Roland Cloud

[IvyBirds]

The terms you are referring to are not new for TAL

What I do know that if I didn't do that, it would continue to work indefinitely

You tell me what is the better system? TAL's or the Roland Cloud?

To my knowledge (I only have their free stuff) TAL was always a simple serial number that didn't require any interaction with the outside world. The wording on the FAQ suggests this is changing. I just wanted to mention this to prevent anyone getting any nasty surprises.

I can't check older versions of the FAQ as The Wayback Machine is down right now. I'll try again tomorrow but posts here suggest these terms are in fact new.

Even at this it's not as bad as Roland Cloud, but not as good as it has been.

Nowhere in the FAQ does it say anything is changing, this is the way it has always been.

And again all you need is a simple serial number even for their paid plugins and I have almost all of them

[sacer]

No question, Softube and TAl synths are far superior synths than Roland cloud, not only in features, fixes and sound quality. Also Arturia has done a great job and is soundwise on paar with Roland.
The new Thing 8 from acoustica audio, sounds much better than Roland, and any other competition.

[sprnva]

Nowhere in the FAQ does it say anything is changing, this is the way it has always been.

OK, The Wayback Machine is working again. Take a look at the FAQ page from last November. The second entry from the current FAQ detailing the activation process isn't there.

And again all you need is a simple serial number even for their paid plugins and I have almost all of them

Do you have TAL-J-8? The current demo is from Feb 5th and here's its registration dialog:

Screenshot From 2025-02-18 08-47-49.png

Notice the offline activation button.

Here's the registration dialog from the 1.9.6 demo from December:

Screenshot From 2025-02-18 11-02-21.png

Notice how this one doesn't have the offline activation button.

From the current FAQ:

"Offline activation is also possible. Choose Register Offline Device... from your user account and paste the offline Device ID from the plugins registration dialog on the computer where you want to register the plug-in. After that, you can download a special offline registration serial key. Paste it like the normal key to activate the product."

This does not equate to "a simple serial number". This is challenge/response all the way. Your special offline key will likely be machine-locked so you will have to go through this process again to activate the plugin on a different computer. A simple serial number is offline activation by definition as no server needs to be contacted.

If your computer is always online it may seem as if it's working as before but I bet if you try to activate any product that has the offline activation button in the registration dialog it will fail if the computer is offline. While older versions will activate just fine.

Apologies, I didn't mean for this to go on so long. I was just trying to give a heads-up about these changes. It's disappointing news.

(Updated with newer demo 1.9.6 screenshot)

[spacepluk]

No question, Softube and TAl synths are far superior synths than Roland cloud, not only in features, fixes and sound quality. Also Arturia has done a great job and is soundwise on paar with Roland.
The new Thing 8 from acoustica audio, sounds much better than Roland, and any other competition.

I prefer Roland’s over all of those. So at least it's a question of personal preference.

[vulpes777]

@sprnva

er...it's been like this for a long while now, and for existing customers it was widely announced on the website - there's even an "Old Downloads" tab with the last releases before the new license validation kicked in.

tl;dr that doesn't really count as "Things might be changing at TAL".

also:

>but I bet if you try to activate any product that has the offline activation button in the registration dialog it will fail if the computer is offline

This is not how any sort of offline activation works.

Regards,

--
Marco

[sprnva]

(I'm sorry, this is getting really off-topic for this thread but I need to clarify things.)

Marco, I assume you mean this license change? Because that's not what I'm talking about. It appears to have changed again. The section I originally pointed to on activation, offline keys etc wasn't in the FAQ last November.

I found a newer demo of TAL-J-8 from December 19th. Version 1.9.6 (see the changelog) and it doesn't have the offline activation button that 1.9.9 has. I've replaced the 1.8.5 demo screenshot in my previous post with it.

I know how offline activation works. I gave that example to show that the older demo could be activated completely offline with just the serial and no need to access the server via another computer for a special unlock key.

[vulpes777]

(I'm sorry, this is getting really off-topic for this thread but I need to clarify things.)

Marco, I assume you mean this license change? Because that's not what I'm talking about. It appears to have changed again. The section I originally pointed to on activation, offline keys etc wasn't in the FAQ last November.

I found a newer demo of TAL-J-8 from December 19th. Version 1.9.6 (see the changelog) and it doesn't have the offline activation button that 1.9.9 has.

I know how offline activation works. I gave that example to show that the older demo could be activated completely offline with just the serial and no need to access the server via another computer for a special unlock key.

No, IIRC what I'm talking about was definitely later than that. At some point over the last years TAL completely revised the licensing validation, which is when the Offline Registration came into play.

Not every plugin moved to the new licensing straight away, some definitely later than some others.

What changed, is that now they are effectively keeping track of how many machine activations are requested - up to four, which I consider a fair amount, and still they're available to discuss specific cases when more are needed.

