Roland Cloud - big change

[mholloway]

I already rebuild the roland factory presets from sh-2, jx-3p and the sh-101 in tal bassline andthe juno106 in unoLX.
Tal needs far less cpu and has the same sound.

Well, if there's one thing we've learned here at KVR, it's that one person's "the same" is another twenty people's "not even close" when it comes to comparing sounds.

I have both the cloud SH-101 and the TAL bassline-101. And despite being a fanboy of TAL (I adore his Juno 60 emulation), I find the Roland 101 to be superior to TAL bassline, in terms of sound quality. It's also notably difficult to recreate patches between the two: the envelopes behave differently, the values on the filter and resonance and env amount knobs scale differently, etc. But in all my tests, the RC SH-101 sounded very much like an analog synth, and the bassline sounded... close-ish but always kinda off. I tried and tried and could not make bassline-101 sound like the SH-101. <shrug>. I wish I could have, mind you, I love TAL. But for the 101, I'm sticking with the SH-101, which I have via the loyalty program from a previous cloud subscription.

[Jace-BeOS]

I generally don't understand, why people are using such cloud solutions? You have to calculate, whether it pays off or not, different monthly contribution options, different licenses, lifetime with or without resell option ...

I prophesy that cloud solutions won't have a "lifetime future"!

Sir you are in danger of getting left behind. Perpetual licences are going the way of boxed optical disc software products. Everything is going to the cloud even gaming.

I think cloud solutions are good for folks in low income countries, where a typical plugin like Dune or Zebra would cost you one months salary. If you're only paying 4 bucks a month for access to world class sounds that is a steal.

You haven’t done the math. It’s especially egregious for low-income people and only “justifiable” for high-income people. No one with low income wants another dogdamned monthly bill added to their current monthly expenses. They MIGHT be able to save some money over a few months to BUY a thing outright.

Source: other people’s math, and my own poverty.

[GoldieK]

Signed up for the Core version, though Roland doesn't make it perfectly clear, you actually get a FREE month of Ultimate before they charge you for the first month/annual payment of whichever plan you pick. My guess is they will ask you if you want to change your initial choice before the plan is charged, but as I set it up with Paypal, I can cancel the subscription going forward both thru RCM and Paypal subsciptions.

[Jace-BeOS]

The fact that people have to ask so many questions about these subscription plans (and that fanboys have to compare the cost to stupidly expensive weekly coffees) is a dead giveaway that it’s a bad business model for customers.

[Ingonator]

Preset Bank E in Zenology includes the first 896 presets of the XV-5080 plugin (which corresponds to banks A-G there). Only the 16 Drum Kits in Banks H of the XV plugin are not included in that Zenology bank.

While not all XV presets do sound identical in Zenology i found that this is not a real problem and that some of them even sound better in Zenolgy, at least for my taste. If you only need the presets of the XV plugin Zenology might be enough but if you wnt to do your own patches from scratch with the XV plugin it might be necessary to have that too. For doing sound design the upcoming Zenology Pro version should offer more options.

As the current version of Zenology misses a Reverb FX i am currently using Lexicon MPX Native Reverb with it.

[sinemotor]

As the current version of Zenology misses a Reverb FX i am currently using Lexicon MPX Native Reverb with it.

Right and it's kinda weird there isn't a single reverb included... But I actually find that omission to be very beneficial. I can browse presets without having to turn off the reverb every time. In fact, the patches in Zenology are rather dry and clean and it's for the best imo.

What I do like about Roland synths, the Zen-core engine especially, is that the sounds fit really well with any production I'm working on. They have a simple, "vanilla" tone that is easy to mix. It's a great layering synth.

[rezoneight]

The fact that people have to ask so many questions about these subscription plans (and that fanboys have to compare the cost to stupidly expensive weekly coffees) is a dead giveaway that it’s a bad business model for customers.

Oh jesus here we go again. Its a bad business model for *you*. Stop trying to speak for everyone else.

But I bet you won't because well shit man you just know whats good for everyone else right?

[Stefken]

Is Zenology one of the products that you can buy a lifetime key for?

If you buy the hardware, your key will never expire (nor do you need an internet connection) .

And are the drum kits emulating the classic drum machines based on samples or dsp?

The drums are created with up to 4 PCM 'oscillators', a filter, pitch env, filter env and amp env.

[Ingonator]

I just had a look at the Preset list of the new Fantom workstation.

The Zenology factory banks B-G (= 3496 presets overall) seem to be identical to the corresponding "Zen-Core Tones" in the list for the Fantom.
Bank A of Zenology seems to include many of the presets from the Fantom Zen-Core Bank A but not all of them and they are also sorted differently.

The 15 EXZ expansions are identical for Zenology and the Fantom and are usable in both. The Fantom seems to be able to install up 16 of those expansions.

The parameters of the Zen-Core engine in the Fantom are described in this PDF and might give an idea about the parameters that are used in Zenology and/or later in Zenology Pro:
https://static.roland.com/assets/media/ ... ng01_W.pdf

[sluggo]

It looks to me that Zenology is VST3 only, am I seeing this correct?

[Aloysius]

correct

[zvenx]

Well AU and AAX too, but indeed no vst2..
rsp

[Atlatnesiti]

It looks to me that Zenology is VST3 only, am I seeing this correct?

Finally VST2 is very limited in comparison. I wish more companies adopt VST3 and ditch VST2 altogether.

[rod_zero]

I tried to log in with my old account, couldn't, there is a loop sending me to roland account,t hen get back, can't find account.

As a System 8 owner I could be interested in getting a couple of plugouts, SH02 and Promars (the rest already in the system , but i can't even log in xD

BTW, for those who have gotten a perpetual license of the plugouts:

-Do you still get updates?
- Do you have to run the manager-?
- Are they still working for sending/receiving patches from the hardware ? I know the system8 plugout was broken like a year ago and doesn't send/receive patches but don't about the rest.

[WatchTheGuitar]

It looks to me that Zenology is VST3 only, am I seeing this correct?

Finally VST2 is very limited in comparison. I wish more companies adopt VST3 and ditch VST2 altogether.

You seem very upbeat about Roland. What's it like working for them?