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...)

For those who do not know how to use the Midi don't even try. If you just want to use this machine like a hard track tape recorder: all you have to do is put a memory card 32 or 64 mb and select card operation. Then plug in a music source on the back input and select: the recording input of the device you are using such as line , guitar or mic even a CD. Next you will have to turn all the Part mute/select buttons off They are showed as drum, bass, inst1, inst2 these will not be functional on playback, they should not be lit. Hit record, then auto track,and then press start to begin recording. You will not be able to play individual tracks but will achive a complete recording all at once. Buy the "video users manual" I think this is a great machine and the manual is not difficult to follow.

I am not a keyboard player but I do play guitar. I arrange all my tracks on the computer then record them onto the JS5 memory card. I Never used the built in effects. I am checking out the Midi capabilities of this unit, but have nothing to reply on that operation right now.

This system has one of the best sound engines I have ever heard.

I like to use this This Unit when playing live, Boss has always made great gear, and their products have been known to not fail. This equipment looks like it will last a long time.

I have not contacted customer service, but I bought their JS5 video owner manual. They shipped it promptly.

I would buy this unit again. The JS5 is a great "jam" companion also a not to bad as a back up band, if you input all the song information into it, wich takes a long time.

very easy. an 8 year old could put it working. at first you're surprised and delighted on how simple it is... until you realize the problem of this machine lies primarily on it's operational ease. this wasn't made for a musician!! nor it was for the most amateur of us. This machine was made for an 8 year old.

read the other reviews to get acquainted with it's limits and flaws.

coming from BOSS, the sounds and effects couldn't be horrible... the thing is: what do you need JS-5 for? to play along with it? for the price they ask for it, you have plenty other MUCH better options.

depend on this machine means one of two things: you are VERY green in music or you live in sahara desert...

never needed

this was the worst investment i made. i bet most of the owners of JS-5 got impressed by it's ease of use, the sound, and the features they claim the machine has. but all this is a big illusion. it's like they're selling you a piece of s#%t wrapped in silk with a golden lace. and you pay the silk and the gold thinking you have a great thing until you 'open' it.

I thought that it was a little difficult to get used to after the initial jamming with the machine. It is not intuitive- but it is easier to get around after you have tried to use it several times.

Has great features. It does what I want it to do, and the effects work well. I have not tried the MIDI connection, only because it seems to difficult to deal with.

The samples sound great. The guitar samples do stink, but the drums, bass, and piano all sound super. The filters also do a great job for modifying the output.

Had it for a year. Not a problem at all.

No need. The book showed me what I needed, but beyond that I have not contacted the company.

Overall this box does what I need it to do. I have used it for going to tape to check my progress in guitar playing, and for that it is good. The user mode does allow me to create different songs, but the button layout can be cumbersome. Overall, it does it's job.

The box isn't terribly hard to use--once you learn how. Unfortunately the manual leaves a lot to be desired. They obviously put a lot of effort into writing the manual but what's missing is a description of the basic concepts up front so you have a context for understanding the rest. This is not a tool that you just pick up and start using without reading the manual. But once you learn how it works, the actions are fairly straightforward for the most often-used features, and the key functions are well thought out. You can enter forms with a single keystroke, and most chords with two. The dial allows you to cycle through measures, lists of instruments, or chords (as an alternative to directly entering them with the buttons) very quickly. The SHIFT key doubles the functionality of many keys, but the SHIFT-FWD combination (to go to the last measure) is not marked on the console (most SHIFT functions are) and this trick is buried deep in the manual.

If all you want to do is play the pre-programmed songs and play along, it takes about 2 minutes to figure out how to do that, and you're off and running.

The main problem here is not the design of the machine itself but in the mediocre documentation.

The JS-5 allows you to compose songs. It has a library of 200 differents styles in several different musical idioms (jazz, rock, country, pop, etc.). Each style has a set of forms. A form is a building block for a song. The form defines how long the form is, what instruments play, and how they play. The forms are intro, 2 verses, 2 fills, 2 breaks, and ending. You can compose your song by combining any of these forms in any order, and using any length you want (for example, the default verse might be 8 bars but you can apply to a 4-bar section if you want). Then you can lay out the chord changes. Each chord can have a duration of a variety of notes, whole, half, down to 16th, and triplet forms as well. You can compose original songs, although I have mostly used this to create versions of jazz standards. This works very well for standards and types of songs with nothing unusual, but for anything complex the best you will be able to do is an approximation. Which I think is about the best anyone could expect from a device like this. Anything more complex would require a much more complex user interface and probably jack up the price too.

