Roland Cloud

[Jon at Roland]

wow, what a sh*t move, they stated a resizable gui is in the works or something, this plugin is used by many guys too in the chiptune scene. how can you f*ck up your own products.

so it means you cannot buy it but still use it until it wont work in your daw? i have this plugin in multiple projects.

maybe this is the beginning of a dying cloud.

Hey Caine123, Sound Canvas is one of our oldest instruments and has had continuous issues due to outdated software. Here is the exact quote sent out from Roland.

"Sound Canvas VA is built on a different framework than other Roland Cloud instruments and effects, and currently does not have sufficient support, especially when it requires regular updates to maintain compatibility and performance with OS platforms and plug-in hosts. This is a major reason why we are currently unable to provide adequate support for the current version of Sound Canvas VA. By discontinuing development of the current Sound Canvas VA, we will be able to better serve the creative needs of the Sound Canvas community in the future by providing a more comfortable experience with the other instruments and effects on Roland Cloud.

We thank you in advance for your understanding.

If you purchased Sound Canvas VA as a Lifetime Key, please be assured that it will continue to be available. However, there will be no future updates.

Sound Canvas VA" will be available for membership and purchase of Lifetime Key until September 1, 2024."

For those of you who have bought Sound Canvas as a lifetime key, you will be allowed to download Sound Canvas in its current form. We have only a few instruments that have the issue with out of date software and Sound Canvas is one of them. As I've said many times before, we are currently working on new instruments and plug-ins for everyone, Roland Cloud is not dying.

I can't login to the stupid RCM. It doesn't matter if I login via Firefox.

Hey Aloysius. Sorry to hear this has been your experience. If you don't mind I'll send you a DM and we can try and figure out what is going on. Your instruments are safe, any purchase you made is in our system and we've never had an instance of someone losing the instruments they purchased.

I replied to your PM.
Thank you for your reassurance about the instruments.

Actions speak louder than words.

Hey Aloysius, this still stands. This is an unfortunate circumstance. We have been grappling for months on what to do with Sound Canvas and trying to figure out what the best solution is for everyone. If you had purchased Sound Canvas, you will be given the Lifetime Key and it you will be able to use it going forward without the cloud. We did not come to this decision lightly and want everyone to know that we only remove support for an instrument if the software is too out of date for us to be able to sell a product that works. Please feel free to DM me about your concerns with this.

Well that's a bummer - I bought this a few years back and had hopes it might one day be updated, as it is a useful set of basic sounds, all in one plugin.

Hey osofaux, there is a possibility we might release a new updated Sound Canvas one day in the future. It has been discussed and the plan was to create a v2 as we have been doing for our other instruments. But for now, we are working on new things to share.

I'm still looking at the orange circle.

We are aware of this and it's currently being investigated. This issue was previously reported in older builds and had been resolved, so thank you for the heads up. Force quitting has been reported to resolve the issue for some users. Hopefully we will have a solution for this soon.

[BBFG#]

We have only a few instruments that have the issue with out of date software...

Please list.
And again, this begs the question of why not allow any lifetime keys bought to work without your Cloud?
Many already know your priors of history schemes here...
"Lifetime" just means until you kill it.
And we know that ideology will not die, it will just move to another marketing term.

But please list those you now consider to be "outdated software".

[Examigan]

I guess Concerto/Anthology is an example and eventually they removed the download for it . At least it doesn't need authorization now.

[IvyBirds]

Hey Caine123, Sound Canvas is one of our oldest instruments and has had continuous issues due to outdated software.

Then fix it, you have been saying for two years now your team is busy updating software and the reason we never got anything new was because you updated everything to version 2

That excuse is now proven to be a total lie

Face it your entire operation is collapsing as you have nothing new and refuse to update software you just kill it off

[IvyBirds]

But for now, we are working on new things to share.

Sorry Jon I am going to have call BS on that one, it's been over two years, and nothing

We have only a few instruments that have the issue with out of date software and Sound Canvas is one of them.

So what are they then and why are you still selling them?

[IvyBirds]

"Lifetime" just means until you kill it.
And we know that ideology will not die, it will just move to another marketing term.

But please list those you now consider to be "outdated software".

