The biggest temptation I have for testing the cloud is to test the plugins that are ‘plug out’ capable on my recent System8 acquisition/impulse-buy (but it WAS cheaper than it should have been and that won’t happen twice, so…).
I suppose I sort of ‘have’ to check it out while it’s free for a bit. There are enough plug-outs that it’s difficult to compare them without having something to go on, and cloud would definitely give me that.
Maybe from the backup machine so as not to ‘pollute’ the primary with installs/uninstalls of things (I’m far too anal with ‘litter’ than I probably should be, but it’s worked for me).
Yeah, I agree. I was thinking that the 101 seemed a bit long in the tooth and the Softube one seemed more “analogue”, but when I demoed it back to back together with Tal baseline, the Roland one was unexpectedly clear winner to my ears.
I also think the JC-120 amp sim is incredible, have only really used it for guitars so far though.
I really want to get into the Roland world too. But fundamentally I just dont want to deal with subscription method… its not that expensiv. $19.99 for the ultimate package.
I think that’s fair - I must admit my initial experience of using the Cloud Manager and the JV-1080 plugin may have soured me somewhat to the rest of my experience with Roland Cloud as a whole. I picked up Softube’s Model 82 & 84 a while ago and, whle I can’t vouch as much for their authenticity, I’ve found them much more enjoyable to use than their RC counterparts. I also enjoyed using ABL3 more than the RC TB-303, and it sounds pretty darn accurate to me.
All that aside, I really don’t want to yuck anyone else’s yum - I’m sure there are tons of people using and enjoying Roland Cloud, I just thought it was kind of funny that my free trial only served to put me off entirely while also making me want to pick up a 1010
There’s a recent comment on gearspace stating they have resolved the cpu spike on 1080 and it should get an update soon.
Nothing on the sound differences
There’s a guy from Roland that seems active on there.
Still regret buying a perpetual license of Zenology (I used the MC-101 quite a bit at the time and wanted to make custom patches for it - this was before Roland updated the MC-101 so it could edit its own sounds), because I wasnt aware of the fact that Roland Cloud apps require an internet connection every few months or they’ll stop working. This is a problem for me since I dont have an internet connection at the project cave (due to obvious reasons; www is a time suck)
…i have enough sw synths and whatnot else devices for three lifetimes…
…last thing i need, is a cloud based “service” that’s frequently tryin’ hard and harder to bother me…
up in the cloud and permanent needs to stay online might look like the future in this hysteria days of early information age, but it’s simply NOT…
if ur a truu artist of any kind, u just know, it’s a bad a idea and a killer for all creative mindsets…reduce to max, focus, work with what u got, embrace limitations and start to enjoy in PEACE, how creative U are indeed, end of all days…
it’s never about the next new shiny toy, another daily distraction…it’s all about creative flows and THE results that come with IT…
Yes, agreed.
Any company still giving/causing customers friction in 2025 need to sort themselves out fast.
I have a similar gripe with inMusic/Akai… one time I had to spend hours troubleshooting a mix recall that I couldn’t understand wasn’t sounding the same… turned out Air Delay Pro needed reactivating where it was buried deep in a drum buss audio rack.
It made me want to delete it instantly and find an alternative.
(I still use it.)
…well, name one, who’s out there, officially acclaimed and credited for their creative output only, who’s dealing with cloudservices and such on any level of daily bases while working on their results for real, to proof me wrong…
when it comes to next new fancy up in and down from clouds, permanently online, pretty much right there u can draw an almost straight line between bedroomproducing hobby style and seriously working/cooking on something…
lol, nobody’s using Pro Tools on subscription I guess. No true artist.
There’s not really much difference in practice between the Roland setup and Arturia or Native Instruments or Plugin Alliance. It’s not actually a “cloud service”, just an installer plus copy protection.
Funny enough, going to the point of limitations etc I like that it gives you a good sounding reproduction of fairly simple gear, that’s a lot of the appeal.
I don’t think there’s any need to “proof” you wrong. If you want to say expression is defined by official acclaim and artists are defined by their tools, I think you have both of those backwards. But it doesn’t muss my hair none if you want to believe it.
I’m just gonna be over here doing the things I like with tools I enjoy. This weekend, that means making bad trance with a System 8, 303, 909, and Juno that I somehow magically have at my beck and call for pennies because we’re living in an unimaginable future.
i wonder if it might be a nice workaround that if the synth isnt connected when it needs the license that it can only run the current preset loaded with no editing.
that way its crippled but could reduce much of the angry response to loosing ability to run the plugin.
the same could happen with fx plugins… disable the browser and ui but still run the processing.
either way it hasnt impacted me in any way.
also interesting point regarding ‘cloud’ service … which are typically running the program / game on remote computers and basically running a video/audio/control stream back to the persons home computer/console…relying on low latency response. …
That’s interesting. Last time I checked, none of my NI nor Plugin Alliance plugins have stopped working after installation because of a lack of an internet connection.
I’m not saying online DRM isn’t something that works for some people, just saying it doesnt work for me personally
The plugins are the plugouts, if that makes sense. If you want to install Promars on the System1/8, for example, you have to in some way own the Promars plugin. While Promars is open, it will have a button to “plugout” to a connected synth.
So if a cloud subscription gives you access to the plugins, it’s also giving you access to those same plugouts.
Good to know.
I’m primarily looking for a way to long-term demo them before deciding on a final three… well, two, as the prophet I already have loaded and comes by default anyway and it’s cool.
The others I don’t know enough about to justify buying to try.
