Roland has updated Roland Cloud – its web-based music software service – adding a new virtual instrument, Anthology 1990.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
We’re ecstatic to deliver to you the sounds from one of our favorite synths from the last century via the latest addition to our Anthology series. After downloading and using the aptly named “Anthology 1990,” we’re sure that you’ll see why we’re excited.
One of primary drivers behind why we love this synthesizer is the warmth and presence found in each and every patch. Contained herein you’ll find breathy flutes, luscious layered voices and big, beefy basses. From the expressive “Grandioso” piano to the immediately recognizable from 90’s ambient music “Shak-Filt”, these 64 deep sampled patches deep sampled from the original 64 patches are sure to delight.
Pricing and Availability
Roland Cloud is available as a beta service, priced at US $19.96/month.
I saw a demo video where a single Roland cloud instrument was pushing the CPU to around 40-50% on its own in Ableton. I’ll pass.
Why don’t they come out and say “D-50”?
Because at that point wouldn’t you just buy one to own physically for the cost of a 1-year subscription?
“1990” would rather suggest the infamous D-70, not D-50.
Because it’s a D-70. “Anthology 1987” is the D-50.
Then why don’t they come and say D-70?
My theory is: because they plan to make a proper D-70 emulation (not just a sample library wrapped in a plugin) in the future, and they want to keep the name available.
Booooooooring… just another sampled JD-800 factory presets package…
Cloud subscription service? …my royal rear-end!
JD-800 was introduced in 1991. So this must be D-70, apparently…
Subbing a VST, when there’s a tonne of fantastic VSTs(TO OWN!) available for half the annual price of this crap. You would have to be incredibly unaware of the current VST/AU scene or just basically dumb to fall for this con from Roland.
Behind the times
F u Roland
things i can, and DO, do without:
software subscriptions schemes
“curated” music selections
the great Analog/Digital divide
the (not so Pro) iPad Pro
Beatz by Dre
any more Berlin School pieces
generative music
the modular craze
“Roland Cloud is available as a beta service, priced at US $ 19.96 / month.” This means that I in a year I pay about 240 €, and if I stop paying, i can no longer use the synth? sometimes you just wait a little and with $ 300 you can buy Native Instruments Komplete or Arturia V-Collection as special offer … I think the policy of Roland is loser.
What’s more: What is going to happen if there are too few customers for a prolonged period of time? From the business point of view Roland would then want to close the service. And the customers who decided in the meantime to use these plugins in their projects would be f***ed up.
Just “NO!” to cloud paid instruments.
… and you need to understand that 19.99$ per month is only the beginning! Regular pricing is already close to 30$ and above – and like every other cloud service I know, Roland will for sure raise the price at one point in time, making it even more expensive over the years. I was bold enough to read the “terms and conditions” (which probably nobody reads) and … NO THANK YOU!
If you decide to offer some of the synths standalone as a perpetual license, then I will gladly buy, but certainly not into an uncontrollable cloud service which is allowed to collect data from my system at will. NEVER!
roland are way out of order with this subscription service,
roland go f…k yourself….
roland you owe me this for free i brought a jdxi and my keys have snapped and i never got a vst editor….fu roland.
if roland actually cared about its customers this software should be free.. it is just code, no actual parts we supply the parts..
if you own a roland synth this should be a free service and only non roland users should pay,,,,thanks roland for ripping off your loyal customers….f.u
Am I the only one who thinks subscription is a nice thing? If I need a Juno-106 sound for a project, instead of buying the hardware (or a software that emulates it) for 100s or even 1000s of money, I can rent it for a month and move on. Saves money, space on the desk and on the harddrive as well. There is no need to have access to the plugin once the project is finished, because you bounce tracks to audio anyway. If for whatever reason someone NEEDS a Juno, Jupiter etc. every day (but honestly, who does?), they would go for the real thingh anyway. I think for audio professionals, subscription models are a convenient thing. I wish more companies would offer it.
Admin: Personal attack deleted.
Keep comments on topic and constructive.
Oh too bad, I missed it. Was it at least entertaining? 😀
Well, I did not want to offend you in any way. My joke that you must work for Roland was apparently qualified as an attack. Never mind.
But seriously, I was pointing that most people run their projects for months, sometimes even a couple of years (from the first sketch to the final version of album mix). And most of us, I dare to say, want to be able to do some changes to their instrumental parts even in the very last minute. So printing to audio at an early stage is not really a solution.
Happy Easter!
It sounds nice when you put it that way, but I’d rather own the plugins. What would be wrong with offering a subscription service AND the ability to actually purchase the software outright?
Fair point. I would also prefer to buy at least the plugins I use often.
Alex, if this is your prime goal, then I agree that a subscription model is nice. However, I wonder if that is something which happens in the real world? Usually my sounds come together naturally while combining different synths and I never thought about if I just need “that” Juno-106 sound sound. When I have it I try it … if not I use something different. From your description it must be the client who demands that particular Roland synths should be used (or potentially a co-worker), but I cannot see this happening so often, to be honest.
