Roland Cloud - big change

[fmr]

Also, the blurry GUI's have indeed been resolved.

That problem was solved several months ago...

Regarding the instruments I'd like to see:

1. Roland V-Synth
2. JX-10/MKS-70 (the MKS-70 is the rack version of the JX-10, not the JX-8P)
3. Roland System-700 (polyphonic).
4. JD-800
5. Jupiter-6 and Jupiter-4 (but if I had to choose, I'd go to the Juptier-6)
6. The Vocoder/Strings VP-330

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

MKS-70 is the rack version of the JX-10, not the JX-8P)

Duly noted.

That said, the JX-10 was to JX-8P's. So they're all closely related.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Just saw this on Gearslutz (I don't have Facebook so can't verify):

" For customers who have purchased software synthesizers on the Roland Content store, we want you to know that your purchases are safe and secure. For now, you can continue to use your current version with the confidence of knowing that your purchases for each product will be converted to Lifetime Keys at Roland Cloud in the coming months. Please stay tuned."

[Ingonator]

After having installed Zenology, all 10 SDZ sound packs and the 15 EXZ expansions i found that overall 6344 presets are included (including many drum kits).
From that 3678 are in the factory presets (bank A-G), 314 in the SDZ sound packs and 2352 in the EXZ expansions. Those EXZ expansions also add many additional PCM samples.

Not all of those presets are good and many might be even quite bad but with that huge amount there are also lots of really good and/or outstanding presets.

I had mentioned that i was disapointed by several of the analog like presets but there are also many that are actually quite good IMHO. What is really possible with the engine might get more obvious when the Pro version of the plugin gets availabe where i could do my own presets from scratch.

Also looking forward to the model expansions (e.g. Jupiter-8) and if those actually add new modules to the engine or just rely on the current engine. If i undestand the concept of the Zen-Core engine correctly adding new modules to the engine is possible.

In the future the question if and how much money i invest in Zenology and/or expansions will also depend on how far the Pro version is useful for creating my own patches from scratch. At the moment with the free 1 month trial and the Pro subscription i spend around 10 € for 2 months which is not really too much.

[SLiC]

Having done a year of cloud and watching it 'evolve', and having tried 'Zenology' I am pretty confident that this will just be another fiasco of constantly changing half baked ideas, shifting plans and delivery methods and premature launches. I mean, have you tried 'zenbeats'...I just don't get what Roland are doing with all this complicated 'shop based' delivery (They want to be the next IK Multimedia!). FFS Roland, just make a decent plug in and sell it!

[Ingonator]

Besides adding an external Reverb FX to Zenology i started using the FX version of Synapse Audio The Legend with it which could lead to some really nice results.
This is comparable to using the real analog filter included with the new Fantom workstation that is not directly included with the Zen_Core synth engine and due to that could not directly replace the digital filters in that engine. This means that the analog filter seems to act more like an FX which is how i use the filter plugin with Zenology.

When routing a MIDI track to The Legend FX plugin i can also use the built-in envelopes and oscilators.

A workaround for replicating the analog Overdrive in the Fantom analog filter is using the Drive and Saturation parameters in the The Legend FX plugin.

Instead of The Legend FX I can also use the "Auto Filter" plugin included in Live 10 which has more options and includes multiple analog models. Additional modulation of this filter is possible with M4L modulation modules/plugins.

for adjusting the filter i can use a combination of both the Cotoff + Reso macro controls in Zenolgy and the external filter plugin. When Zenology Pro gets available adjusting existing Zenoilogy patches will be more easy.

UPDATE:
Using an analog filter FX with Zenology (and additionally a nice Reverb) seems to work quite nicely with some of the Supersaw based presets like e.g. "S-Saw StacPluck" in factory bank A (this is included in the free Zenolgy Lite so is available without having to pay a subscription).

[jbone1313]

I am liking Zenology so far. One annoyance is with the drum kits.

TL;DR: There does not seem to be a way to adjust the levels of drum sounds which are not already assigned to a Zenology drum pad. Am I missing something?

Reason why that is annoying:

Let's say you program in a nice beat. But, then, say you want to lower the level of your hihats. If those hihats are not already assigned to one of the 16 Zenology drum pads, then you must assign that sound to one of the pads. Not a big deal at that point. But, then, lets say you've got a bunch of patterns triggering those hihats. Now, you have to go update all your patterns to use the note corresponding to the Zenology drum pad.

There needs to be a way to tweak the parameters of the drum sounds, even if they are not assigned to one of the Zenology drum pads.

Some creative use of MIDI effects in Ableton removes the need to update each pattern, but still..

[Ingonator]

As "Staccato Heaven" is one of my favorite D-50 patches i searched for replications in Zenology and found 4:
1.) PRST_B bank: 230: AX Stacc Heaven
2.) PRST_E bank: 407: Stacc Heaven
3.) EXZ008 Vintage Keys expansion: 329: StaccHvn SRX
4.) EXZ015 Vintage Synth expansion: 007: D50 Stac Hvn

I compared to the patch in the D-50 plugin and found that the first one of those 3 ("AX Stacc Heaven") is far away from the real thing.
The second one called "Stacc Heaven" is nice as is and closer than the first one but still quite far away.
The third one called "StaccHvn SRX" is nice "as is" but quite far from away the real thing
The 4th one called "D50 Stac Hvn" while not 100% identical to the D-50 is really good and close enough to act as a replacement.
So far the "Vintage Synth" expansion is one of my favorite expanions anyway.

FWIW the D-50 plugin is also included in the Pro subscription (besides TR-808, Zenology, Zenology Pro and all expansions) while most other vintage plugins are only included in the Ultimate subscription (and/or the free 30 days trial).

[Aloysius]

Wave Expansions provide new sampled waveforms for Roland’s ZENOLOGY Software Synthesizer (and select ZEN-Core hardware).

Those expansions look interesting. They seem an ok price.

Looking at the app', the one you mentioned includes 406 tones and 629 waveforms.

[SLiC]

FWIW the D-50 plugin is also included in the Pro subscription (besides TR-808, Zenology, Zenology Pro and all expansions)

I wonder why Roland just picked the D-50 and 808 as the two instruments, seems a bit random...it would have been a much better idea to let people pick 2 of their choice?

I already have the D-50 (and System-8) from my '2 free plug' offer in the initial clamour for customers and I have no interest in the 808, so there is nothing to entice me back to the pro subscription.

Has there been a price given to just buy 'Zenology Pro'?

[WatchTheGuitar]

I'm also hoping there's a halfway reasonable lifetime buy price for Zenology Pro when it finally surfaces.

[Aloysius]

So far the "Vintage Synth" expansion is one of my favorite expanions anyway.

I might get that one. Dip my toes in the water.

[fmr]

Has there been a price given to just buy 'Zenology Pro'?

There is no 'Zenology Pro' (not yet). I guess we will not have a price until it is released

[Ingonator]

Looking at the app', the one you mentioned includes 406 tones and 629 waveforms.

The EXZ008 Vintage Keys expansion has 406 tones and 629 waveforms.

The best version of the D50 Staccato Heaven patch is included in EXZ015 Vintage Synth which has 125 tones and 222 waveforms.

[Aloysius]

^ Thanks.

The fx in Zen' seem to be very nice. Some sought after stuff there under CHORUS. I assume the models are quite accurate.

How do the presets show up in Zen'? Is it automatic after purchase? I'm still most interested in EXZ008 Vintage Keys at the moment.