Roland Cloud

[sagamusix]

I recently started writing a JD-800 / JD-990 patch conversion tool, and I'm in the middle of adding support for the JD-800 VST to it (to convert SysEx to BIN and the other way around). Does anyone know if the BIN files from the VST plugin are compatible with the JD-08 or is that yet another format?

[EscapingJupiter]

Cant wait for this. I have to many sysex files i wanted to load in the plugin bur roland skimped out on us. You are doing great work!

I recently started writing a JD-800 / JD-990 patch conversion tool, and I'm in the middle of adding support for the JD-800 VST to it (to convert SysEx to BIN and the other way around). Does anyone know if the BIN files from the VST plugin are compatible with the JD-08 or is that yet another format?

[sagamusix]

They are really making it way more complicated than it needs to be, too - especially compared to e.g. the D-50 plugin.
I didn't follow the entire thread here but most people are probably aware by now that this plugin is not a digital recreation of the original audio engine like the D-50 plugin, but most likely built on top of the ZenCore engine. It seems that as a result of this, the BIN file format became much more complicated in quite a perplexing way: For each patch, the original JD-800 parameters (almost identical to the SysEx format) are stored, but in addition to that a second copy of most parameters, translated to internal ZenCore parameters (at least that's my assumption) is also present in the file. Why they don't just re-compute the ZenCore parameters when loading the JD-800 parameters - I don't know. If the same format is used on the JD-08, then it's maybe to speed up patch loading.

Funnily, this means that you can in theory create a BIN file that displays completely different values in the UI than what is actually used by the audio engine. So far I haven't found out if it would be possible to only specify the JD-800 parameters and have the plugin re-compute the ZenCore parameters.

Anyway, as a result SysEx conversion is a lot more difficult than anticipated, because many parameters have a non-linear mapping between JD-800 parameters and internal ZenCore parameters. Some parameters even use a combination of an exponential curve for one half and a linear curve for the other half of the possible values, which makes figuring out the formula to calculate the correct parameters almost impossible. Right now my plan is to somehow automate creating patches with all possible parameter values, export lots of BIN files and then get the ZenCore parameters from those files. If I cannot manage to script this, I might need some help from someone with a lot of spare time on their hands to do this manually.

[astralprojection]

its a bit crazy that vst, boutique and original are not compatible with eachother

[Echoes in the Attic]

Is Zenology Pro something you can get a lifetime key for through the current subscription?

[PAK]

Is Zenology Pro something you can get a lifetime key for through the current subscription?

Nope. All Zenology stuff is presently excluded from the subscription lifetime offers.

Closest you'd get is the standalone JD800 plugin, which is "kinda" Zenology, I guess?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Is Zenology Pro something you can get a lifetime key for through the current subscription?

Nope. All Zenology stuff is presently excluded from the subscription lifetime offers.

Closest you'd get is the standalone JD800 plugin, which is "kinda" Zenology, I guess?

Ah ok thanks. So it's there with a subscription but you can't get a lifetime key. Or wait, you can buy a lifetime key, but you just can't claim it with the current whatever 4 life promotion?

Out of curiosity, does the Zenology pro include all the model expansions like the jupiter-8?

[Examigan]

It's not one of the Legendary series so you can't claim that one as a Lifetime key, unless you pay for the key separately outside of the subscription deals they have.

About the expansions, AFAIK those are all separate. Here is a deal they are running now with many of them included:
https://www.rolandcloud.com/news/zenolo ... undle-sale

[Echoes in the Attic]

I think I answered my own question. Zenology model expansions must not be included because they are for sale for $149 in the Cloud Manager. So those can't be claimed, they can only be bought I guess.

[PAK]

I think I answered my own question. Zenology model expansions must not be included because they are for sale for $149 in the Cloud Manager. So those can't be claimed, they can only be bought I guess.

Right. AFAIK The only Zenology offer they've ever really had is the $499 bundle, which they've never updated to include the Zenology JD800 add-on. So you're still spending about $650 for the Zenology expansions, and that doesn't include the 5080 add-on card sample content if you want that (which will take the cost close to $1000)

They also make you pay twice if you want the JD800 standalone plugin but also want the JD800 add-on to use inside Zenology. It would be nice if they'd change that as it seems pretty unfair IMO..

[sagamusix]

its a bit crazy that vst, boutique and original are not compatible with eachother

Is that really the case, i.e. does the JD-08 boutique really use a different format than the VST plugin's BIN format? Does it use SVD files? If that's the case, if someone can send me some banks for the JD-08 (preferably including the default patch bank), that would help me greatly with writing a converter.

[Echoes in the Attic]

So can the fantom keyboards fully control the zenology plugin like the system-8 can fully control the legendary plugins? The fantom series have zenology built-in pretty much right, but I'm not sure if it only lets you tweak internal engines or if it integrates with the zenology plugin at all.

They have too many freakin' product streams.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I installed Roland Cloud for the first time in a while to check things out. Installed Jupiter-4 but there's no presets. Any ideas why?

EDIT: Found patches in the VST3 folder. Not many presets, just a bank and a half, but that's fine.

[JamminFool]

They have too many freakin' product streams.

it's true. i hesitate to buy anything from roland anymore, for fear of making a mistake.

i love roland, and almost every piece of hardware in my studio is roland (td-7, td-12, tr-606, tr-808, tr-909, sh-101, tb-303, jv-1080, jp-8080, pma-5, pcr-30), but lately they make it really hard to sort out their various product lines and truly understand how to buy the right product(s) going forward.

as soon as they finish promoting a new product line, it is abandoned and they announce a new direction. they don't seem to know where they are going, and that makes it hard for the customer to follow/understand/trust them.

[QuantaDJ]

Hello all… I’d like to signup for a year of Roland Cloud Pro to take advantage of Play 4 life and keep one of the synths.

I’m new to Roland (been mostly on the Korg side since my young days with the M1), and on the last few years on VSTs (Sylenth, Spire and ANA2), so I’d like to ask which one of the synths you’d recommend I should claim to keep if I sign up.

I’ve always been intrigued by two Roland synths, the JD 800 and the System 8, so most likely I’d gravitate between those two, but your recommendation would be welcomed. My genres are electronica, trance, synthwave, deep house and ambient.