Goodbye Roland Cloud

[zerocrossing]

I dumped Roland Cloud for the same reason, though I have to say that wasn’t only the issue. The other issue was the plugins. They sound nice, but no nicer than their competitors, yet their competitors include all sorts of nice features and don’t hog CPU when sitting idle. If Roland wants me back they’ll have to bump up the general functionality to a level on par with Repro or Legend and offer a simple one-time authorization method.

[crickey13]

Challenge/response registration is okay-ish, the same goes for key files. But I really fail to see how anybody can have enough faith in these large companies to invest in these cloud subscription thingies. It kind of reminds me of paid DLCs in video games. Roland has kind of turned into an EA of the synth business. There is just something about their business model that just rubs me the wrong way, both hardware and software.

The serial codes are and have always been the best registering option and it's yet another reason to support smaller, independent developers.

[Bippo]

Bought two licenses off Roland Cloud when they dropped their mandatory sub shit, never had an issue...

Never say never

[Bippo]

I know it's a pain in that ass but:

1. I had a similar issue where my plugins refused to activate. Turns out I had multiple versions installed in various folders. The version number on the GUI was the same as the most recent version on the cloud, but the activation method had changed behind the scenes and the plugins refused to auth. The solution ultimately ended up being: uninstall and reinstall and I never had issues again. Not saying that's what happened in your case but if you already selected a Lifetime Key for that plugin, and it refuses to authorize in the future, that might be it.

2. Roland Cloud's authorization sucks. They've been posting on Gearslutz to say the top priority is to improve the issues with authorization and Cloud services being unavailable. Kudos to them for venturing publicly into that minefield and not shying away from the issues. They've acknowledged the problems, they say they're working on them.

I'm not trying to convince anyone Roland Cloud is the best nor would I even consider this post a defense of them. There's definitely problems and I don't blame any customer for being pissed about them. Considering the DRM element won't go away, I really wish Lifetime Keys needed activation upon install and never again, with the ability to remotely de-authorize non-active PC's for instances where you've had a catastrophic crash or upgraded. That type of system I think most people could happily live with. The current "every 14 days [or whatever] and oh, there's all kinds of downtime on our service/servers" is pretty terrible as-is. Even without the downtime, I'd still be annoyed by it constantly phoning home.

1. Definitely not what happened in my case.
2. I don't care if they announced publicly that they are "working" on those problems, it's something that happens for too long, if they didn't got it fixed by now, they lost me as a customer.

Some companies can't understand that musicians needs vsts for only one reason: making music.
We don't need to waste our time with constant authorizations, manual updates or being unpaid qa testers, that's not why we giving them our hard earned money.

There are many alternatives in the market, and Roland made me swear that I'll never ever under any circumstance will waste my time and money again on a product that I:
A) not fully owning for life
B) Need to PROVE again and AGAIN that I didn't steal.

f**k that, we are here to create music, not to struggle with dysfunctional technology and bizzare business models that put the customer in a low priority.

[crickey13]

These excessive copy protection measures seem to surface whenever a company gets overtaken by the CEO-type, corporate people gradually replacing the innovative people who got into the game because of their appreciation for the niche and the community. People are gonna crack software no matter what. Implementing additional ways of fighting piracy might seem good on paper and appears to be a great way of maximizing profits, but I'm not sure it directly translates into palpable profits, as the people guilty of piracy either aren't serious enough about their music to buy the software in question or are simply too poor to afford it. Adding additional copy protection only punishes legitimate customers and makes it a serious pain in the butt to deal with licensing in the long run. But the CEO type won't read all of this from a chart, which might be part of the reason why the bigger companies seem to be pushing for this kind of thing with no regard for the user experience. This is why plugins made by people like Klanghelm and Urs are so appealing to me, none of that corporate bullshit and shenanigans.

[vitocorleone123]

There's definitely a handful of companies that are simply easy and fast to register and make music with. Roland isn't one of them, sadly.

I have to say that even iLok is a much better, faster experience than Roland Cloud. I was ready to subscribe if it was good enough. Instead, I don't think I made it a day with Roland Cloud before I said "f%%% this s####" and uninstalled it forever. I own a Roland hardware synth and quite like the brand and the sound identity. But not a company ruled by the Marketing department.

[excuse me please]

Once a respectful company, now they are producing hipster junk.

[AnX]

have been since the 90's...

[layzer]

Once a respectful company, now they are producing hipster junk.

its greed driven. they got people working there
trying to milk the consumer for as much
constant incoming revenue they can get.
even if it is a trainwreck idea like "roland cloud"
they know people like their hardware so they
took the drug dealer incentive to entice and
make people dependent on the cloud in order
to use the software equivalent of their hardware.
but it is still the choice of the consumer to participate
in their scheme.

caveat emptor

i would also like this opportunity to give mega kudos
to Full-Bucket's Bjorn for his hard work making
his vintage Korg emulations free of charge, even
making them compatible with older Win and Mac systems.
something money hungry big outfits turn their noses up at.
simply unbelievable generosity, this gentleman. so go
donate at his site if you use his fine synths. AND even if you dont.
DO IT!
https://www.paypal.me/bjoernarlt

[Tannaliini]

We must support developers that resist the DRM trend by giving them the revenue to continue their current business model. Support talented developers such as Hornet, DDMF, TAL, U-he, Nembrini, Audiority, Aly James Lab, Kazrog, Melda.

If I'm correct, also Serum (Xfer), Rapid (Parawave), Ana2 (SonicAcademy) offer their products with customer friendly copy protection. I really like the idea that you buy the product and NOT be threated like a criminal (what some of the other copy protections sound to be for paying customers)

[excuse me please]

I once painted a wall red in my bedroom. Drove me nuts. I did not even varnish it. Go figure. But I was 14. Then you do silly stuff.

[uselessmind]

If I'm correct, also Serum (Xfer), Rapid (Parawave), Ana2 (SonicAcademy) offer their products with customer friendly copy protection. I really like the idea that you buy the product and NOT be threated like a criminal (what some of the other copy protections sound to be for paying customers)

I would probably have bought Rapid by now if it didnt have CR Protection but serial or keyfile.

But if the developer thinks CR means more sales than thats the way to go.

Roland Cloud is great even for me as a customer in that its obvious what it is about.

[crickey13]

Rob Papen also uses serial code registration too.

[Ghost Snake]

ahah I feel for you man, what were they thinking ....... plus I tried the demos and didn't like the sound quality at all, cheap and muddy IMO

[gaf_thit]

I have a System 8, so I'll have to demo Cloud if I want to change the extra synth engines, but demo is enough as far as I know...