Apart from this, did anyone ever read the Terms Of Services plus their Cloud Privacy Statement? Sorry to say, but for me, this is a nightmare. Roland basically collects everything, from computer data, usage up to personal informations. The “bad trick” (in my opinion) is that the Terms Of Service do not reference any collection of personal data, but instead this is outsourced into the Privacy document.
And on a sidenote: The Roland folks on Facebook try to tell prospects that the beta prices will never (!) go up. This is – again in my opinion – false advertising, because their Terms Of Services explicitly rule out every “personal” arrangements and I am fairly certain that these folks on Facebook do not have the authority to decide what Roland is up to in a year or two.
These are some good points that I was not aware of. I’m still a fan of the subscription model, but I’m getting the impression that Roland might do it wrong. I guess time will show wjat customers think of it.
I won’t buy cloud-based plugins for the same reason I don’t use cracked plugins: There is no guarantee they will still work if I reopen a 5-year old project that uses them.
At any point Roland could say their cloud service isn’t the direction they want to follow, and shut the entire service down. Or I could decide I don’t want to keep paying, at which point I’d better be sure that I’ve rendered the audio out on all my projects.
It is a layer of logistics that I would rather keep out of my head when I’m trying to be creative.
@Nebula: Cloud services are all about money and control, not about the users in the first place. A lot of companies in the software business have been closely watching Adobe, Autodesk etc. who all stopped selling perpetual licenses and found that their cloud services are money printing machines. Many users who rely on these tools are locked in to this model and even have to accept price increases, just to being able to still use the tools. While this might not be so extreme in the music business, subscriptions offer unprecedented control over the user, because products cannot be resold, illegally installed more times, easily migrated to user computers and so forth.
Totally agree.
Someone who bought a synth 30-40 years ago (assuming it didn’t fail) can still play it exactly the same way he was doing then, and get exactly the same results (sounds). Someone who keeps his 30-year old Atari ST and a diskette with ancient Steinberg Pro 24 can STILL load his old projects. That’s a great thing!
However, if we go all cloud, those corporations WILL OWN US. They may shut the service in any moment, rise prices, change conditions etc. etc. (And we’ve seen already companies abandoning their products, as well as colapses of various web based services etc.)
Hmmm ….. Anthology 1990 ….. So I still have my real D70, JV880, JV1080, and JD-800 (oh and SRV-330), so I’m assuming this software would be redundant?
Probably so!
But for younger people that don’t have a studio of awesome vintage gear, the idea of paying $20 and getting unlimited access to virtual versions of all this stuff sounds pretty good.
The cost of an 808 alone would pay for this subscription for 15 years – so it’s hard to justify vintage gear at today’s prices.
Bounce it to audio and cancel the subscription at any time if it’s not doing it for you.
For this to make sense, though, they need to have plugins of all the classic Roland gear. They’re getting there, but aren’t there yet.
You are right with your example.
However, most opinions about the Roland Cloud so far say: We want to buy these plugins instead of being eternally sucked from money by Roland.
If Roland won’t offer the Jupiter and Juno plugins for sale, people will simply choose other developer’s plugins. There is already a very good Juno emulation (TAL U-NO-LX), if Roland won’t deliver, someone else will make a decent Jupiter-8 emulation and get the clientele.
Crap system indeed… will never subscribe.
Roland has a BAD track record with software. I do not trust that they’ll keep the Roland Cloud running in 3 years because it costs too much and imposes limitations on the users, when many non-limited options are available (from Arturia, Native Instruments, etc.).
I bought a VariOS and within 2 years they dropped support. I bought a V-Synth and they effectively ended the line 3 years later. I bought a Fantom X8 and here it is, 2017, the V-Synth and X8 are working fine, but the USB drivers don’t work with Sierra nor do the editor/librarians. If Roland won’t commit to the long term for flagship synthesizer workstations like the X8, I doubt they have the intestinal fortitude to support the Roland Cloud effectively for a decade or two.
Good points. I just fired up my Jupiter 80 iPad editor on my iPad Pro and got a message the app needs to be updated .. there are no updates Mr. iPad Pro dude! And Roland is still selling this synth! If they can’t even update the silly little Jupiter 80 app it doesn’t give me great confidence in their cloud service down the line. Plus I’ve tried everything the Roland Cloud has to offer so far except the Terra piano .. and I’m completely underwhelmed in the sound quality. My Arturia Jupiter sounds better than theirs, my Tal Uno 106 better than theirs, the Anthology series sampling is weak (I own the hardware versions, but also Kontakt libraries of the D-70 and D-50 which to my ears sound better) I’m a huge Roland hardware fan .. have been since the 70’s .. me thinks they should stick to what they do best .. build hardware. (all just mho of course)
Ok, so I’m trying this out for free for a month. So far I’ve tried the Jupiter 8 and System 8, and they are ok, but absolutely no better sounding than my Arturia stuff or the other plethora of VST synths I have, I’m trying to download Anthology 1990 but the download keeps failing, and there is no way to use a download manager. I own a real D-70 so no biggie if this never gets downloaded, but it’d be fun for giggles to here how this sounds. Anyone tried the piano yet?