Roland Cloud

[Chrisk-K]

I love Roland synths, but I have to say that the GUI of the Zenology Juno is horrendous and nightmarish.

[Mogular]

Its interesting to hear someone say the Zenology Juno presents only the flavour of the real thing. I don't have a Juno to compare to but I always refer to the Synthmania samples from the factory presets.
To my ears, on good headphones, the Zenology factory presets (as well as the actual Cloud Juno) and the Synthmania ones are very close.

https://www.synthmania.com/juno-106.htm

[Shiek927]

I just want a JD800/JD990 plugin to come out hahaha. I have a V-Synth and some other digital synths on the way, so I'm okay with that stuff taking it's time in crossing over into software (and tbh, I think it's very likely that the V-Synth will come out much, much later on the Cloud versus the JD). I'm personally not opting to purchase a jD990 because, while it's much more enhanced over the 800, I remember actually feeling like it was a pain to program. It's why I purchased a 1st gen V-Synth keyboard over the XT or GT. I know from experience that buying hardware is just as much about user experience than just a feature list and I think the hands-on controls of the JD800 would be much more enjoyable than staring at a tiny green LCD screen and pressing buttons. Unfortunately, the JD800 is as expensive as you can imagine, so I'm deciding to just hold out altogether until a plugin comes out for it. If they aren't too busy with this new Zenelogy venture they're on

[EvilDragon]

JD-990 is not really a pain to program. Sure it doesn't have all those sliders JD-800 had, but it's still not a... DX7, say.

[cleverr1]

Zenology Juno-106 Released today

The ACB Juno-106 absolutely blows the Zenology version out of the water. The ACB Juno sounds just like the real Juno whereas the Zenology Juno offers some Juno flavors.

Not surprised by this at all. They seem to continuously prefer these half-baked solutions, 'flavr' and 'anthology' libraries. I'll never understand why.

Much easier to produce new content that way.

I'm struggling to see the point of Zenology in the context of having an original subscription they now call ultimate. So in this case we already had a great sounding 106 with a good GUI, so Roland bring out another 106 which uses less CPU, looks hideous and sounds worse. I'm sure they could have added an extra level of CPU optimisation to the original.

This whole Zenology thing seems to be about growing a new tier of subscription possibly to the detriment of working on adding new premium models like the JD800 that was mentioned.

[Bippo]

Gotta say I hope they'll release a standalone fantom xr vst, like they did with jv-1080 and xv-5080..

[Arashi]

I'm struggling to see the point of Zenology in the context of having an original subscription they now call ultimate. So in this case we already had a great sounding 106 with a good GUI, so Roland bring out another 106 which uses less CPU, looks hideous and sounds worse. I'm sure they could have added an extra level of CPU optimisation to the original.

The problem is the Zenology models don't use less CPU in the plugin versions. They do use less CPU while idle, but as soon as you hold down a few notes, the CPU usage is nearly the same as the ACB versions. I found the new Juno-106 model is pretty good, and often sounds identical to the ACB version…but when they do sound different, the ACB version sounds better (sometimes way better). So I agree…I don't see the point of it, except maybe to ensure it sounds exactly the same as the models on the Jupiter-X/Xm so you can move parts from the hardware to your DAW if you want to free the hardware up to do something else.

[Shiek927]

JD-990 is not really a pain to program. Sure it doesn't have all those sliders JD-800 had, but it's still not a... DX7, say.

I really tried! I think I'm still spoiled rotten on soft-synths and how easy they are

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

JD-990 is not really a pain to program. Sure it doesn't have all those sliders JD-800 had, but it's still not a... DX7, say.

I just recently saw that you could use a JD-800 as a hardware programmer for the 990. Who knew?!?

Sorry. Carry on.

[Shiek927]

JD-990 is not really a pain to program. Sure it doesn't have all those sliders JD-800 had, but it's still not a... DX7, say.

I just recently saw that you could use a JD-800 as a hardware programmer for the 990. Who knew?!?

Sorry. Carry on.

Mmmhmm! it would be extremely expensive to own both, so you need to be a serious aficionado, but it would be a fun set-up. I'm hoping the Cloud plugin actually operates similarly to that -- a GUI that matches the JD800 with an "Edit" button that turns it into the JD990 for deeper editing and it's more enhanced features. It would be similar to how the JX3P lets you optionally use the deeper controls of the PG200 controller. That really would be the most ideal set-up since I could imagine mostly using the 'easy' mode of the JD800 and flipping to the 990 for something only it can do.

Of course, it goes without saying that any plugin wouldn't be complete without the Vintage Synth card onboard, but I'm sure they know how desirable it is since it's almost impossible to buy a JD990 without it already onboard.

[EvilDragon]

JD-990 is not really a pain to program. Sure it doesn't have all those sliders JD-800 had, but it's still not a... DX7, say.

I just recently saw that you could use a JD-800 as a hardware programmer for the 990. Who knew?!?

Sorry. Carry on.

Partially, because JD-800 doesn't have all the same features as JD-990.

[cleverr1]

The problem is the Zenology models don't use less CPU in the plugin versions. They do use less CPU while idle, but as soon as you hold down a few notes, the CPU usage is nearly the same as the ACB versions. I found the new Juno-106 model is pretty good, and often sounds identical to the ACB version…but when they do sound different, the ACB version sounds better (sometimes way better). So I agree…I don't see the point of it, except maybe to ensure it sounds exactly the same as the models on the Jupiter-X/Xm so you can move parts from the hardware to your DAW if you want to free the hardware up to do something else.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this - the raison d'être for Zenology is the Jupiter-X/Xm Zen Core compatibility. I suppose if that was a "thing" in your setup such as you use a Jupiter-X playing live then it would make sense. Although I'd be unhappy to have spent £2k on a keyboard where models within one of it's major sound engines are demonstrably not as good as other plugins produced by the same company.

[fmr]

I love Roland synths, but I have to say that the GUI of the Zenology Juno is horrendous and nightmarish.

+1

Who was the moron that thought using red over dark grey was a good idea? Are they aware what many people (don't) see?

[fmr]

I'm struggling to see the point of Zenology in the context of having an original subscription they now call ultimate. So in this case we already had a great sounding 106 with a good GUI, so Roland bring out another 106 which uses less CPU, looks hideous and sounds worse. I'm sure they could have added an extra level of CPU optimisation to the original.

This whole Zenology thing seems to be about growing a new tier of subscription possibly to the detriment of working on adding new premium models like the JD800 that was mentioned.

My opinion too.

[Shiek927]

I'm struggling to see the point of Zenology in the context of having an original subscription they now call ultimate. So in this case we already had a great sounding 106 with a good GUI, so Roland bring out another 106 which uses less CPU, looks hideous and sounds worse. I'm sure they could have added an extra level of CPU optimisation to the original.

This whole Zenology thing seems to be about growing a new tier of subscription possibly to the detriment of working on adding new premium models like the JD800 that was mentioned.

My opinion too.

Same. Kind of why I stopped bothering to 'request an instrument' on their site or post ideas. They obviously have their own game plan that they're following. I can't imagine something like Zenelogy was anything that someone actually requested for on social media haha.