Is that more complex than just "a serial number"? IMHO not really, I can still request "perpetual" offline serial numbers (up to 4); of course I'll need to validate them on the user area...but then again the plugins are updated so often that I'm likely going to visit the TAL website more than enough to take care of that.

Just my two cents, IMHO nothing is changing on TAL's end that already hadn't for a while, and even so, as a longtime customer I consider it was a fair licensing change.

Cheers,

--
Marco

[sprnva]

Ok, thanks Marco. I'm at a disadvantage here as I don't own a paid product to test any of this. This recent change wasn't widely known outside of TAL circles as some of us assumed they still used a serial key that didn't require any extra steps or communication with TAL servers.

[zvenx]

No question, Softube and TAl synths are far superior synths than Roland cloud, not only in features, fixes and sound quality. Also Arturia has done a great job and is soundwise on paar with Roland.
The new Thing 8 from acoustica audio, sounds much better than Roland, and any other competition.

I prefer Roland’s over all of those. So at least it's a question of personal preference.

What about Roland makes you prefer it?
It does have extra envelopes, I give it that... but what makes you prefer it?
rsp

[spacepluk]

No question, Softube and TAl synths are far superior synths than Roland cloud, not only in features, fixes and sound quality. Also Arturia has done a great job and is soundwise on paar with Roland.
The new Thing 8 from acoustica audio, sounds much better than Roland, and any other competition.

I prefer Roland’s over all of those. So at least it's a question of personal preference.

What about Roland makes you prefer it?
It does have extra envelopes, I give it that... but what makes you prefer it?
rsp

I just like the sound better, especially the effects. Also the fact that I can move patches between the plugins and my System-8 and also use it as a knob-per-function controller is a huge advantage... and none of the others offer anything remotely similar.

[zvenx]

Ahh indeed the others don't work with System-8.
Got ya.
rsp

[Septic Underground]

You can do it both ways. But you have to be online somewhere to get your key and then drop it in your plugin via USB flashdrive textfile or so.

[IvyBirds]

Nowhere in the FAQ does it say anything is changing, this is the way it has always been.

OK, The Wayback Machine is working again. Take a look at the FAQ page from last November. The second entry from the current FAQ detailing the activation process isn't there.

And again all you need is a simple serial number even for their paid plugins and I have almost all of them

Do you have TAL-J-8? The current demo is from Feb 5th and here's its registration dialog:
Screenshot From 2025-02-18 08-47-49.png
Notice the offline activation button.

Here's the registration dialog from the 1.9.6 demo from December:
Screenshot From 2025-02-18 11-02-21.png
Notice how this one doesn't have the offline activation button.

From the current FAQ:

"Offline activation is also possible. Choose Register Offline Device... from your user account and paste the offline Device ID from the plugins registration dialog on the computer where you want to register the plug-in. After that, you can download a special offline registration serial key. Paste it like the normal key to activate the product."

This does not equate to "a simple serial number". This is challenge/response all the way. Your special offline key will likely be machine-locked so you will have to go through this process again to activate the plugin on a different computer. A simple serial number is offline activation by definition as no server needs to be contacted.

If your computer is always online it may seem as if it's working as before but I bet if you try to activate any product that has the offline activation button in the registration dialog it will fail if the computer is offline. While older versions will activate just fine.

Apologies, I didn't mean for this to go on so long. I was just trying to give a heads-up about these changes. It's disappointing news.

(Updated with newer demo 1.9.6 screenshot)

Again nothing "might be changing" as you have suggested

You said

Things might be changing at TAL. Read the second entry on their FAQ page.

Unlike you I actually own the software, and unlike you I have first hand experience with them. I don't need to guess anything based on Demos like you are doing

You get a software key which is a serial number unique to you Once you install that it's done and you never have to be online

This is the ways it's been for a while, nothing "might be changing"

It doesn't need to phone home like Roland Software does even when you own Roland Software outright and are not on any kind of Subscription plan

[dumbledog]

My turn to gripe. I'm trying to make some room on my main hard drive and... what the hell, why is Roland Cloud Manager nearly two gigabytes?!? It's a software installer... it should not be significantly larger than all the software it installs combined!

Looking at the package contents, it seems it's the Qt GUI library that's causing all the bloat. I haven't touched Qt in decades but man is it just one more frustration on the pile.

[Examigan]

My turn to gripe. I'm trying to make some room on my main hard drive and... what the hell, why is Roland Cloud Manager nearly two gigabytes?!? It's a software installer... it should not be significantly larger than all the software it installs combined!

Looking at the package contents, it seems it's the Qt GUI library that's causing all the bloat. I haven't touched Qt in decades but man is it just one more frustration on the pile.

In my Program files folder, it seems to be a little over 700 megs (which is still a lot), but maybe it puts other files elsewhere?