Roland Cloud roundup 2024: Prices, synths and sounds

Roland Cloud has evolved significantly since its release in early 2018, becoming one of the most comprehensive, manufacturer specific collections of classic synthesizer emulations and expansions you can get. It goes beyond mere plug-ins, with an immense library of sounds and supporting applications.

In addition to the Zenology synthesizer that brings Roland’s hardware ‘brains’ to your computer, a super-instrument along the same lines as Arturia’s Analog Lab – Galaxias – joined the service in 2023, and for 2024 the DW Soundworks Drum Workshop also became part of the ultimate subscription package.

For now, the subscription tiers and prices have remained the same since the service first launched – yet there is considerably more on offer. Joining Roland Cloud for 2024-2025 is, therefore, immensely good value if you haven’t used it before – and Roland keeps adding material to maintain the interest of existing users as well.

There is a risk of plug-in overload for 21st-century musicians, so I’m going to highlight the aspects of Roland Cloud that are good for established, well-equipped ITB musicians, and the benefits for newcomers to making music who have an opportunity to choose one ‘ecosystem’ and learn how to get the best from it rather than skimming over the top of many options.

Roland Cloud – how it started

Back in 2014, Roland introduced a new range of ‘DJ and Producer’ instruments, the AIRA series, that had the simple mission of making synthesis easy and appealing for remixers and streamers. Styled in funky black and vibrant green retrowave aesthetic, the flashing lights and plastic shells contained the inevitable DSP-based synth engines, but with a twist – for some models, Roland embraced this flexibility and allowed different software to be loaded, called ‘plug-outs’.

Okay, it’s not just embracing flexibility, it’s embracing the extra revenue stream of ‘downloadable content’ – rather than relying on distributors, bits of hardware, and profit margins and markups for third parties that expansions like the SRX cards had involved, the ability to directly sell a customer a string of characters that unlocked part of the firmware is almost pure profit after you’ve made the big sale. The TR8 drum machine’s 7×7 expansion was a good example of what Roland were thinking.

Cynical? Of course. But lets not be hasty – I bought one of the first System-1 synths and I very much enjoyed it. Roland provided a VST version that could be used standalone without the hardware connected, and a virtual SH-101 that could be loaded into the System-1 or used as a VST. That SH-101 plug-in is the foundation stone of Roland Cloud as we know it today.

When Roland Cloud launched, the collection of plug-out synths designed for the AIRA models became the ‘Legendary’ series, and owners were given lifetime keys to allow the use of the software as it was upgraded. Even at launch it offered subscribers much more than just ‘the full set of AIRA plug-outs for the price of one or two in a year’, but in 2020 a new synthesizer joined the family, Zenology, and Roland Cloud entered its next phase of development.

Roland Cloud – how it’s going

The progress hasn’t stopped since the beginning of 2020, when ‘a loose collection of older plug-ins’ got some serious updates; new patches and new ZEN-Core sound engines mean you get more than ever out of the Cloud subscription. For 2021, Roland added more features and benefits, albeit with some high prices for lifetime licences.

Depending on your point of view, Roland Cloud is either amazing value or a rather flaky collection of things that’s a little less polished than other plug-in collections – but it is undeniably big. You have a choice of legendary, modern and sampled instruments – and many of the plug-ins are running the same ‘code’ as the Boutique and AIRA hardware synths use in the case of ACB (Analog Circuit Behavior) or DCB (Digital… you get the idea) plug-ins.

Or, plug-outs – the VSTs/AUs are the same synth engines you can push to the System-1, System-1m and System-8. Yes, you get a virtual System-8 in the package – a £1,000 modern synthesizer – and for Roland’s current range the ZENCore models perform a similar role.

You can use your Roland Cloud subscription on up to five computers simultaneously, but it’s worth remembering that Cloud Manager renews the licenses weekly and if you quit the app or reboot the computer, you have to sign in again – it does not store your credentials at the time of writing. That means if you need to share your license with another band or family member, they’re going to need those details saved.

Roland Cloud for hardware – not as appealing?

While Roland Cloud’s Ultimate subscription tier includes access to all the model expansions, sound packs and wave expansions for Zenology/Zenology Pro, these are not compatible with ZEN-Core hardware. You have to buy the lifetime key, and the lifetime key is not one of the ones you can claim for a year of membership under the relevant promotions.

What’s new in Roland Cloud for 2024

• Drums! V-Drums enter the cloud with DW Soundworks
• Zenology Pro gets more ZEN-Core models
• Software effects such as the RE-201 Space Echo
• Better stability, better installation and update management

After a significant upgrade in 2021 with 2.5, Roland Cloud 3.0 transformed the app and services. If you tried Roland Cloud a few years ago and found the library management and activation annoying, it’s worth revisiting.

You can find out more and get a trial on Roland’s Cloud website.

There are now three levels of subscription. Core is $2.99/month or $29.99/year, Pro is $9.99 or $99.99, and Ultimate is aligned with existing Roland Cloud memberships at $19.99/month or $199.99 per year.

The previous loyalty programmes continue to work, but the Roland Cloud special offers tend to be focused on bundles of lifetime keys now.

Anyone who had an AIRA with the old Content Store plug-ins should find that these have been permanently enabled for Cloud activation; if your content store and Cloud IDs are the same you will have been given lifetime keys for those plug-ins, and if not you, should have been invited to create a Cloud account using your Content Store ID.

Loyalty rewards for existing subscribers vary, depending on when you signed up.

