Roland has released major product updates for Roland Cloud, the company’s ‘cloud’ solution for offering software synths and sound libraries:
- Based on the previously released ZENOLOGY software synth, ZENOLOGY Pro delivers greatly enhanced sound design capabilities with full editing support and access to over 7000 patches.
- With Zenbeats 2.0 Ultimate Unlock, Roland’s music creation app becomes part of Roland Cloud membership for the first time. Among many new features and sounds, the updated Zenbeats 2.0 also brings integrated support for the ZC1, a new mobile-ready software synthesizer powered by Roland’s acclaimed ZEN-Core Synthesis System.
Here’s what they have to say about Zenology Pro and the Zenbeats updates:
The ZENOLOGY Pro Software Synthesizer lets Roland Cloud Pro and Ultimate members harness the full power of the ZEN-Core Synthesis System and dive deep into the world of custom sound design. ZENOLOGY Pro provides the amazing audio quality of ZENOLOGY, expanded with a comprehensive editing interface to craft inspiring new sounds.
With a nearly unlimited tool palette, users can craft sounds with four partials at once, each with choices of PCM and virtual analog waveforms, rich multimode filters, complex LFOs, and more. Step-LFOs have 16 steps of beat-synced automation with 37 curve choices per step, perfect for creating rich textures with evolving motion.
ZENOLOGY Pro offers full tone compatibility with JUPITER-X, FANTOM, and other Roland ZEN-Core hardware, and supports the ever-growing collection of Sound Packs, Wave Expansions, and Model Expansions available in Roland Cloud.
Zenbeats 2.0 and ZC1 Software Synthesizer Powered by ZEN-Core
With Zenbeats 2.0, the latest version of Roland’s popular music creation app for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows comes to the Roland Cloud platform. Ultimate Unlock access for Zenbeats 2.0 is provided at all membership levels, offering 7 GB of presets, loops, and sounds. Like the original release of Zenbeats, the entry-level version of Zenbeats 2.0 remains available as a free app outside of Roland Cloud membership, with access to two paid upgrade levels, including Ultimate Unlock.
Zenbeats 2.0 includes many feature and workflow enhancements for free-flowing music production. The spotlight addition is ZC1, Roland’s first mobile-ready synth powered by the advanced ZEN-Core Synthesis System. Zenbeats 2.0 Ultimate Unlock unleashes the full power of ZC1 with over 800 presets and 90 built-in MFX.
Zenology Pro Intro:
Zenbeats 2.0 Intro:
Pricing and Availability
The updates bring new features to Roland Cloud users at all membership levels:
- Core (USD $29.99/year or $2.99/month) — ZENOLOGY, Zenbeats 2.0 Ultimate Unlock, ZEN-Core Sound Packs and Wave Expansions for software, and access to Lifetime Key purchases of instruments and sound content for hardware and Legendary patch collections.
- Pro (USD $99/year or $9.99/month) — ZENOLOGY Pro, Zenbeats 2.0 Ultimate Unlock, TR-808 and D-50 Legendary instruments, access to all ZEN-Core Sound Packs and Wave and Model Expansions for software and Lifetime Key purchases, plus Anthology, TERA, FLAVR, Drum Studio, and all software patches and patterns.
- Ultimate (USD $199/year or $19.99/month) — ZENOLOGY Pro, Zenbeats 2.0 Ultimate Unlock, all ZEN-Core Sound Packs, all Wave and Model Expansions, Lifetime Key purchases, all Legendary and SRX collections, Anthology, TERA, FLAVR, Drum Studio, and all software patches and patterns.
See the Roland site for details.
Roland makes me like Behringer.
Behringer makes me dis-like Roland.
I’ve played a lot of Roland gear happily and I just bought the stand-alone D-50. I wanted it as a synth as much as a nostalgia piece, to have some Roland DNA in the house again. It retains some of the old 8-bit grit, but its also much cleaner.
Still, I can’t see marrying a massive Roland catalog at this late point. Each company does have a sound, even though you have to be an aficionado to catch part of it. They’ve become too popular for me, when they’re >obvious<, but its always smart to have a synth from each of 6 makers or so. Its a smart corporate decision to offer 3 tiers and stand-alone versions. It feels like the final and best-balanced shape for the system.
I was waiting for Roland to release a sound editor for the mc-707 before purchasing it. Now they have, the Zenology Pro. Every review I’ve read has said that deeper editing of the sounds on the tiny screen is a pain on the mc-707.
However, it is absolutely ridiculous that the only way to get an editor for a machine you own is through a subscription service!
I guess I wont be getting the mc-707…
While there are a lot of pages to dive through on the MC 707, I find it pretty easy to navigate and program. To eat their own though. I also really like the Blofeld work flow which a lot of people aren’t keen on either… The main thing I would like to have this for is editing the eq. Scrolling from 20-20000hz is a bit of a pain lol
You have to really love the ‘Roland’ sound to want to get involved in this constantly changing and expensive ecosystem…Zenology Pro is just a (fairly limited) VST with a lot of PCM Roland sounds (so part sample, part VA) There are much better options available for the money in my opinion with many more synthesis methods and modulation options (Rapid, Avenger, Falcon etc)
The constantly shifting lingo involved with all this crap really turns the musician off, too. The whole ecosystem feels convoluted and slightly insulting.
Totally agree. When you’re creating music you really don’t want to think about Zen anything, and it does little to suggest that Roland has any sort of special technology that’s any better than … Arturia, as a prime example.
One other problem: I want a Jupiter-X to control it all.
Can you imagine auditioning 7000 patches, even if they are well tagged? I don’t see a gazillion patches as a selling point – I just really want a decent handful or two of well-chosen starting-off points.
I unsubscribed Roland Cloud some months ago because it just got upsettingly confusing, and this shows me it was the right decision. Three tiers of subscription, half a dozen of „Zen“-something products that just seem to be the same old sounds in new packaging, the hideous FLAVR series… At the end, I was paying 20 bucks a month to use three plugins. This is not how cloud subscription should be done.
I don’t like subscription-based vst, vst is already virtual enough, being required to subscribe continuously in order to use it feels pretty bad.
Anticipating Omnisphere 3.
From your lips to Eric Persing’s ear. I’d definitely spring for an Omnisphere subscription.
Sad times… when more offerings, lower pricing, and options for permanent purchase still garner grumbling from folks. Personally, I’m enjoying the updates.
Lol , hasn’t even got the app and whining:
“Can you imagine auditioning 7000 patches, even if they are well tagged? I don’t see a gazillion patches as a selling point – I just really want a decent handful or two of well-chosen starting-off points.”
Screw it, after 40 years now I’m burnt out on Roland (and Korg, Yamaha, Moog, etc.) I’m gettin my old B3 back.
What app. is available to help those who whining in front of prodigious number of Zenology patches, including myself? I’d love to have it.