Interesting-if-limited tool for ideas and sound-design

I bought this unit looking for another "drum machine" or "groovebox" to play more realistic/acoustic sounds (sine the MIDI sound-engine has standard Roland fare). The unit proved to be very different than expected to some mixed disappointment and delight.

Structurally: it's like that software "Band in a Box", became a real hardware box. Each "Song" Project sequences 4 MIDI Tracks...

• Drums

• Bass

• Inst1

• Inst2

... to be steered along a common timeline (only by Bar #) according to 2 meta-data layers:

• Form, these are largely preset patters, containing assorted Form parts ("Intro"/"Verse1"/"Verse2"/"Break"s/"Outro") in specific wonderfully specific/dated) rhythms and motifs for the 4 MIDI "parts" (Drums/Bass/Inst1/Inst2)

• Chord Progression: spell out a sequences chord Root (C...B) and type (Major, Minor, 7th, etc), and the Bass/Inst1/Inst2 parts (normally programmed in C major) will play the given Form of the chosen Style to follow them.

In addition to all this MIDI, the Timeline also drives;

Audio: the unit can record 1 track of mid-fidelity linear audio along w/ the arrangement, for vocals/whatever you want to add. Audio will be (crudely) time-stretched/compressed if you change the MIDI sequence tempo to run slower/faster than when the audio was originally recorded.

So, the unit is NOT a conventional "beat box" (and should not be approached/used as such), for several reasons:

First : it's organized differently; while a traditional drum machine records "Patterns" of step/MIDI data, and build up inductively making "patterns-of-patterns" in some "song mode" toward a particular-sounding composite result...the JS-5 works deductively. It effectively STARTS in song-mode. 1) First pick a "Style", (preset or original), 2) then sequence the "Form" variations (intro/verses/breaks/outro) and "Chord" progression desired. 3) add Audio track for additional texture/whatever.

This makes it easier to get going quickly and to change/extend arrangement, but...

• can't add new variations beyond the Forms of the chosen

• cannot change time-signature between part

• If you want it just repeat a specific pattern of a preset or original Form (like just "Verse1") you have to edit the Form sequencer, and/or set the Loop to repeat that part indefinitely.

Second: Since the instrumentation is MIDI, you can freely change the instrumentation of Drum, Bass, Inst1, and/or Inst 2 to ANY inter la sounds, or have the JamStation drive external MIDI gear. Internal MIDI sounds are impressive, but no are editing presets. JS-5's MIDI sound are a (subset of ) preset from Rolands JV or XV, mixing realistic/acoustic sounds (pianos, guitars, horns, etc), with a dozen "synth" sounds. However, you cannot edit the sounds beyond

• using mixer to send a Track to internal Chorus and/or Reverb

• assigning ONE (MIDI) track to the ONE Insert FX-processor (of standard Roland fare, allowing chorus/phaser/pitch/auto-wah/etc).

Unforutnately, the Audio track cannot use cannot use ANY Send or Insert effects (not input nor otuput)

Third : It CANNOT program original patterns onboard, you need an external MIDI controller to enter notes for original motifs (which must be in C major, if you wish to transpose using the Chord sequencer) . Recording is Real-Time only, w/ no visual editing.

So in practice: using to to "build" sounds/motifs/patterns up from scratch" is not at all its workflow, and not really the point. Instead, if you "play by it's rules", you can get stylish (if cheezy/dated/etc) results going quickly (In fact it has an "EZ" mode where you need only specify the Style and chord-progression type, and it spits out a song archetype, laying each Form part once, automatically). After some initial frustration with this using it as an canvas to build upon, I embraced its "canned" nature and started treating the JamStation more as a source to cut from...

• sending MIDI from JS-5's various Styles to automatically program MIDI on newer, more-open sequencer.

• treating the EZ-bake-d Songs as licence-free material for sampling and remix, with Track-muting for easy "stem-separation"

• exploit the Audio track's crude time-stretching, either for grainy sound-design ambient textures, or by using the precision of the MIDI sequencer to beat-match some source, sample it as audio, and push back out to other devices.

Technical Specs:

• MIDI is 32 Voice polyphony.

• Tempo runs 20 ~ 260 BPM, at 96 PPQ.

• Styles: 200 internal, 20 User... each continaing 8 Form-parts.

• The unit has limited internal memory MIDI, meta-data (100 songs) and Audio recording (< 2 minutes). Expanding this requires discontinued/now-expensive 5v Flash cards, allowing another 100 song-files, and (the maximum-accepted 64 MB card) expanding Audio recording to over 50 minutes of linear recording.

Historically, this unit combines the peak of "portable hardware recording to flash-media", and "MIDI black-box hardware arranging",...and has been replaced by computers that can out-do it on all fronts; from recording time and fidelity, to editing, to MIDI sound generation. However, in the modern era of people eschewing the all-powerful computer for "DAW-less jamming", the JamStations unique workflow, quirks, limits, and workflow may prove an oblique, inspiring tool.

Preferred Settings + Usage: