Roland has released Roland Cloud 4.0 – the latest version of their web-based music platform.
The update delivers more iconic Roland hardware synthesizers in DAW-ready VST and AU software synth form.
The Legendary Series is a collection of Roland software synth, based on Roland’s Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) modeling. Roland Cloud 4.0 release delivers circuit-modeled versions of the Jupiter-8 and the Juno-106.
With the Jupiter-8 and the JUNO-106 software synths, Roland says that it has meticulously recreated the sound of the originals, using analog circuit modeling of the original’s individual circuit components.
The update also features the Roland System-8 Software Synthesizer, featuring three oscillators per voice, multimode filtering, a myriad of modulation options, and DSP effects.
Pricing and Availability
Roland Cloud is available for US $19.99 per month. A 1-month free trial is also available.
via aymat
There’s no way I’m paying a monthly subscription for music software. That model might work for Adobe, but it will fail dismally for music software.
EastWest/SoundsOnline is $29.99/mo.
Where’s your head Roland !!!???
this gui /facepalm
$240 per year?!!
Get the ffff out man!
I’ll stick with Arturia and the Reaktor Juno 106 Ensemble thanks.
From a financial perspective, it makes a lot of sense. One year’s subscription would equal the cost of buying around one and a half plug-ins, and factoring in plug-in upgrade costs it is a bargain.
However, having to constantly pay to use instruments, coupled with the possibility of a price hike or Roland yanking the plug at a later date (at which time you are left with nothing but missing synths in your DAWs), makes this not such a good thing. Imagine the hordes of angry teens out there if all their music streaming services shut up shop and they actually had to pay for their music collection.
Financially it makes the least sense to me.
In just 2 years I have payed $480 to Roland, and have nothing to use after that.
If I buy $240 worth of software to day, after two years, I still have them, and can also start building something else on top of them.
LOL. Guys. Look at the date. They got you.
Oh wait, April Fool’s day is still a few weeks off.
How will The Roland ACB JP-6 compare with the Arturia version ?
That UI looks pretty horrendous. It brings me back to the early oughts, and not in a good way. The subscription model is also colossally misguided in my opinion. I will skip these. Sorry Roland.
I signed up for the free trial before the pricing was confirmed. The UI is the same as Arturia’s (V5 anyway) in that it “scales” by zooming the same bitmap in or out to a fixed set of sizes, instead of providing resources for each zoom level – ugh. But the biggest drawback I found was that there’s no MIDI Learn function, so no real-time control for YOU except pitch bend and modwheel. And there’s no mod matrix to let you assign anything but the hard-wired mod patch to the modwheel. As an owner of the Arturia JP-8V I’m not tempted.
No MIDI learn?! In 2017?! Are you serious?! That’s ridiculous, and certainly not worth $30/month. Yikes! Whose ‘genius’ idea was this anyway?
On one hand, the subscription thing would be workable IF developers were spreading the cost of the plug-in out over 4 or 5 years. But even then, it isn’t something I would go out of my way to support. I strongly prefer the model of buying the software and paying for significant updates.
I’m more than happy to support and promote developers who make good software that is updated reasonably and has decent support. I have older plugins where the developers still treat me like royalty! Big Tick (Rhino!) is a great one (not many updates, but they fix things that break with new OS releases). AAS is also excellent with support & updates. Their prices are good, too.
My experience with Cakewalk (is CW owned by Roland?) was TERRIBLE!! Z3ta is a hot mess and there is no support. If you are using subscription software, can you opt out quickly if there are problems?
I am also a Rhino fan! Ugly but powerful, like the name says. A favorite plug-in that I’ve used for years, no awful subscription required.
This looks and sounds awful in more ways than one.
People always gonna be hating on Roland.
Roland puts much effort to make them doing so.
i wonder if you payment is bad will the juno 106 do voice chip failure?
I just tried the free trial. Sorry but the SH-101 completely sucks next to the TAL Bassline in terms of graphics and especially in sound. I don’t know who Roland farmed this out to, but that person should stick to free apps for Android.
What the heck Roland?
In any case you guys are missing the fact that you can buy the hardware version if you want a permanent solution.
Still pretty darn confusing
Roland can get stuffed, $240 gets me non-Roland virtual instruments that almost 100% perfect emulation of real hardware. There too late at the table for these kind of shenanigans, software emulation is at such a mature level, then you really don’t need this lame cloud rental service that Roland is selling. Maybe 10 years ago yes but not today.
Unfortunately subscription is not available for non us users. Roland does not even have an idea about the date of the worldwide release. Geographical discrimination.
i’m going to download and get back to you,but £20 a month is a joke
my 1st thoughts are if you subscribe to this service ,we will never see a jdxi again roland will just make paid subscription software synths…and this is my biggest worry as this indeed would be a sad day for the world…
I am outraged. A Juno-106 with 2 envelopes?!
