Roland "JC-120" Jazz Chorus

[masmelow]

Share your thoughts on this amp

[kritikon]

Share your thoughts on this amplifier.

I believe it's an item of music technology for making your electric guitar sound loud enough for others to hear. It has a chorus effect onboard that incidentally sounds good when making jazz style music with your guitar.

Does anyone know how the Roland authorization system works, can I disable my computer if I format the system?

Formatting your computer sounds like a very bigly bad idea. Why would you need to format to install Roland stuff?

[Weasel-Boy]

Roland is offering a JC-120 plug-in emulation of the Jazz Chorus 120. I have the real thing and after listening to their audio demos, I'd say the chorus emu is pretty close. The distortion is way off. The general miking impulse stuff they're using is lacking one thing the real deal always puts out: noise. Too clean for me.

As Kritkon says: Formatting your computer to install Roland stuff is not a good idea. There should be no reason to do so.

[CapnLockheed]

I'm not sure I even understand the OP's query. I would suggest that "question" be posted on Roland forums or submitted to Roland support.

[jamcat]

I have the real thing and after listening to their audio demos, I'd say the chorus emu is pretty close. The distortion is way off.

I have one too, and I was wondering about the plugin's distortion. I noticed the videos didn't show off the distortion on guitar, as I was on the lookout for it.

I suspected they would try to hide how bad the JC-120's distortion sounds in the plugin and make it sound respectable instead. Or if they kept true to it, they would avoid letting people hear it, to not lose sales.

Edit: Were you talking about the "Guitar Rock Lead" audio demo in the SoundCloud player? I just found it and gave it a listen, and you're right, it sounds nothing like the real amp's distortion. And I was right in my suspicion, they did try to make it sound respectable.

But it is also possible that there's something like a TubeScreamer pedal (or plugin) on the recording.

Here's that recording, compared to the real distortion:

https://soundcloud.com/rolandcom/jc-120 ... software-5

-VS-

[Weasel-Boy]

Were you talking about the "Guitar Rock Lead" audio demo in the SoundCloud player?

Yup...in the video list below the video.

[El°HYM]

How does this one compare to the Nembrini one?

[jamcat]

How does this one compare to the Nembrini one?

Aside from the distortion, this one sounds like a JC-120.

Nembrini doesn’t, particularly in the uncharacteristic glassy top end and the (lack of) low-mids.

As a general rule, I’ve found Nembrini models to be wildly inaccurate.

[whassup]

Well, does it really sound that bad? Yes it does.

[ampetrosillo]

I have the real thing and after listening to their audio demos, I'd say the chorus emu is pretty close. The distortion is way off.

I have one too, and I was wondering about the plugin's distortion. I noticed the videos didn't show off the distortion on guitar, as I was on the lookout for it.

I suspected they would try to hide how bad the JC-120's distortion sounds in the plugin and make it sound respectable instead. Or if they kept true to it, they would avoid letting people hear it, to not lose sales.

Edit: Were you talking about the "Guitar Rock Lead" audio demo in the SoundCloud player? I just found it and gave it a listen, and you're right, it sounds nothing like the real amp's distortion. And I was right in my suspicion, they did try to make it sound respectable.

But it is also possible that there's something like a TubeScreamer pedal (or plugin) on the recording.

Here's that recording, compared to the real distortion:

https://soundcloud.com/rolandcom/jc-120 ... software-5

-VS-

*Nobody* uses the onboard distortion on JC amps. Everybody uses pedals. With a good drive pedal, it sounds respectable (as it should). Although JC speakers tend to be on the bright side, so not particularly well suited to distortion anyway.

[jamcat]

I’ve actually heard the built-in distortion used once or twice.

It would still be nice for it to be accurately modeled to the actual sound of the amp. Hopefully this demo is using a distortion pedal/plugin, and what we’re hearing is not the amp’s modeled distortion.

As a solid state amp, it doesn’t really sound a whole lot better with a pedal anyways.

[El°HYM]

Well, for Keyboard - Players the Saturation is quite a big part and also highly recommended by many for the use with Synths.

[zerocrossing]

The JC-120 is great for that one sound and not much else. If you can find one, buy a Ampeg SC-140. The distortion is killer, in that buzzy JFET kind of way, and the chorus is better than the JC's, IMO. It's pretty rare, but I replaced my JC with one in the 90s and I miss it. One of the best solid state amps out there. I had a tube version as well for a short time, but frankly, I liked the solid state version more.

[smallclone]

I bought the Roland plugin yesterday. I've never owned a JC-120 but have played it's little brother the JC-40 and this plugin is one of, if not the cleanest and lovely sounding amp emulators I've ever played. Yes the distortion is not great, but I don't use it for that. It seems to play nice with my Earthquaker Plumes pedal for that.

The chorus and clean tone is insane. It sounds exactly like I would imagine the amp to. The reverb is nice, not amazing, and not terribly Springy but I have a Strymon reverb and a RV-5 for reverb as well as Valhala plugin. It knocks socks of a JC120 IR that I have laoded onto my Boss IR-200 modeller.

For $50 it is well worth getting the sound that is pretty close to the clean and chorus sound of a Jazz chorus.

For what it's worth, the videos of the Nembrini Jazz Chorus plugin sound tinnier, and not as good. But I haven't used it.

[jamcat]

I bought the Roland plugin yesterday. I've never owned a JC-120 but have played it's little brother the JC-40 and this plugin is one of, if not the cleanest and lovely sounding amp emulators I've ever played. Yes the distortion is not great, but I don't use it for that.

Perhaps you could answer this lingering question?

Does the plugin's distortion sound like the distortion in this demo?

https://soundcloud.com/rolandcom/jc-120 ... software-5

Trying to figure out if this is the JC-120 plugin's distortion, or if they maybe used a pedal.