This is not a musical instrument! But it playback of built-in styles is very realistic, especially when you take advantage of fill and break measures that let a song breathe. It has a very sophisticated set of effects, but the HUGE drawback here is they can be applied only to the built-in instruments. You cannot use the effects on an instrument you have plugged in to record along with the canned playback.

Recording time is something like 2 minutes, but you can add SmartMedia cards up to 64M to stretch that to 68 minutes.

It accepts MIDI input to allow you to create your own styles, but as near as I can figure there's no other way to do it. Since this is targeted primarily at guitarists, not sure how many of us have a MIDI keyboard sitting around. It also has MIDI output. It does not have an on-board sequencer.

The drums and most bass sounds, acoustic and jazz guitar, and most of the keyboard instruments are very realistic. Drum fills are especially good. These are the ones you'll probably use the most anyway. Most of the other instruments sound very synthesized, but still reasonable. It supports 128 instruments.

It works well for all styles except classical.

Sounds are totally static, oblivious to what you're playing along with it.

Haven't had it long enough to judge reliability.

No need for customer support yet.

You can find this new for $380, which is a great price for someone like me who wants to use it primarily as a powerful practice tool. I could also envision using it as a backup band for some types of solo gigs. The only thing I don't like is that there are three times more rock styles than anything else, and I'm a jazz player. The handful of jazz styles get me most of the way to where I want to go, but even the most basic straight 4 style (no swing) is missing. Clearly targeted towards the rock guitarist more so than any other single type of player. But I guess that's where the bucks are. . . . .

I have been using the unit for approx 8 months now. The JS-5 is somewhat cryptic to understand at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is fairly easy to use. I would not try to figure this device out without using the manual.

The expansion is by way of one of those small Sandisk type cards. This is very easy to install (just insert in slot) and use.
Programming of songs using existing "forms" as they call them is very easy. Plus, there is no feature to create melody notes, but it probably wasn't designed for that but I think it would be handy.

Sounds are excellent and very realistic. It's cool and easy to pick certain instruments for either muting or changing.

The unit works without any problems.

I would rate their manual as "average". I have not had to call their customer support.

When I first bought this device I was a bit overwhelmed and quite frankly disappointed. Once I got the hang of how to use it, I really like it. The only downside is it takes a bit of time to create your own songs, it would be better if they had some type of interface with a PC so you could create songs on the PC and then download them to the JS-5.

I recieved the jamstation for Christmas and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. I think the presets sound pretty good. Editing can be a daunting task, especailly at first. The manual is OK for base functions, although for more complex arrangements-well it's all greek to me!

I can't stress enough how disappointed I was to learn the multitude of effects only works on the preset songs, not the input. Haven't even tried the MIDI function, probably won't after reading above as there is limited info in manual.

The presets sound pretty good to me. I really like that you can mute any one of four tracks or combinations. Seems to me that Polka can be dropped though. Can't play my blues riffs to that!

so far no problems

If it were lost or stolen I would cry because of price. I've been playing guitar for 17 yrs and this my first piece of equipment with any brains. I'm really trying hard to like it, not having effects on the input instrument was a REAL let down. Having 2nd thoughts about selling due to articles above

This thing is advertised as a backing accompaniment for a guitar - its very easy to use - but do you wanna play along to a bossa nova - on a 1962 transistor radio? In other words - the manual is excellent - its easy to use - but not worth using.

Multi featured - but useless - the sound quality is not there.
It can play accompaniment chords, base line, drum track etc.

I did not keep it long enough to fully explore.

Cheezey - cheap midi sound (like a $89 keyboard) - thru headphones or guitar amp - might as well play along to an radio.

I tried using effects to give some life to the out put - without success. The problem is that the my guitar (any guitar) sounds so much better then the weak, flat accompiment. The better the guitar and amp - the worse this sounds.

only kept it one day - then returned to store.

I took it right back to the store.

