Every one of the slew of new releases from the Roland/BOSS camp today will make you sound better, but only the new BOSS eBand JS-8 will make you actually play better. This flash-memory reading "Audio PLayer FOr Guitarists" combines flexible playback and BOSS guitar effects for a phrase trainer truly worthy of the tag "Boss."

The JS-8 reads digital audio files from either USB memory stick or SDHC cards (up to 32GB). Included software also makes it easy to import audio from any CD. Once music is loaded into the eBand Audio Player, guitarists have independent control over pitch and tempo, meaning riffs and solos can be practiced slower in the same key, or transposed in a different key but at the same tempo. There's also a center-cancel function for removing the prerecorded solos and vocals from most commercially produced recordings -- a.k.a. instant karaoke. If you'd prefer, you can also simply jam along with any of the BOSS JS-8's 300 preloaded backing tracks and rhythm loops. Pressing the record button while playing will record and preserve your musical ideas, making the JS-8 a great songwriting scratchpad as well.

To sweeten the practice experience, there's a whole suite of COSM-powered BOSS guitar effects available for the prospective jammer, all derived from the GT-10 multieffect floorboard, arranged into 100 presets and organized by genre. The JS-8 even employs the same graphical-based EZ TONE function that makes the powerful GT-10 so user friendly.

The BOSS eBand JS-8 Audio Player For Guitarists will be available November 2009. No pricing info as yet.