Boss JS-5 Jamstation

Much had been said about JS-5 so why add another review albeith this unit isn't available in your local music store unless you are lucky. I purchased it from EBAY for EUR 200.
I've read some test in magazines before and partly they where bad.

For me it took about 5 hours to be able to make my own songs based on the preset styles. It is easy. Record a form in step mode (measure by measure), record the chords (likewise) and I had my AABA jazz song with turnarounds, breaks and everyting I need to solo against it.

The manual is ok, but i hardly needed it. To me it was relatively straight to know how this piece of plastic behaves.

For me everything is fine.
Most I love that one I have set up the form and chords I can switch between styles and play Autumn Leaves as hip hop, rock, merengue etc. This is really cool!

The build-in effects cannot being applied to audio, but I have a BOSS GT-6B effect board so I really dont care.

Drawback is MIDI-Support and software support as with the BOSS GT-6B too. (It is a Roland/BOSS philosophy problem I suppose).

This thing could be a full fledged 4-channel midi-sequencer but is doesnt "understand" normal midi files. OK, you can record over keyboard use it as expander, user Cubase and you are fine. But it could be better.

The styples are ok, the sound is very good to me.
(hey man - if this thing would exactly sound like me playing a fretless - it would be horrible!)

I have purchased an old one, it looks like new, no scratch and everything works fine.

dont know

For me this thing is perfect to do soloing and improvisation over chord changes! It would be fine if I had have purchased it back in 2000.
Perfectly match my needs.

Unit is easy enough to use, if you've used Japanese made sequencers before, but User Interface has never the strong suit of Roland/Boss. There would have been so many things they could have done to make this easier to use.

I won;t belabor the features - they're already covered below - but I should point out things they could easily have added. It would not have been a stretch to have made this unit capable of loading and playing standard MIDI files as well as general 4-track sequencing.

Great sounds for a synth!

Mine was bought used and several years old, but appears in great shape.

I've always had trouble getting support from Roland Corp.

At the price I paid, it's a better value than what most people paid when the unit first came out. Honestly, I think this box and others like it would benefit from having a software program that made programming it a lot easier ala Band-in-a-Box; you'd fire up the software onscreen, type in the chords and style and instantly send your creation to the unit via MIDI.

I agree - not easy to use - but it can be worth the time to learn. I read the guide cover to cover, and even though my MIDI experience is limited I finally got Cubase SX to load "parts" into the unit.

Its a backing-track machine and therefore limited as a sequencer. The maximum customization you can achieve is to record your own "styles" (the build-block chunks of your composition), and then apply those styles using forms and chords when creating a "song". This is where the real power comes in. If your styles are recorded right you will be able to use them in songs and change EVERYTHING at will. The key, tempo, chords, and length of each section (form) can be changed around (As long as your composition is basically in a major, minor or blues key) . The good part is once you have your songs set, you can easily take them on the road. Don't ge me wrong, recording custom styles and even song manipulation can be somewhat daunting. Still I was finally able to get it to faithfully record a composition in the locrian mode. However, I had to do that in such a way that I cannot change the key or chords. If your looking for easier sequencing, go for a keyboard, machine or other software.

The presets respresent just about every genre from the last 40 years. You will find pretty soon that nearly song you make based on on of the original presets will sound kinda like the preset. Some of instruments sound good, others are very machine-like. The onboard effects are awesome, but only apply to the three MIDI tracks. I assume that Boss thought you might already have your effects for your external audio instrument. Effects for the audio would be a great addition.

No problems so far. I've been very careful with unit. Not a single hicup in operation.

I haven't needed to really press Roland for support on this product (or any of their others), but my few visits to the Boss web-site do not make support look very promising. No phone numbers and I'm not sure what your going to get via eMail.

I've been playing guitar for about 25 years and though I'm an amateur, I'm no slouch. This machine can help keep your chops up and help you stay in "band" shape when you have no one to play along with. With some effort you can create some interesting things to loop and jam along with, but that's about it. As others have correctly pointed out, real customization requires something to control MIDI with (MIDI controller, duh!). I don't have keyboards so I wa able to use a sopftware sequencer - Cubase - and "sync record" parts to the JS-5. Why would I do that? I can now take it on the road with a little amp and jam along.