I would bet serious money it's the XV5080, JV1080 and all the SRX derivatives

"Outdated" means won't run on Roland hardware synths so Roland Japan doesn't want to support the software

"Outdated" means replaced by Zen Core/Zenology in the eyes of Roland Japan

[BBFG#]

I went to a seminar of theirs in the early nineties where they talked extensively on producing "residual income". And now they have a consistent history in doing that. Roland Cloud won't die before the next iterations leading to something like Roland Cloud Platinum and selling it off. Roland doesn't make emulations, they make replicants. Coded with a limited lifespan.

[osofaux]

Well, I looked up the news so you don't have to: Sound Canvas is being discontinued.

--
Marco

Well that's a bummer - I bought this a few years back and had hopes it might one day be updated, as it is a useful set of basic sounds, all in one plugin.

Perhaps in grand Roland fashion they'll re-release it as 8 separate plugins, one for each type of sound.

Sample the important sounds now while you can

I am so happy I sampled all the patches from my hardware SC55 and SC880

Excellent idea. What tools did you use for this, or would you recommend? And how did they turn out?

Would be nice to automate the process somewhat.

[IvyBirds]

Well, I looked up the news so you don't have to: Sound Canvas is being discontinued.

--
Marco

Well that's a bummer - I bought this a few years back and had hopes it might one day be updated, as it is a useful set of basic sounds, all in one plugin.

Perhaps in grand Roland fashion they'll re-release it as 8 separate plugins, one for each type of sound.

Sample the important sounds now while you can

I am so happy I sampled all the patches from my hardware SC55 and SC880

Excellent idea. What tools did you use for this, or would you recommend? And how did they turn out?

Would be nice to automate the process somewhat.

I used a program called "Samplit" (yes it's spelled weird)

It's been around for a while and run by a one man show, but its been very solid for me

It can auto sample both hardware and software instruments and assist you with sampling non electronic instruments like guitars and violins

For software instruments it hosts VST2 right in the software itself. For hardware it uses MIDI and your interface. Sound Canvas is only VST2 if I recall so it's not issue, for VST3 I use the VST2 version of Voltage Modular and host the VST3 instrument inside of that

I have another similar program called "Sample Robot" but the version I have of that only works with my Montage

I only do one patch at a time, but you can set it up to do entire patch banks using MIDI

You tell it if it's a drum patch, a percussive patch with sustain like a piano, or an "infinite" pad type sound. You give it the maximum sample time in seconds (it can go up to 60) and how many semitones apart you want to sample over how many octaves and how many velocity layers you want. It's dead

For drums and percussion with sustain it listens and when the sound fades away it ends. It will create patches on many different sampler formats as well as just plain WAV files. It even does a pretty decent job of automatically setting loop points

Over the past few years I have used it thousands of times with zero issues. I have a GIANT folder of samples. Everytime I make a patch in every Synth I own I sample it, and I have samples of a bunch of presets that I like

I really can't say enough good things about it

[shatteredmindofbob]

Well, I looked up the news so you don't have to: Sound Canvas is being discontinued.

--
Marco

Heh, I half-considered buying it last week. Fortunately, I remembered my no subscription, no DRM stance (and this is a good reminder as to why I take that stance).

(I make an exception for Zenology because it's cheap).

[osofaux]

Well, I looked up the news so you don't have to: Sound Canvas is being discontinued.

--
Marco

Well that's a bummer - I bought this a few years back and had hopes it might one day be updated, as it is a useful set of basic sounds, all in one plugin.

Perhaps in grand Roland fashion they'll re-release it as 8 separate plugins, one for each type of sound.

Sample the important sounds now while you can

I am so happy I sampled all the patches from my hardware SC55 and SC880

Excellent idea. What tools did you use for this, or would you recommend? And how did they turn out?

Would be nice to automate the process somewhat.

