I saw a lot of reviewers out here just going nuts over this thing - and I'd have to seriously doubt they were using the same JS5 that I own.

This unit is a basic keyboard synth pulled from one of Rolands great line of KB's. But it's got so many gaps, holes, omissions and toyish features in its implementation that I just can't give it a thumbs up.

It lacks a good computer interface for starts. This thing should have shipped with some GUI that emulates this box via MIDI. But nothing like that is even AVAILABLE. So you're left with fooling with a battery of keys on the unit itself. Even Cakewalk et.al. won't do you any good.

It comes with a boatload of different styles of short tunes, about 30 sec each. You're also allowed one additional track (called "audio") for your guitar or voice etc. But remember - it's raw in and raw out - you can't process your input other than to just store it.

When you record with this unit, you have to pull from an existing song, copy that to user memory, playback and add your whatever and that's about it. That's the gizmo's strong point.

It has effects, but you cannot apply them to your input (like your guitar). In fact, even if you record your input on the audio track THEN play it back, the effects won't apply to your AT. Basically the effects only work on prebuilt tunes (or ones you've modified).

The quality of the instruments is either real good or real bad. It appears some of them are actual samples, while others are some weird form of elect synthesis that sounds so horrible you can't even make it out. Brass is a good example.

Another cool thing it does is a pitch shift. Works great, except it won't work on your own input. Just the pre-built stuff again. But this can come in handy if you're trying to figure out what and how Pat Metheny just detuned his ax via a similar sounding pre-stored song. Then again, there's not many pre-stored songs like that.

I've seen some people get down and really get into the editor on this thing - remember you can only edit the included 4 track songs. The things you CAN do with those is long and distinguished however, like a 6/8 beat, tempo, measure framing and the like.

Nah, perhaps it should have been named the "Play Station" instead of the "Jam Station". Fun to play with, but I bet there's not an owner in existance that's used this thing for more than a few days before becoming REAL dissapointed. I do know one fella that uses it at the coffee house, so credit where credit's due. But it sounds hokey in the coffee house too if you ask me...