Roland Cloud any good? Cable guys products..

[beatmangler443]

What does everyone think of the Roland cloud? Worth the money? Instruments are they inspiring? Also, was looking at cableguys timeshaper and half time plug ins. Do you recommend those? Thanks!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I really recommend you do some searching and check out the existing threads on these (especially since you're asking about instruments and effects from different companies in the Insruments forum). Anyway, there's a whole long, thread on the Roland Cloud instruments with lots of opinions (many about the subscription service). My quick take: very good. There's a ton of instruments, and they're generally very good (at least the Aria and Legendary series stuff.

Cableguys stuff: I believe there's a Cableguys thread on the effects forum. Also good stuff, but I find their envelopes too clicky with no ability to smooth (example: a hard square tremolo will click at any non-zero crossings). Good creative effects though.

[rod_zero]

I would pick other synths before the roland cloud: u-he diva, Serum, even the Komplete. In the long run the subscription gets very expensive

[Echoes in the Attic]

The Roland instruments sound amazing. I don’t like the subscription though and they are just crappy as a company.

[SLiC]

'unfortunately' the Roland instruments do sound amazing and the digital emulation are pretty much 1-1, not realy an emulation at all, just another medium! As they keep adding more and more it will be very hard to resist if you can spare the 200 bucks a year....but as there is a free 1 month demo (per email address) you can try them yourself.....thye still work (as demos with noise) if you dont subscribe and youy can just dive in and out when you want to use them with a monthly if you want...

[PAK]

If someone has to ask "is x worth the money" the answer (for them) is usually NO. Whilst you might elicit interesting responses, it still comes down to your income level, needs, and the ever subjective realm of personal preferences. Those are areas where only you can provide your own answers.

The only thing saving Roland Cloud, for me, is their "YOURS" program. But they have yet to roll this out AFAIK - despite it being (what must be?) about a year since they announced it. Even then, it's a difficult sale.

Say you want to own Roland's drum machines. Right now they've done the 808, 909, 707, 727, 626, and 606, though currently only the 808/909 are on Roland Cloud. Assuming the others are forthcoming, the total cost to have them as YOURS instruments, which also assumes no price rises for the next 6 years, is a minimum of $1292.40.

That's DOUBLE the price of owning the equivalent in hardware (the Roland TR-8S). Sure, you lose software advantages like multiple instances, but gain a dedicated instrument with its own CPU and control surface. You can interpret such crazy pricing your own way. The way I choose to interpret it is Roland are saying "we want you to buy our hardware rather than software". And why wouldn't they, since apparently Roland Cloud is a different entity from Roland itself?

You will likely be able to follow a similar pattern with Roland's Integra synth (especially if bought second hand) once every expansion board is added on to Roland Cloud. And then we get to find out Spectrasonics apparently had a legal agreement which prevents Roland from using samples in their software products. So those Roland software offerings will always be incomplete. Nice.

Does the other software you'd get, as part of your rental, make up for that? Some of Roland's offerings are more unique than others (sample based things, and synths where no emulative equivalent exists). So your answer would depend a lot on these things. The more they add, the more there's a chance that what they offer will outweigh your concerns - if you have any.

In terms of software equivalents.. IMO Diva CAN directly replace many of the Aira instruments, in a single product, which offers greater flexibility. To try to remove some subjectivity from these remarks - I am saying that Diva can directly clone their sounds to the point where the biggest difference found is in the onboard effects.

There are some instances where this doesn't hold true due to features (For example, Diva's DCO section can't fully mimic the Juno 106 DCO with sub), and the Juno chorus is an important part of its sound which the Roland synths do more like the original. The Roland instruments also mimic the parameter ranges of the original hardware. So, even though Diva can sound like those synths, the Roland versions will "respond" more like the originals.

This matters a LOT to some people, especially if they're less of the "sculpting" type, and more of the "randomly move controls to see what I get" type. The sculpting type will look for features to correct things where possible, where the "random knob fiddler" will more quickly proclaim that "it sounds nothing like the original". Is that important to you? I'm not asking you, I'm saying you should ask yourself things like this.

All in all, a mixed bag. They've improved a lot of the problems, and I will subscribe to get the JD800/990, and D50 as a YOURS instruments when they actually launch it. Whether they keep me beyond those two years is down to whatever else they can offer. But, if you're even slightly inclined towards their hardware, I think products like the TR-8S do appear to present better value for money right now.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Agreed with everything above. If someone’s goal is to have everything Roland has to offer, then the value is ok, but if you’d just like access to a few instruments (Andy preferably own them), then it’s not a great deal. Not sure if they will end making more money in the long run but I feel like the current pricing is certainly losing sales where people just want to buy a plugin or two.

I own the 101 plugout and since they abondoneed even basic fixes to that, which came along in the cloud version, it’s given me quite a disdain for the company and I will take alternatives wherever I can, like TALs Uno LX, ABL3 and the Revolution drum machine for example. I’m satisfied enough with OP-X Pro for Jupiter type territory. And of course there is Diva. Even Omnisphere waveforms with The Drop filters covers a lot of Roland ground. So despite how authentic the Roland plugs sound, I can keep reminding myself that there’s about going other companies providing alternatives that don’t screw their customers.