acustica calls it the largest collection of distortion units on the market, sampled from analog hardware.
- 28 emulations: classic and modern analog saturation families, drawn from 14 sampled hardware units.
- 14 Hyper preamps: preamplifier stages that add their own tone and harmonics before or alongside the saturation.
- Limiter emulations: 19 classic and modern limiter models on top of the saturators.
- Mix Types: seven ways of blending the saturation, grouped into four categories: Disto, Smooth, Natural and Clean.
- Shape: sets how hard the distortion bites, from gentle warmth to obvious drive.
- Hyper EQ: a 2-band EQ plus high-pass and low-pass filters for shaping the result.
- Quality and metering: up to 64x oversampling with antialiasing and phase-correct response, RMS and LUFS meters, and Delta, LR, Mid and Side listening modes.
- Workflow: 80+ presets, a draggable, resizable window and, new in version 2, faster model switching and smaller disk use than the first Jam.
A lighter edition, Jam Mix, drops the EQ and preamp sections, and Fire The Jam is a separate, simplified plugin with the 28 emulations. Jam 2 launched in September 2024 with an introductory price; the product page itself shows no trial details.
Source: Acustica Audio product page
When to use it
Jam 2 is the pick when you want to audition many analog saturation colours in one window rather than commit to one character. Compared with Decapitator, which offers five strong, well-known distortion styles behind a fast interface, Jam 2 has far more models plus preamps, limiters, an EQ and LUFS metering, but takes longer to find the right sound. Next to the Black Box HG-2 it is less of a single, signature mastering colour and more of a library. Unlike RC-20 Retro Color, it focuses on clean-to-driven analog saturation rather than lo-fi noise, wobble and degradation. Saturation Knob is the quick, free-of-fuss alternative where Jam 2 is the deep one.
- Best for: choosing between many analog saturation and preamp colours on vocals, drums, buses and the master, with metering to keep levels honest.
- Genres: any.
- Look elsewhere if: you want one quick, characterful knob (Saturation Knob or Decapitator), lo-fi texture (RC-20 Retro Color), or a simpler cheaper Acustica option (Fire The Jam).
Where to buy
- Acustica Audio: see store
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