Roland Cloud Never

[electro]

Serato introduced a full license purchase alternative for Serato Studio because the customers requested it. Roland should do the same.

I don't care how the cloud synths are. I will never buy into any subscription model, ever.

[Ed A.]

I absolutely agree. There is no way I’d ever subscribe to use a software synth. People who do are IMO brainwashed suckers.

[X86]

Agreed, subscription is dumb. Buy outright or rent-to-own is the way to go.

I will never support subscription synths.

[JonSolo]

Options are fine..but give me a purchase any day over subscription. I have way too many moving projects to do otherwise.

[PAK]

Lucky for you all Roland already provide such a permanent license - It's called the new Roland Fantom & Jupiter X/XM

They, effectively, DO also provide this (caveat) IF you tried Roland Cloud before Jan 1st 2019. This should give you the ability to use that account to claim 2 instruments per year of rental, up to a max of 10 instruments. This works out at approx $100 per instrument. It's Roland's "gift", but in essence you're buying the right to use them without monthly rental.

The only objection in that case might be the login every 7 days. But, other than the connection requirement, I consider challenge/response, which counts the number of activations, MUCH worse than what Roland Cloud does. If your OS decides to screw up (not that Windows 10's mandated updates would ever do that.. ) then you're at the mercy of the dev to reset any activations.

[Stefken]

Jupiter X/XM is (very) nice but in a different price category. Also Roland has not the best track record for supporting this stuff ( see the aira plugins that never got an update while the cloud ones did).

[PAK]

Jupiter X/XM is (very) nice but in a different price category

Count 60 months worth of Roland Cloud (assuming you want to claim the max of 10 instruments) and suddenly the difference is smaller than it first appeared, and you get a hardware controller thrown in..

Also Roland has not the best track record for supporting this stuff ( see the aira plugins that never got an update while the cloud ones did).

You're not wrong there, and the failure to show some sort of gesture towards those original customers will remain a reminder of that. IMO they should do the right thing and offer to convert those customers to a permanent RC license, even if for a small admin fee..

[electro]

Lucky for you all Roland already provide such a permanent license - It's called the new Roland Fantom & Jupiter X/XM

The new Fantom is AIRA compatible?

[Ohlson_M]

Paying for a subscription service, without an integrated rent-to-own model into that fee is beyond stupid.

I mean, what if you later decided you want to own the synths instead? Then you have wasted money on subscription fees that could have been used to purchase the instrument(s) right from the start, and the moment your subscription time ends, you own absolute NOTHING. Imaging paying 799 USD for a 5 year subscription and own nothing afterwards.

How these subsription services even survive is perplexing.

Companies who neglect customers who want to pay for the synths instead of subscribing to them is a very smart way of scarying away potential customers.

[Ohlson_M]

double post

[Teksonik]

If people will simply stop falling for Software Subscriptions eventually the concept will die.

(talking about music software here not Adobe etc)

Vote with your wallet. When they say Subscribe we just say NO.....

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Luckily I'm still enrolled in Roland Cloud's loyalty program so I get two perpetual licenses per year. They should've kept that going. It makes the cost of the sub much more tolerable. I'm up to 4 perpetual licenses already.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Luckily I'm still enrolled in Roland Cloud's loyalty program so I get two perpetual licenses per year. They should've kept that going. It makes the cost of the sub much more tolerable. I'm up to 4 perpetual licenses already.

But even with the perpetual licenses, once you quite the cloud, you still have the online constant cloud activation just like if you were using the cloud. So basically it's still the cloud except that you can only use the licenses you've claimed. Cloud servers go down when your products decide you need to reactivate that week? Tough luck, deactivated until they are back online. Happened to me once a couple months ago. Made me realize, nope this was a mistake. Like Teksonik said, vote with your wallet. They'll get no more from me. I shouldn't have gone for it anyways. Roland already showed bad faith with their plugout synths that never got updated along with their cloud counterparts, and still have some issues (which were solved in the cloud versions). These guys don't deserve our money. But plenty of alternatives!
-Diva does lots of Roland stuff
-Tal Bassline-101 and U-No-LX are spot on
-D16 and Audiorealism have some great Roland instruments
-OP-X-Pro can cover most Jupiter sounds
-Charlatan does a pretty good free Jupiter type synth
-ANA2 is full of roland waveforms and filter types that can be bang on
-Omnisphere is also full of roland sound sources

These don't really cover the SRX sounds but for those 90's type workstation sounds there's plenty of other options. So yeah F the cloud.

[commodore]

I agree - I'll never "pay forever" for any music software. You don't pay forever for a synth you go buy in an instrument shop. The whole model is insane. The loyalty program was it's only redeeming factor, and even that they've cut.

I've demoed the software and, to me, it seems OK, nothing great or spectacular. And paying for nostalgia purposes seems wacky to do. In fact, the software just seems a bit clunky even a bit buggy.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Luckily I'm still enrolled in Roland Cloud's loyalty program so I get two perpetual licenses per year. They should've kept that going. It makes the cost of the sub much more tolerable. I'm up to 4 perpetual licenses already.

But even with the perpetual licenses, once you quite the cloud, you still have the online constant cloud activation just like if you were using the cloud. So basically it's still the cloud except that you can only use the licenses you've claimed. Cloud servers go down when your products decide you need to reactivate that week? Tough luck, deactivated until they are back online. Happened to me once a couple months ago. Made me realize, nope this was a mistake. Like Teksonik said, vote with your wallet. They'll get no more from me. I shouldn't have gone for it anyways. Roland already showed bad faith with their plugout synths that never got updated along with their cloud counterparts, and still have some issues (which were solved in the cloud versions). These guys don't deserve our money. But plenty of alternatives!
-Diva does lots of Roland stuff
-Tal Bassline-101 and U-No-LX are spot on
-D16 and Audiorealism have some great Roland instruments
-OP-X-Pro can cover most Jupiter sounds
-Charlatan does a pretty good free Jupiter type synth
-ANA2 is full of roland waveforms and filter types that can be bang on
-Omnisphere is also full of roland sound sources

These don't really cover the SRX sounds but for those 90's type workstation sounds there's plenty of other options. So yeah F the cloud.

I hear ya. I totally would NOT be surprised, knowing Roland and their track record, if one day the Roland Cloud just shut up shop and left everyone screwed over. But I know it's a risk and for now I'm willing to accept it. Just let me get another year under my belt so I can get the D50 and JX3P!