Some of the sounds are top quality, others are cheap sounding. Most of the preset "songs" contain chord progressions that nobody uses in real life. Editing patches is not too terribly dificult. The manual is fair, but why should you have to go all the way over to page 74 to find out how to name a song you have composed!

The "light-up" key pad is nice but the LCD display needa a light, also. The memory card works but a 64MB card is your upper limit for capacity. 64MB cards are almost obsolete,already, and consequently already scarce at your local Wal-Mart.

Some of the "instruments" sound pretty good, others are cheesy. Onboard effects are there but I would prefer to use my own effects in line before the JS-5.

My 95lb pet dog got tangled in the cords and bolted when I shouted at him,sending the JS-5 flying through the air for 10ft. When it hit the floor, it hit hard! No damage! Wow!

Didn't even have to call them after the dog incident!

Requires a lot of illogical programing. e.g. Why should you have to press "record" to give a song a name? Why not press "Enter". BOSS is heading in the right direction,but has taken some unnecessary side roads,making life complicated for the beginner. A new & welcome feature would be to be able to transfer or copy Inst.1 over to Inst.2 with individual editing capabilities;that way you could stack harmonies with different instruments. Overall, it needs improvement but has enough good features that I will be able to get my moneys worth out of it.

Out of the box it isn't really a stand alone drum machine
or sequencer, it's a beat box. A beat box with a lot of
cheesey presets, as presets tend to be. You have to
have an external midi device (i.e. keyboard or drum machine)
to program your own stuff. And you need experience with
midi and/or drum machines to use this thing. It isn't really
intuitive enough to be a good first machine. I am using
a DR202 Dr. Groove as a midi controller. The drum pads
make for quick beats, and when you shift those pads to
'bass' they become a micro chromatic keyboard, you
can reassign the midi channel of the 'bass' to select between
'bass', 'inst1', and 'inst2' on the JS5... then choose your
octave under 'kit' on the DR202 and it becomes a great
master for the JS5. The semantics used are a bit confusing too; You 'style' record
your 'form' parts and then 'form' record your song structure.
This can be confusing when trying to decipher the manual.
They say 'form' but do they mean individual 'style' parts
or the overall sequence of those parts that makes a song?
Just give me the 8 associated parts to work with under Pattern,
then let me sequence them however I want under Song. Easy.
The Real Time Form Record for Song creation is pretty good.

This is really a 4 track sequencer with an internal sound module,
and the presets are a waste of space. It is a saving grace that the
JS5 has expandable memory. It is too bad you can't delete the
presets and use that space too though. This is one of those "so close" situations... It is a powerful unit, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I think a lot of people will be put off by the learning curve and the need for external control. Boss should have incorporated input pads on the JS5 like those on the DR202, then just added buttons for bass/inst1/inst2 and octave selection. That would make this thing an awesome unit. I'd be willing to forego the
'audio track' record feature for the addition of programming
pads to try to stay within the price point. Maybe Boss should
come out with an external controller pad for the JS5.
The other thing that would make the JS5 sweet would
be seperate outputs for the different parts:
stereo for drums and a mono outs for bass/inst1/inst2 respectively.
This would make the machine a project studio homerun,
as well as a nifty performance tool.

The sounds are clean, and a number of my
favorite Roland patches are included.

Compared to the DR202, the heft and knob feel are much improved.
I like the feel of it very much. You can bulk dump midi or save
to SmartMedia, so your hard earned programming is fairly safe.

Unknown

The idea is great, the quality is great, but the execution
and documentation semantics are a little shakey. I like the
unit and would recommend it for someone who is already midi
savvy and needs a portable sequencer with on deck sound engine.
Mk2 of this unit could be the stuff of legend if Roland just
does a little homework. Roland, if your out there, my services
as a product developer are available quite reasonably. ;)

I love complicated instruments and toys, so the difficulty referred to by some is attractive to me, not a setback. For those neither knowledgeable about music theory nor how to tweak high tech gadgets, this could be a problem, however. As it is, the manual, though only adequately written, no more, provides enough information to get by.

