Roland Cloud

Let's see.. Pay $20 a month, for years, ending up having paid hundreds, maybe thousands, for plugins, only then to lose every single one if I can't keep it up? Yeah, I don't think so. I'll buy a plugin. I'm never going to RENT one.

I second that! I'll pass.

The only reason why companies offer subscriptions is to make more money than they would selling individual products. It's as simple as that. And yet clueless people continue to sign up for subscriptions and in doing so encourage other companies to also adopt subscription models. If we all voted with our wallets and purchased just the individual plugins we will actually use, maybe companies would get the message that WE DON''T WANT YOUR SLEAZY SUBSCRIPTIONS.

@Thohi.

I bet you already do in someway. Welcome to the future. Pretty soon you'll be renting your computer power through cloud technology so you don't have to store a tower at home, and it can be upgraded without needing to tear the entire thing apart. Personal PCs will be like gaslamps and steam powered dildos.

Is it still the case that you cannot specify your own installation folder with Roland Cloud? I asked Roland support about a year back and they said if you change the installation folder you will have issues with updates etc. It's a big problem for Ableton users since you can only have 1 VST folder. Currently my VST folder is on a 2T external SSD. Do I really need to move all of my existing vsts over to Roland's default folder on my tiny C: drive?

Has anyone found a way round this silly restriction?

IMHO this is just one notch above a scam!!! Every other keyboard manufacturer - Korg for example - has released their vintage keyboards as for-purchase VSTs, with prices ranging from $50-100 (picked up the M1 and Wavestation VSTs for $50 each, which I think is reasonable.) Not so Roland, apparently! No, first you have to buy a subscription and renew it yearly. And then, if you want a vintage synth, you have to buy it separately, for prices up to $150 each!! To top it off, most of the user reviews I've read say that they're not even faithful reproductions, that they're "lifeless" and "flat". And, having heard a couple of plugins that a friend purchased I would have to say I agree. I regret having sold my D550, my Super JX, Juno 6 and XV5080, and really glad I at least hung onto my S-550 and JV-1080. IMHO, this is just a naked cash-grab and a betrayal of their previously-loyal customers, of which I was one... until now, that is. It's a f**king outrage, and I would say do NOT, under any circumstances, give them the satisfaction.

You are absolutely right. The Roland Zen-core and "Legendary" synth models don't sound as good as similar emulations from Softube, TAL, and even Cherry Audio. The only Roland Cloud synth plugins that sound faithful to the originals are the JD-800 and to a somewhat lesser degree the D-50.

If you want an old school ROMpler that is really nothing more than a warmed over XV-5080, then Zenology Pro is decent option, especially now that it finally includes various reverb effects. But Zenology Pro is $229 for a Lifetime Key. You're half way to affording Omnisphere for that kind of money. And Omnisphere is a significantly more capable and better sounding synth plugin.

No one became a musician to screw around with software licenses.