Roland Cloud

[MetroSonus]

Does anyone here use roland cloud? If so, what do you have and what do you think?

So far I've got the XV5080 and SRX dance. I had a majority of it back when I had my Xp30 and it's nice to have all of those sounds again, but overall, I find them kind of underwhelming. It's a good starting point that does require some massaging or reprograming to get to sound nice, but I also find the architecture much more basic than I remembered too.

Of course we're talking 22 years ago now?



In contrast, I've gotten way more mileage out of my M1, wavestation plugins and I'm looking forward to getting the Triton vst. I do want the JD800, D50 clouds too, but from what I've been reading on gearslutz, the JD800 zenology (?) is the same underlying tech / programming as the VST and I think I'd prefer editing the zenology version to the VST. The zenology isn't traditional, it's more like a modern VST and I really enjoyed the demo. The VST is a simulated interface and I dont know, but it doesn't look fun. I was thinking about getting the 303, I've been having some fun with it and maybe some other boxes and synths.

[gregwar]

the Roland cloud is cool but I think its too expensive. I had it a couple years ago when it was cheaper and first came out and now I have lifetime licenses to two items (I chose Jupiter 8 and system 100).
there are two main technologies that I am aware of. The Jupiter, 808/909, and older boutiques all used acb (analog component behaviour I think?)
the two most recent boutiques (jd and jx 08) both use zencore. that's a different technology that has more polyphony (I think they have 8+ voices as opposed to the 4 voices of the older boutiques). zencore is also in the Jupiter x, mc 707, and I think its own plugin on Roland cloud.
sonic stated did a shootout with the jp-08 boutique and a real Jupiter. Obviously there is a much richer, kind of compressed/warm sound and bass to it in the 100-200hz range that gives it more density/weight. I made a channel strip in logic for the jp-08 that adds a bit of bass and has a bit of warmth to it, then if I detune the osc a tiny bit using slow random lfos and do a few takes, it starts to sound a bit closer.
andertons did a blind test shoot out of the roland cloud 909 and the behringer rd-9 with one of their techno producer friends who nearly got 100% rd-9 answers right. I have to say even with the YouTube compression I heard a bit of a difference too. I messed around with the Roland cloud 808/909 and almost instantly remembered how much processing is involved to get modern 808 bass drums for rap for example. they weren't "bad" I just used to always use battery instead since it is much easier for me as the sounds already sound modern and good to me

[christianrock]

DUDE IS THAT A JUNO???????

Well I am not for anything cloud-related, really, for the most part. I also refuse to use Adobe Lightroom for my photography because while only 10 dollars a month, in my 8+ years of processing pictures I'd have paid about a thousand dollars for one piece of software now.

I see the Roland stuff the same way, you'll end up paying more than the hardware version at some point (except the Jupiter 8, but then as Greg says, the Jupiter 8 isn't even that close, so you might as well use some sample packs as there's some good ones out there....)

[MetroSonus]

Christian, you can buy a forever key for almost all of their software. I own (not rent lol) the XV 5080 and SRX dance. I'm not leasing that.. you crazy I'm either going to own outright or go back to hardware at that point.

Greg, for drums I'm agreeing with you, I'd rather have programmed sampler packs. it saves a lot of time. At this point, I'd rather just write and not focus on programming and massaging so much. Synths I'm ok with, but I'm not really a drummer and I don't have a lot of experience with it either.

I do think in general software misses that kind of wide sound you get from hardware.

[gregwar]

another thing, people often complain about all of these monthly subscriptions costs

I just got nailed for waves WUP a week or two ago (luckily I don't own tons of waves plugins so it wasn't horrible)

But the same way that artists make zero money for their music through piracy and now legal means, software developers in particular are getting all of your income once and then have to develop a whole new product to make money again.

companies that can generate a lot of revenue like native instruments or izotope (through all their bundle updates and package deals) are being bought by private equity firms and the smaller guys are getting priced lower and lower competing with free or app stores where something amazing like animoog z is $10!

something like WUP or monthly sub isn't necessarily a bad thing it just depends on your priorities and I don't think people will shell out for 20+ different subscription bundles. I don't know what the solution is since most musicians want cheap plugins or medium cheap hardware.

I guess its the classic day-job-ification we have seen across the board from journalists, musicians, authors, drivers, travel agents, bookkeepers, hospitality, retailers, etc. as technology redefines what generates value to society (basically only things my old surly uncles would pay for lol)

[soundwave106]

I also refuse to use Adobe Lightroom for my photography because while only 10 dollars a month, in my 8+ years of processing pictures I'd have paid about a thousand dollars for one piece of software now.

I'm hanging onto my ol' copy of Lightroom 6 for as long as I can. :) I honestly really don't need the latest and greatest, and my 5 year old $79 copy of Lightroom 6 works just fine for my needs.

A thing with the Roland Cloud is that there are a lot of synthesizers out there that aren't subscription model these days, and a lot of the Cloud kind of hangs onto the past. If I had to pick "influential synthesizers" in various years, it's hard for me to think of a Roland instrument that was an influential sound since, say, the JP-8000 supersaw. I mean, yeah, all that modern trap stuff recycles 808 BD and HH samples, but you don't need an 808 for that. Synths like Serum and Massive (for the dance folks) or Omnisphere (for the soundtrack folks) are what I would consider far more influential for modern music. And that's before we get to the nice-sounding stuff that isn't *quite* as big of a name like the u-He synths.

I haven't done a whole lot of music lately (the RME FF800 died a few months ago and I haven't figured out where to go to replace it yet), but if I did I think I'm going to a more hardware approach of some sort...

[gregwar]

the RME FF800 died a few months ago and I haven't figured out where to go to replace it yet), but if I did I think I'm going to a more hardware approach of some sort...

not as drastic, but similarly I had to finally buy the thunderbolt card for my aging Apollo silver face. I updated macOS and suddenly it just didn't work and I had to place 2-3 orders, backlogs, supply chain issues, etc. to get one in Canada within 2-3 weeks. luckily they were heavily discounted recently (they used to be like $600 )

I installed a usb hub too that caused a ton of group loop issues and ended up getting one of those furman power isolator things

basically over time its a cluster flux and costly just to keep the same sort of capabilities I had in 2013-2014 lol

[ClavAnother]

I got the trial so that I could load the system 100 on my system 8 for free.

[MetroSonus]

I liked the system 100 actually.. that was the first synth I tried from them, cloud anyway or VST and I thought it was pretty cool..