I only wish that, for the price, it had more... more... more!!! What it does have is nice, but will become boring after a few months at most, even for the novice musician. When I first got it, I used it to record my guitar. You can record and while the accompaniment plays in the background. In other words, unlike what one person said, you don't have to turn off the accompaniment in order to record. What makes this unit boring is not just a lack of styles (200 may sound impressive, but most are probably interested in only certain kinds of music), it's a lack of ability to add new styles. The unit has a song generator. This means, if you want to produce a song with 12 bars, for example, it will randomly generate chord changes. Big deal! What should have been included is a random style generator. A style is the basic rhythmic pattern of an instrument in a song, or section of it. Jazz, for example, would have a different rhythmic structure than rock. Rather than just including a bunch of preset styles, Roland should have given you the ability to create your own, based on pre-existing patterns, with just the values of some parameters being changed (like amount of swing, etc.). I don't know how such a system could be implemented, but I'm sure somebody could figure it out. That way, you wouldn't even need to use a software midi program to dump. In any case, you're stuck with what you're given, which isn't much, especially considering the price. Also, I can only use one effect at a time on one instrument at a time. If there's a way around this, I haven't learned.

I'm not very imporessed by the quality of the sounds. Some sound horrible, but at least can be tweaked with effects. It's also easy to change the instuments the accompaniment plays. As a backing track for your guitar playing, I suppose it's good enough. Some styles sound very good, others sound terrible, unless slowed down or speeded up. Then they become bearable. For a $400 piece of equipment, though, you just expect a little bit better. After a while, the sounds used become boring. Perhaps an onboard synth would be nice. I wouldn't mind paying a little extra.

Very reliable. Have not worried about it breaking at all. Looks and feels solid.

Never needed to use it.

I got this basically to help me when I practice guitar. I've played piano and keyboards for years and have only recently become interested in guitar. It does its job, nothing more, nothing less. Don't expect to be blown away by it. People have complained about how long it takes to program. Yeah, it does. But, just think about long it would take to compose a backing track with all the right chord changes and in exactly the right style. This gives musicians who know nothing about rock the ability to start playing rock almost right away. All you have to concentrate on is the lead melody. In a matter of a few hours, you'll have a decent sounding song recorded and ready to use to impress your friends. I'm not giving this product a higher rating, however, because its main limitation is a "been there, heard that" kind of quality. Although its specs sound impressive, the end product is not really all that mind-blowing. It just leaves you wondered why there aren't any production quality machines out there that do the same thing only better. I sure hope Roland develops this product further. It has lot of potential, not just for the practicing musician. Perhaps, if they left out the recording capabilities and concentrated more on the sound and increased the number of styles and the ability to create your own, they'd produce a more impressive product. As it is, I wouldn't pay more than $200 for it.

Presets are brainless (and there are 200 of them). Editing gets more complicated but is easier if you start by copying an existing preset to a User location.

The manual is concise and well laid out with sidebar tips but the instructional video is well worth the extra $10.

Excellent effects. Not enough memory. Surprisingly flexible but as has been said, be prepared to spend some time with it to write your own material.

Anybody complaining about the actual sound quality is an idiot or deaf. The sound engine/effects are fantastic and what I would expect from Roland/Boss. The drums and bass are excellent and although the guitar pretty much sucks, it's really built for the guitarist anyways. (So turn off the guitar!)

Very sturdy. I wouldn't think twice about gigging without a backup.

I've owned almost a dozen Boss pedals over the years - they build quality gear but I can't score this because I've never had to deal with them.

Perfect for home jamming and learning song and chord structure.

For those complaining about the onboard effects not being available to the audio (Guitar/Line/Mic) input --- Try chaining your effects BEFORE your input!

Complaints:
1. It DESPERATELY needs a backlit LCD.
2. It's overpriced.

That being said; I love this thing - if it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another.