I only kept it one afternoon- then returned to store. Very easy to play along with "canned" backing tracks. But, It can do much more - with programming (not so easy). Change pitch, tempo, CHORDS!!, drumsets. Everything is programable, tweekable. If you know what your tweeking! If not playing - with this will teach you. It also records. (which I did not try to do) The Manual is much better then the one that came with my Roland Keyboard. It's easy enough to follow. I just could not live with the sound quality.

I used a stock Strat, and a Koa Carvin thru a Silverface Vibro-champ, and a Hughes&Kettner tube amp. I also tried direct from box with good headphones. Sound quality is equal to a cheap keyboard synth. My guitar comes thru either "richer and live" - or barely audible. I could not find a usable balance between the Guitar and the JamStation. At bed room volume I could not hear the guitar. Loud the balance worked better. (too loud for headphones, and my apartment) In either case - the better your guitar and amp - the worse this will sound. Like a poor MP3 VS a CD.

Its not a stomp box - only good for one stomp!

I think it was desinged to be used with a Squire guitar/amp - for basement playing. It has all the makings of a great learning tool. At $200 it would be worth it - at $500 - no way. The features are there -the sound quality is not. I'm waiting for the next generation - adult version.

Boss has never created a trash product since I can remember, so whoever has the audacity to rate this product under 8 in any area needs their head read! Presets, Patches, Setup etc. is a pure pleasure and once triggered, will turn any room into a live studio.

The Js-5 has included as much user friendly options as the device can accomodate for it's size; including excellent polyphony and effects great for the starting musician and on-the-run one man band performers. Pc interaction would have been a real plus for this gadget but perhaps Roland will pick that hint up all over the Internet for the JS-6

Basically unbelievable expression can be found on the Jam Station 5 and sounds have been put together well. A good idea might have been to get Satriani to do Boss's guitar sections and styles and use these wav syths instead.

Absolutely Dependable provided you're not playing in the open rain!

The Best

The JS-5 has really proven itself as a upper-class backing device that would make most of the non-musical puplic oblivious to any of the lower sound qualities or limitations of this great machine. Try it, they would think you're playing a professional artist's CD!

Brilliant backing machine with a few limitations in the editing department!I found it extremely easy to navigate and set-up to my own preferences!I use the 64meg smart media card which you can load in whole songs to play back on stage with.Brilliant.Using a midi keyboard
it is easy to produce ones own style with a little perserverance and patience.I have had no problems except maybe a proper midi interface for PC?????

The sounds on the whole are generally very good,certainly much better than a #1200 keyboard I previously purchased from Yamaha.The styles are varied enough though I dont like the majority of rock styles,but then again I cant stand rock music so am biased!Programming your own songs is very easy and having the ability to layer your own guitar on top is pure genius.OF course not having the ability to add FX to the input could be seen as a drawback to some but I have not found that a problem in my style of music!I find the machine much more usable than than the DR5 which had a poor 20 song capacity,but which at least could be programmed somewhat.

Some of the rock guitars are over proccesed but then again I know lots of real rock players who over proccess their own sounds using
drive and delay in place of a decent guitar ability!The ballads and blues are probably the best of the built in 200 styles.The country
selection only caters for old styles and not up to date whatsover.The built in FX are excellent and give great results with a little immagination.The chain mode has a delay in between selecting the next song which ruled out mid tempo/style changes,shame!Played through a good sytem the JS-5 sounds authentic and delivers a powerful backing sound.The machine really does require thoughtful setting up for ones own taste and to get the best results!

Total reliabilty.no problems.

No problem!

An excellent machine for the money but more user friendly midi interfacing capabilities would have made this a real gem!
For on stage and general jamming I find it unbeatable.The digital recorder is brilliant and really adds to the internal styles.I have loaded actual songs into the internal memory using karaoke muting and found the results excellent.With a jvc sound engine it offers realistic sound timbres on most samples!Being able to mute individual parts and edit volumes on the fly is another great feature.The loop facilities have come in handy for extended intros and solos in a live situation!This machine kicks ass and with no real competition it is a winner in my oppinion,but like anything in life you only get out of it
what you put into it!Spend time,mess around,record into it,set up your own preferences and away you go!

I think its easy to use most of the time.
Recording is a bit difficult and forget about entering your own chords.
Manual is pretty good and the video is helpful also.

