Roland Cloud

[IvyBirds]

I think the Cloud Platform is always going to be stuck and held captive by the hardware side of Roland

When Roland was really pushing ACB with things like the Boutiques and the System 8 that all got transferred over to the Cloud, and of course you could buy stuff in the cloud and move it over to your system 8

When Zen Core came out in the hardware side we saw lots of Zenology stuff on the Cloud Side that once again we could buy and move over to the hardware

My guess is at some point this year we will see a GALAXIAS based hardware synth(s) that are multitimbral and allow you to load both ACB and Zen core instruments in layers. My guess is that was planned to be announced around NAMM but got delayed and that is why we are seeing the delay of the Galaxias VST

[Jon at Roland]

I decided to open up RC news today and look back on when the last instrument was actually released through RC.
6/16/2022 we got the Jupiter-4.
Three months shy of two years since the last new instrument.

 

I don't think we will see anything new from Roland for the Roland Cloud anytime soon, they have become a joke

Keep any lifetime keys you own, and if you have a subscription sample what you want and move on

It's obvious they are on life support and will be killing the whole thing soon

They can't event get the promised VST version of Galaxias out the door after saying 4 months ago it would be out "very soon"

At this point I feel sorry for Jon, he has become the new Akai Dan. He constantly has to come here and other similar places and put lipstick on the pig. I am actually embarrassed for him

I'm feeling fine! No need to be embarrassed for me. All forums and spaces are different and it's always a mix of troubleshooting requests, grief for certain issues, and also praise and love for what we do. With this KVR thread I'm often times challenged to defend things that we haven't addressed yet, which is great that you do and it's my job to address these things. Y'all are right to wonder why these seemingly small things haven't been addressed yet. But just try and keep in mind that Roland Cloud is still relatively small and still relatively new. We have over 50 instruments and a cloud service that needs constant maintenance and sometimes we miss things that need solving. Every online community wants something different from Roland Cloud and most of the feedback from KVR is that you want your favorite instruments brought to life as VST's and because we haven't done this it means we aren't doing anything at all. But you gotta trust me when I say that the Roland Cloud team is constantly working on fixing performance issues, designing new things that have yet to be released, and scheming what comes next. Fixing and updating plugins takes time away from developing new instruments, but it doesn't mean we aren't planning new things and working on them.

For what it's worth, GALAXIAS has its own team that is currently beta testing the VST for release. But this team has been consistently releasing improvements and tweaks in small updates since its release.

[Introspective]

But you gotta trust me when I say that the Roland Cloud team is constantly working on fixing performance issues, designing new things that have yet to be released, and scheming what comes next. Fixing and updating plugins takes time away from developing new instruments, but it doesn't mean we aren't planning new things and working on them.

Roland Cloud definitely has an image problem. ...At least to the KVR crowd, which, granted, is probably a relatively small slice of your client base, and thus I doubt our preferences get much weight.

And, like a fool, here I am trying to suggest changes, knowing that the odds of any of them getting implemented are ... small. But here 'goes:

The Roland Cloud Manager experience is really, really disappointing. The major update (when was that? Two years back?) was an improvement, but that's really not saying much. The whole thing smacks of "the investors will LOVE this!" ...When I load it up, I'm put in one of two places: either on the Galaxias tab. ...why? I don't own it. Or on the Hardware Instruments tab. Why? I don't own any.

It always takes me a minute to figure out where I want to go, because the UI is organized first by "brand" and then by ... I dunno ... family? I don't care about these labels. They're just marketing blurbs to me, they mean nothing at all. "AIRA & DANCE?" Give me a break.

Next, I'm like "Oh, software. I want to see the software." ...and, again, I land on the Galaxias tab. Which, again: don't own it, don't care about it. There's ONE thing here. It's NOT HELPFUL. At all.

So I look at the next set of tabs, and, again, it's ... these ... family things. Zenology, Drums, SRX... I don't know which one has which thing in it, and, critically I don't want to know. This is all, again, marketing BS designed only to make management happy because it's "increasing brand visibility" or some !@#$. I. Don't. Care.