I used a program called "Samplit" (yes it's spelled weird)

It's been around for a while and run by a one man show, but its been very solid for me

It can auto sample both hardware and software instruments and assist you with sampling non electronic instruments like guitars and violins

For software instruments it hosts VST2 right in the software itself. For hardware it uses MIDI and your interface. Sound Canvas is only VST2 if I recall so it's not issue, for VST3 I use the VST2 version of Voltage Modular and host the VST3 instrument inside of that

I have another similar program called "Sample Robot" but the version I have of that only works with my Montage

I only do one patch at a time, but you can set it up to do entire patch banks using MIDI

You tell it if it's a drum patch, a percussive patch with sustain like a piano, or an "infinite" pad type sound. You give it the maximum sample time in seconds (it can go up to 60) and how many semitones apart you want to sample over how many octaves and how many velocity layers you want. It's dead

For drums and percussion with sustain it listens and when the sound fades away it ends. It will create patches on many different sampler formats as well as just plain WAV files. It even does a pretty decent job of automatically setting loop points

Over the past few years I have used it thousands of times with zero issues. I have a GIANT folder of samples. Everytime I make a patch in every Synth I own I sample it, and I have samples of a bunch of presets that I like

I really can't say enough good things about it

Thanks for the detailed response, I really appreciate that. I've not heard of Samplit but it sounds like just the kind of tool I'm looking for based on your description. Definitely going to check it out.

[Aloysius]

For those of you who have bought Sound Canvas as a lifetime key, you will be allowed to download Sound Canvas in its current form.

Could you at least give us an option to install to our own VST2 Plugin folder? The current location doesn't work for me. The best I can do right now is install to the default location and copy the dll to the location I actually want to use. If the installer came with the option it would be far more elegant.

If you give me a lifetime key of my choice I might help you with the RCM problem.

[Septic Underground]

Hey Caine123, Sound Canvas is one of our oldest instruments and has had continuous issues due to outdated software. Here is the exact quote sent out from Roland.

"Sound Canvas VA is built on a different framework than other Roland Cloud instruments and effects, and currently does not have sufficient support, especially when it requires regular updates to maintain compatibility and performance with OS platforms and plug-in hosts. This is a major reason why we are currently unable to provide adequate support for the current version of Sound Canvas VA. By discontinuing development of the current Sound Canvas VA, we will be able to better serve the creative needs of the Sound Canvas community in the future by providing a more comfortable experience with the other instruments and effects on Roland Cloud.

wow what a load of total bs is this?..hahahaha
lol, LMAO even.

What a shameful display. When you think Roland couldnt get any lower, they give this as an explanation.

Pfft certainly lower than Behringer now in my brand rating. That is coming from someone who used to have "behringer free recordings" stamped on his releases

[IvyBirds]

Sound Canvas VA is built on a different framework than other Roland Cloud instruments and effects,

wow what a load of total bs is this?..hahahaha
lol, LMAO even.

What a shameful display. When you think Roland couldnt get any lower, they give this as an explanation.

Pfft certainly lower than Behringer now in my brand rating. That is coming from someone who used to have "behringer free recordings" stamped on his releases

That 'framework" is the emulator for Roland's custom BMC chip and operating system used in Roland Hardware

Currently the ACB Synths and the Zen Core Synths in the current hardware lineup all run BMC chips

All Roland does is port that software over to the Cloud and set it on top of the BMC emulator

For the time being that means that any of the software instruments that have Roland Hardware equivalents are safe, but the ones that don't are on the chopping block

It's also why we haven't seen anything new as Roland really hasn't had any new hardware in several years, they just keep rehashing Zen Core with the same instruments

What that means is that the JV1080, XV5080, and all of the SRX derivatives are very much at risk as they don't have ACB or Zencore hardware equivalents

The D50 and JD800 run on Roland Hardware with the boutique line, as do the analog emulations and of course all of the Zenology based instruments

The risk this behavior indicates is that when Roland stops supporting BMC, or comes out with something to replace ACB/DCB and Zen Core they will also stop supporting all the software that runs that code which means your lifetime keys become worthless

And make no mistake those BMC chips are now very long in the tooth. New chips would be faster and cost less to produce, and would mean the hardware gets greater polyphony and more accurate models

When Roland comes out with a new hardware platform and ACB2 or whatever the first thing they will do is new emulations of the Jupiter 8, Juno, TB303, etc

And that new hardware will mean new plugins and the death of the existing ones

My guess is this is very close on the horizon, which explains why there have been zero new anything for two years

[vulpes777]

Another day, another "New instrument Available" notification. Hope it's not as bad as the one from yesterday

This time around it says it's the Space Echo FX. Good news, I guess...except it's nowhere to be seen inside RCM, so maybe it hasn't been officially released after all. There's also no entry in the news page, yet.

--
Marco