Don't use the effects. The looping and style changes are easy!

As some others have said, the guitar sounds are not so hot. It is easy to drop the guitar out. My main reason for getting the jam station is to practice and learn. Without doubt, it has made me a better guitar player and given me 100's of hours of playing pleasure!
I recommend it to any player who is learning like me.

No problems. (knock on wood)

Never used.

I would buy it again, although I think it might be overpriced for what I do with it. I've probablly only scratched the surface of what the unit can really do. Its alittle too hard to record with and you definitely need the smart card for that. Overall, by mixing and matching styles with the presets, you can come up with some intersting patterns to jam with. I like some of the rock sounds, pop, jazz, blues,r&b, even some of the dance and reggae. Again for my needs this unit is excellent for jamming, not so great for recording.

Much easiler to program than the Yamaha rhythm programer I had but unable to use different rhythms or stlyes within the same song--a drawback. Manual read like it was poorly translated from some oriental language into english, very inadequate.

32 voice poly is good enough for my need and havent used the smart card yet. The efects are useless to me.

Ballads and slow stuff sound very good. The rock options are terrible, not even a decent oldie 50-60's sound whatsoever. Very limited on time signatures as well. (can't play a certain stylye in a different time sig.)

Have had it about a year and am constantly scared to death that I'm going to break it but not so far.

Good, friendly enough and the guy tried to help but the machine still woulnt do what I wanted it to do.

Probaly would buy it again simply because there is not much out there like it. Would probably check out the new Yamaha QY-100? first to see if they learned anything since their first attempt.

I was very excited to break this baby out and start jamming.
well, if your looking to use just the presets, I guess it's great,
but,getting even a little creative can get a little frustraiting.
the guitar sounds in the rock and blues catigories are HORRIBLE!!!!
the acoustic guitar sounds are rather good, and the other sounds
aren't to bad, either.
The manual is typical Boss-Roland, somewhat confusing, and very incomplete. you have know idea as to what the progressions are until
listening, and after 200, can you truely remember them?
at least an idea of what the song is patterned after on the manual
would be nice.

the built in effects are usless, and should be on the input, so that
you could just plug in and play. MAJOR error on that on ,seeing as
where this is marketed for the guitar player. The media card is must,
but wouldn't it have been nice to make it computer compatable, or
on a zip instead. Iwould LOVE to be able to exchange songs with other
users over the net.

as quoted in some of the other reviews, some of the sounds are great,
but most of the guitar sounds in the rock sections are TERRIBLE!!!!
I really like the ballad, jazz, and SOME of the reggee and blues
sounds. I can't imagine some of the styles getting much use, particularly from guitarists, which I assume this is geared towards.

tough to say, but based on other Boss items Ihave owned, and the few
times it has left my house, it seems pretty durable.

Even though it is very limited, it serves my needs. I am no longer
available time wise or patience wise to play in a band, and this
TOY helps me keep playing and stay within a key and style needed
to consider myself a musician(sort of)
I wouldn't recommend it for much more than that.

The presets are very good. Editing is not so easy.Takes alot of time to do a song. The Manual can be confusing.

The card expansion can be useful. This unit needed to be able to sequence from a Midi keyboard.

Overall this unit does sound good.

Very well built and dependable.

I play keyboards and this unit would be great for me if I could play from a keyboard and the JS-5 would record it.

I found this product to be both easy and difficult to use. If one sticks to the presets, it's fairly intuitive in a limited way. However, when attempting more complex programming/arrangements/edits, I found myself spending hours attempting to get a satisfactory result, which was rarely reached. The manual does a fair job of confusing things on what is otherwise a good, simple to understand, user interface sitting on top of a box that just cannot do advanced custom arrangements.

This is really where improvements have been made, but also NEED to be made. Editing is somewhat easy to do, but you quickly reach the limit of what can be done. I continually found myself asking the unit to do what I thought were simple things that it just wasn't capable of doing. For exampe: As handy as the loop playback feature is live, there is no "duration" parameter to automate when recording. You can't self record a portion of an ending form in a way that sets a value for when the loop ends. You also cannot cut, copy, or paste these same protions into other selected portions of a song. The only way around this is to record a "live" track to another recording device, while manually changing settings on the fly, or recording sound bites and then editing