MBA students get educated that everything should be broken down and monetized into the maximum and smallest possible parts and then be provided as a service at the highest cost possible. They live in Roland as well and Roland just needs your $$$. We all could see this coming as the next step after the TR-8 7×7 and System 1 plug-outs. If you don’t like subscription models you will probably not being able to sustain in this world soon unless people massively object and the subscription model fails. Welcome to the HELL of the “brave new world”. Other companies will definitely jump on the bandwagon. Your windows, OSX, your DAW and everything else (like breathing air) will be subscription based soon as well. Pay as you go, or don’t go at all. So while you can buy hardware before it’s power on button gets linked to an Internet subscription as well. (Oops sorry for giving Roland another bad monetizing idea)
I’ll jump on the bandwagon and say absolutely not to subscription based software. I stopped using my Waves bundles years ago because their Waves Update Program is basically the same thing. Lost a lot of useful software/money on that but I don’t want to lease software.
Rome wasn’t build in a day. Cloud systems these days are getting more and more common, and i understand why. Pirated software, youtubbed music…..programmers and producers also have bills to pay, you know. Before you stole all they gave out, decriminalising yourself with the idea of being a little rebel, they must make sure somehow they will have at least something in return. To create something one must invest – time, energy, stress, and guess what – also money. So grow up, finally. Constantly growing amount of instruments per 20 bucks a month is a very good deal.
I do have Roland Cloud account. In fact i am writing a song right now with all the instruments they have to offer. Making my own local test. You will be shocked, but All is working good. The sound i have on the output is clean, System 1 Ayra i have here is also in the process. Works good, registers modulations on every instrument. Accept Jupiter 8 – Ayra is monophonic, and Jupiter is polyphonic, that’s why used midi keyboard with Jupiter. Rest instruments went well with Ayra. Juno i didn’t use yet. During the record in real time Logic registers modulations i make on Ayra and on the bounce i have them all. With every instrument i downloaded form the Cloud ( i downloaded all of them, am greedy on VSTs) :))) yes, a bit bugs here and there – but c’omon, this is beta version, basically a work in progress . Apple has bugs, Microsoft has bugs, any computer game you ever played has bugs. Even your head has bugs. So +1 for Roland Cloud into good karma pocket, waiting for improvements and following the progression! and definitely will be having their instruments in my productions. 🙂
F u Roland
I see both sides here. CyberAngel makes a very valid point that we’ve ALL er, “borrowed” music or software at some point. I don’t love the subscription idea either, but I think the real problem in this case is simply that it’s too expensive. If this were $5/month, I suspect nobody would balk – I have no issue with Hulu or Netflix, because they offer huge value for not much money. But $240/year for something that, unlike a DAW, will only be a sometimes-used part of your music workflow? Too much. And if you’re gonna charge a premium price, these better be damn good instruments, i.e. better than Arturia, etc.
I can’t remember what other company was doing this, but part of the subscription deal was that after a certain time period, you did end up owning the software. This seems like a pretty reasonable compromise.
As with CyberAngel’s comment:
All the pirates dug this grave. Software companies of any size cannot survive against rampant piracy and cracks. It’s understandable that they move to a solution like DRM (iLok etc). But even those sometimes get cracked. Thus: A cloud-based system which periodically checks online for actual rights to use the software.
We get the government, er, software, we deserve.
I did the free trial, and now I’m a paying subscriber.
I already own the Roland 101, which works well on my system and sounds great.
The Juno and Jupiter sound great (and I own a real Juno as well as Arturia’s Jupiter), but the CPU use is a real problem. I can’t even use them on a Retina MacBook properly without crackling and overloads.
Roland’s FAQ:
https://www.rolandcloud.com/frequently-asked-questions
“Why are the LEGENDARY series synthesizers so intensive on my CPU?
Powering the Legendary series is Roland’s critically-acclaimed Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) modeling technology. It’s the same engine as is found in the popular AIRA family of hardware synths. As ACB is doing component-level modeling of original analog instruments, it simply is very demanding. If the requirements of our ACB-powered synths are creating challenges for you, you may consider rendering, bouncing to audio or freezing completed tracks or sections as audio, following by archiving the software instrument midi track. You may want to remove the plug-in to reduce CPU load.”
That’s not very helpful…if you can’t even play a part from a MIDI keyboard to actually get the idea down…or edit the MIDI and hear what you are doing…without the system overloading and grinding to a halt.
Hope Roland sorts out the CPU efficiency soon or I won’t be able to use these much.
I am in my free grace period still, but it looks like I will bite the bullet and become a subscriber. The ACB is just so darn good, it is just worth the cost. Sure, it is not cheap, but to be honest, I have in the past lost more money on idiotic purchases driven by GAS.
My System-8 is a perfect controller, everything is nicely matched so every tweak of a button on the control surface translates directly to the software. Sweet! In fact, I find it much easier to create a track with a virtual S8 than to use the real thing, so my expensive System 8 has now been demoted to an advanced MIDI controller…
I am on the other hand not so sure about the sampled D50, D70 and Alpha Juno…, I am not the least interested in playing those boring 80’s presets. But maybe they will come as plugouts too? And possibly a JX03, TB03, TR09 in the box too? Why not, the code is already written so it is just a matter of porting it.