Basic operation is easy. Some of the terms can be confusing at 1st. Basic editng is pretty easy. Just can`t find presets for some of the sounds I`m loking for.

With a LOT of work you could program almost anything using a basic MIDI input device (note by note, Instrument by Instrument). But trying to find files ready to load in is almost impossible. I understand they need to be careful of copyrights. But I would think they could sell extra downloads so the user covers the copyright cost. It is suposed to have a bulk MIDI load function. But where can you get these files to load? I can`t find any.

Most sounds are pretty good. a few aren`t as good as others. All in all I`m very hapy with the Sound

I`ve had mine for a while no problems. I think the overall quality is good.

Roland is pretty Much useless for Support. Or customer input. You can call (Long distance during certain hours). No E-mail. You might think they would want customer feedback in order to plan future products. I will look to other Companies products 1st because of this. I would send this to them if I could.

I would try to see if a more Customer freindly company had something comparable. The product is actually very good. The company isn`t.

Hey read the manual...easy to use with a few minutes spent with the quick set up. Easy to modify on the fly.

Does a lot more than I need it to do really. I got it to polish chops on lead improvisation and blues harp. For that, it is excellent. Is it a substitute for a band? No...but it is always available and I can tailor it for what I need.

Some of the preset songs sound great! Sometimes I just listen to it because it sounds good. Other times, it sounds like some guy in front of a music store in the mall trying to sell electronic keyboards to retirees. With 200+ selections though, you'll find some you like, or just punch up your own.

Flawless operation.

Have not needed but assume that service will be excellent from this outfit.

Probably would get another because it is really the only thing that does what I need other than playing along with recordings.

Although workable, the multifunction buttons (of which nearly all the buttons are)are cumbersome, and make song programming extremely tiresome. The song building process itself takes some time to get right, time instead of practicing, a LOT of time and complication if the song is complex. Its supposed accompany you, to fulfill this you must sacrafice A LOT of time.

Accepts SMC, so nice expandibility and compatibility, (they're so cheap, like $9 32mb...) Use of SMC allows you to record yourself, (not REALLY record yourself, it sortof sounds like compressed crap but is fine for practising...) The voices are fine, but there are NO real NEW STYLES! For Jazz it's great! But for rock/metal/dance(?)/rap it's like stuff my mother would program. (J5 Metal= hairbands, J5 Dance= 70's-80's electronica, J5 Rock= Beatles, only not vintage sounding...) There are some effects too that can be the saving grace of some of the accompanyments, but, again, the styles are so very antiquated and limited.

A few quality instruments, better sounding than older Band-in-a-Box versions, but not unlike my cheapo Yamaha PSR my grandma gave me, (although she was really nice and it was really cool to hit the "DEMO" button...) There are simply to few drum sets for what is advertised as (atleast partly) a DRUM machine. The effects and various different 'style' selections are relatively few and sub-par for a machine of the esteemed 'BOSS' Dr. R lineage, and for being so much more expensive than its electronic peers. TOO FEW STYLES!!

Yes, I can depend on it, although perhaps it is because the machine mostly just sits atop my amp beside my POD staring at me with its cold-unlit-unused eyes, tempting me to try to enter in a new Jazz number, or try to make it sound like the drums on the radio. Sadly, seduction ends inevitably with me giving up on the unit after about 20min of fiddling, having wasted my practice time. An (8) because I wouldn't depend on it despite its seeming durability, due to its characteristically inherent bordom.

Never had to use. Probably just take it back to the music store and swing it ape-like at various expensive pieces of equipment until my money was returned or I was arrested. I probably wouldn't bother having it repaired or wasting a lot of time on tech support. The midi interfacing process is really complicated though, and I can't understand the manual chapter concerning it.

No, I would buy an Alesis SR-16 or a multitrack to record myself and practice with, or the renouned Band-in-a-Box and a used performa mac on ebay (together costing less, really...), I now use REASON 2.5 for my drumming and instrumental needs... If your're persistent with it, you might just get it to play the correct chords and loop!! I hate it though. 2 for effort and the light-up buttons, (but the lcd is not backlit so you cant play in the dark...)