Okay, let's try "My Library," which is WEIRDLY way over on the right ... next to... the cart? WTF? Okay, whatever. At least I can see what I own. And... Oh. My. God. It's just all SD sound libraries! WHO ... CAAAAAAARES!?! These are PATCH LIBRARIES! These should be nested somewhere, filtered out by default. If I want to see them, I should have to click somewhere to get the list of patch libaries. I want MY SYNTHS. Ugh! This is totally frustrating. Okay, okay, can I filter the view? Ahhh, after five minutes I see that I can click on "Type" and filter it to "Plug-in." Okay... THIS SHOULD BE MY DEFAULT VIEW. When I close the app, it should remember that I was here last and bring me immediately to this view. ...I suppose I can also click on the "Status" at the top (ish) and filter down to "Updatable." Nope. Nothing new. M'kay. I'll check the "News," I guess. ...which ... opens up the website. ...which is ... ALL PATCH LIBRARIES. Oj vey.

Which brings me to the "New Instruments are available" message that I was complaining about a few posts ago. Yeah: don't do that. There aren't new instruments available. There are some new patches available, or a new "bundle" of synths (or, more likely, synths and patches) to buy. Those aren't new instruments available. Change the message. Is it really that hard to say WHAT is available? If it's something interesting, I might actually open it, but it never specifies, and after a dozen times of clicking and being bored with what's on offer, it's become noise, and I ignore it.

But, really--and I hate to say this, because clearly your company has put a lot of thought and time into this "product"--this needs a complete re-think. It's clearly been designed as some kind of marketing device, and, dammit, maybe I'm alone in this, but, I just want it to be a tool. Show me what's new, show me what needs to be updated, let me install demos of things, let me see what patches are on offer, and help me uninstall/re-install things that I've got a license to. Those are the functions that I want, and I shouldn't have to hunt for them. I don't care about your "product families." You've got synths, patches, and applications. Those are the only top-level tabs you need. Maybe each one gets broken up a little bit further, but not by "product line." Please. I don't know which one belongs to which and I don't want to have to know. Keep your families, but just make it part of the product's name or something. "System-8 (Aira)" is unoffensive to me. But having to find System-8 by KNOWING it's an Aira synth: grow up. That's a crappy user experience.

User experience (UX). There's the crux of it. This was designed by a sales team, not by a UX designer, and it really needs the help of one. You've seen that meme image, I assume? That's what happens here.



Look: I love the Juno-60. I love the SH-101. These are my favourite synths of all time. I'm delighted to have them ITB. The System-8 was really interesting, and I hope that someday Roland loops back and improves upon it, because it's got the beginnings of something great. ZENology, with all its flaws, is still really compelling as a ROMpler in the box. Roland has me hooked. You can treat me like !@#^ all you want and I'm going to keep checking back. But, honestly: honestly and importantly, HEAR THIS: I have to bow my head in shame when I tell people I use RC synths. They laugh at me, ask "Really?! How can you stand it?" ...It's hard to be a cheerleader for the brand when we're forced to use products like RCM which is just constantly shouting at us to buy more patches. And, yeah, I get it: this is where the money is made. But, boy, the signal-to-noise here is ...

...well, it's frustrating, to say the least.

I hope this helps, despite my hostile tone.

[D-Fusion]

But you gotta trust me when I say that the Roland Cloud team is constantly working on fixing performance issues, designing new things that have yet to be released, and scheming what comes next. Fixing and updating plugins takes time away from developing new instruments, but it doesn't mean we aren't planning new things and working on them.

Roland Cloud definitely has an image problem. ...At least to the KVR crowd, which, granted, is probably a relatively small slice of your client base, and thus I doubt our preferences get much weight.

And, like a fool, here I am trying to suggest changes, knowing that the odds of any of them getting implemented are ... small. But here 'goes:

The Roland Cloud Manager experience is really, really disappointing. The major update (when was that? Two years back?) was an improvement, but that's really not saying much. The whole thing smacks of "the investors will LOVE this!" ...When I load it up, I'm put in one of two places: either on the Galaxias tab. ...why? I don't own it. Or on the Hardware Instruments tab. Why? I don't own any.

It always takes me a minute to figure out where I want to go, because the UI is organized first by "brand" and then by ... I dunno ... family? I don't care about these labels. They're just marketing blurbs to me, they mean nothing at all. "AIRA & DANCE?" Give me a break.

Next, I'm like "Oh, software. I want to see the software." ...and, again, I land on the Galaxias tab. Which, again: don't own it, don't care about it. There's ONE thing here. It's NOT HELPFUL. At all.

So I look at the next set of tabs, and, again, it's ... these ... family things. Zenology, Drums, SRX... I don't know which one has which thing in it, and, critically I don't want to know. This is all, again, marketing BS designed only to make management happy because it's "increasing brand visibility" or some !@#$. I. Don't. Care.

Okay, let's try "My Library," which is WEIRDLY way over on the right ... next to... the cart? WTF? Okay, whatever. At least I can see what I own. And... Oh. My. God. It's just all SD sound libraries! WHO ... CAAAAAAARES!?! These are PATCH LIBRARIES! These should be nested somewhere, filtered out by default. If I want to see them, I should have to click somewhere to get the list of patch libaries. I want MY SYNTHS. Ugh! This is totally frustrating. Okay, okay, can I filter the view? Ahhh, after five minutes I see that I can click on "Type" and filter it to "Plug-in." Okay... THIS SHOULD BE MY DEFAULT VIEW. When I close the app, it should remember that I was here last and bring me immediately to this view. ...I suppose I can also click on the "Status" at the top (ish) and filter down to "Updatable." Nope. Nothing new. M'kay. I'll check the "News," I guess. ...which ... opens up the website. ...which is ... ALL PATCH LIBRARIES. Oj vey.

Which brings me to the "New Instruments are available" message that I was complaining about a few posts ago. Yeah: don't do that. There aren't new instruments available. There are some new patches available, or a new "bundle" of synths (or, more likely, synths and patches) to buy. Those aren't new instruments available. Change the message. Is it really that hard to say WHAT is available? If it's something interesting, I might actually open it, but it never specifies, and after a dozen times of clicking and being bored with what's on offer, it's become noise, and I ignore it.

But, really--and I hate to say this, because clearly your company has put a lot of thought and time into this "product"--this needs a complete re-think. It's clearly been designed as some kind of marketing device, and, dammit, maybe I'm alone in this, but, I just want it to be a tool. Show me what's new, show me what needs to be updated, let me install demos of things, let me see what patches are on offer, and help me uninstall/re-install things that I've got a license to. Those are the functions that I want, and I shouldn't have to hunt for them. I don't care about your "product families." You've got synths, patches, and applications. Those are the only top-level tabs you need. Maybe each one gets broken up a little bit further, but not by "product line." Please. I don't know which one belongs to which and I don't want to have to know. Keep your families, but just make it part of the product's name or something. "System-8 (Aira)" is unoffensive to me. But having to find System-8 by KNOWING it's an Aira synth: grow up. That's a crappy user experience.

User experience (UX). There's the crux of it. This was designed by a sales team, not by a UX designer, and it really needs the help of one. You've seen that meme image, I assume? That's what happens here.



Look: I love the Juno-60. I love the SH-101. These are my favourite synths of all time. I'm delighted to have them ITB. The System-8 was really interesting, and I hope that someday Roland loops back and improves upon it, because it's got the beginnings of something great. ZENology, with all its flaws, is still really compelling as a ROMpler in the box. Roland has me hooked. You can treat me like !@#^ all you want and I'm going to keep checking back. But, honestly: honestly and importantly, HEAR THIS: I have to bow my head in shame when I tell people I use RC synths. They laugh at me, ask "Really?! How can you stand it?" ...It's hard to be a cheerleader for the brand when we're forced to use products like RCM which is just constantly shouting at us to buy more patches. And, yeah, I get it: this is where the money is made. But, boy, the signal-to-noise here is ...

...well, it's frustrating, to say the least.

I hope this helps, despite my hostile tone.

You Nailed it
The Cloud is not there for protection or as a Real Download manager.
It is built as a online shop that you are forced to visit every 30 days if you want to keep on using what you have bought.

[PAK]

When I load it up, I'm put in one of two places: either on the Galaxias tab. ...why? I don't own it. Or on the Hardware Instruments tab. Why? I don't own any.

Click on View Filter. Uncheck "Hardware Instruments". No more hardware instruments. Galaxias comes up first in software because it's the first tab. Presumably because they want to promote it.

[Caine123]

guys i gave up on Roland Cloud, so this way i can just get surprised, hopefully in a good way.
i think they might still have enough subscribers so they dont need to do much anymore maybe or they are abandoning it step by step, or maybe there is just a too small team for the cloud.

who knows, anyone who still stays subscribed and hopes only is just supporting a bad platform atm.

[N 4 LIFE]

high five on the post by Introspective. I had the same problems when i used to work with protools after avid bought it.
what was a simple UI w easy nav became a clusterfuck of extra clicks, adds, and ruined workflow. tech support:
"all you have to do is these five more clicks to not see that" etc. f**k man.
get the marketing guys out of the UI. they have no idea what their user base wants.

[J Veronica]

I'll resub when a new plugin arrives.

Right now I imagine a chunk of subscriber money goes towards fixing errors caused by Mac OS updates.

As a Windows user I'm not interested in subsidising that, lol.

[ToddlerTN]

I’ve been comparing the JV-1080 and XV-5080 VSTs, and the display on the XV-5080 seems to have a bug. The bank name and patch name write to the same part of the screen, rendering the text illegible. The same converted banks on the JV-1080 don’t have that problem. Surely this has been reported to Roland. I’m new here, but this must be a known issue, right?

JV-1080:

IMG_1388.jpeg

XV-5080:

IMG_1389.jpeg

Is this XV-5080 GUI bug still unresolved? It has been known/reported for years, so I’m bringing it up again. As someone who replaced a physical unit and has decades worth of patches embedded in my muscle memory, this bug hurts my brain. I’m also a software developer, and this is the easiest bug to fix – with the code open, it literally takes seconds. It’s simply a matter of caring, and by this point maybe I should just accept that Roland doesn’t. But since I paid for an XV-5080 Lifetime Key, I’m at Roland’s mercy to care.

[Caine123]

i am unsubscribed for 2 weeks now, did i miss someething? oh i see still nothing new

[IvyBirds]

i am unsubscribed for 2 weeks now, did i miss someething? oh i see still nothing new

I have been unsubscribed for 9 months now and didn't miss anything new I did subscribe for a month in November to try out Galaxias to see if I was missing anything quickly realized I wasn't so cancelled again

I would subscribe again if they actually came out with something new and interesting. A JD990 with all the patches and factory ROM plus the patches and rom from the Vintage Synth card would cause me to subscribe again. Yet another version of the Jupiter 8 and a lame sample pack will not

[JamminFool]

as expected, nothing new.

unsubscribed.

[Septic Underground]

even if they release 1 new synth (typically around 150) it is cheaper to just buy a lifetime for it.

I literally have lifetime keys for every legendary and almost all srx plugs (except for 2)
Nothing more to gain here.

my sub will be renewed 8 apr, but not this time. I will cancel in 2 weeks as well.
Such a shame, been subbed since day 1

[Choikdoi]

I bought a lifetime key back in November and it has been working ever since, without me needing to manually re-authorise it through the cloud. I assumed because it was in my PC's startup app list. Today my VST wouldn't load up licensed, so I went to my account and it says that it has expired. Turns out that somehow and at sometime without my knowledge, the cloud app got disabled from the startup list.

Still a bit confused about what that means. Do you actually completely lose the license that you bought if that happens?

[N 4 LIFE]

I bought a lifetime key back in November and it has been working ever since, without me needing to manually re-authorise it through the cloud. I assumed because it was in my PC's startup app list. Today my VST wouldn't load up licensed, so I went to my account and it says that it has expired. Turns out that somehow and at sometime without my knowledge, the cloud app got disabled from the startup list.

Still a bit confused about what that means. Do you actually completely lose the license that you bought if that happens?

you don't need to manually re-authorize through the cloud as the roland-ware operates in the background constantly re-authorizing behind the scenes.
for me it usually quits working as soon as i try and use it on a gig and then it ruins the whole evening trying to check to see if i have paid my 20 dollars soon enough!