• If you signed up before 31st December 2018, the YOURS program awards one key every 12 months of paid membership.
• If you signed up before 31st December 2019, the Play 2 4 Life program awards two keys per 12 months of paid membership.

For the majority of new users, the ‘Pro’ subscription at $9.99 month/$99 looks like the best value, and as it evolves Zenology Pro offers more access to classic analogue synth models as well as samples.

Roland Cloud price plans in March 2024

• Free – just create a Roland Cloud membership. You get Zenology Lite, with the ability to use paid-licensed sound banks and patches, and an included 176 tones and 6 drum kits.
• Core gives you 3,567 ZEN-Core tones (including Zen versions of SRX libraries, in essence) and 80 drum kits, library management. Zenology user data can be saved, and it includes a 30-day trial of Ultimate.
• Pro gives you the Anthology, Flavr, Tera and Drum Studio plugins, Zenology Pro (so far, this means Zenology with synth models – includes Juno-106, Jupiter 8, SH-101, JD-800 and JX-8P), patches and patterns, plus two Legendary plugins.
• Ultimate gives you everything. At least on your computer – the plug-out synths continue to plug-out to your compatible hardware, but the Zenology sample or patch libraries (seemingly $19.99 or $0.99 each respectively) need a lifetime licence to be shunted to hardware.
• A special offer allows the purchase of a full Zenology Pro lifetime licence with all of the ABM synth models ($149 each) for $499, discounted from $825, and this includes a year of Ultimate worth $199 (for new customers).

For anyone coming back to Roland Cloud after the initial format, the availability of lifetime keys and the flexibility of the Pro subscription level with Zenology Pro and a new library of ZEN-Core sounds is probably the biggest change.

Zenology’s library, included in Pro and Ultimate subscriptions, gives you software versions of Fantom/Jupiter X and other hardware instrument patch banks – and if you have the hardware and buy a lifetime licence for the expansion, it will be usable in Zenology without an active Cloud subscription as well.

The lifetime keys for patch libraries aren’t expensive; if you have the hardware to use the sounds on you do need to pay, though – even if they’re included in your active subscription. The included versions of model, patch and wave expansions are restricted to the Zenology player.

Owners of the hardware ooking for to a more advanced editor will find it in Zenology Pro, as well as the scope to construct your own synthesizer patches using PCM, VA or modeled behaviours.

Zenology – 21st Century synth engine

Zenology is the big news, and it’s offered with 15 EXZ wave expansions, over 3,500 patches and essentially “the bulk of the JV/XV/SRX waveforms and sounds” for $29/year (or $2.99/month). It’s the sound engine found in the Jupter X, Fantom and RD-88 pianos, the core of Roland’s current strategy, and it’s really very good.

Regular Roland Cloud users will know that Roland’s circuit-accurate modeling is processor-intensive. ACB and DCB plugins can really hammer the Cubase ‘processor load’ bar even when idling, and on a typical laptop or ‘mature’ home studio setup you can really tell if you’ve got one loaded. My 2013 i5 iMac isn’t ‘slow’, but the System 8, D-50 and Jupter plugins consume up to a third of the processing power before any effects.

The ZEN-Core, and Zenology synth engine, is Roland’s answer. It models some aspects, and is more efficient, it allows the Jupiter Xm to be portable and battery-friendly; it allows modeled synth components to be shared between similar generations of Roland hardware even if one’s a stage piano and the other an over-the-top studio synth; rather than ACB, a more efficient approach, Analog Behavior Modeling, is used where appropriate. There’s some old thinking – emulations, PCM samples, and the familiar four-partials per patch (sorry, ‘Tone’) theory; it’s a soup-of-synthesis.

Core users get a very pleasing library of over 3,500 sounds to choose from – a quick scroll through the library shows a broad spectrum of classic and modern patches and a fast, responsive player that, while it can really push the processor loading when polyphony and effects are in play, settles down quickly. It’s a decent size of download, over 400Mb, but expansions are lightweight.

You’ll find the staples: Jupiter strings, SH-101 bleeps and yelps (and bass), D-50 lushness and bright tones without having to load the chunky retro ‘plug-out’ plugins, and there are the usual music-shop showroom jawdroppers that you know are too big for any complex composition, but help the keyboards win new owners day-in, day-out.

Explore the library and you’ll find some amazing new sounds as well as the JV/XV staples; polyrhythmic sequencers, complex vocal/synth/bass interactions, orchestral staples. Given ZEN-Core’s origins, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this is a hefty-but-hardware-originated workstation’s engine without the multitimbrality or sequencing.

With so many sounds to browse, there’s a favourites and category system. It’s not as integrated or as sophisticated as Arturia’s Analog Lab, but it’s a world apart from the pop-up preset menus of most of Roland’s plugins.

That’s actually not such a big deal. One of the most appealing aspects of Zenology is also one of its most infuriating; it sort of renders most of your favourite Cloud plugins obsolete by offering a quick set of similar-but-more-efficient versions of the same essential patch, with a faster browser and favourites, too.

It’s also a LOT more efficient than the old setup (which is still part of Cloud, more near the end of the article). It’s roughly 400Mb, and that is both VST and AU versions; the internal waveform library is very roughly, 150Mb and each expansion (there are 15) around 80Mb – but only downloaded once.

To buy a lifetime licence for all the Zenology items (except, maybe, the presets included in Core and not Lite) would be $299 – though, you would need to buy them for Zenology and each device you want to use them on.

ZEN-Core – models available in 2024

• JX-8P – classic digital/analogue polysynth
• SH-101 – analogue monosynth with polyphonic capability in Zenology (similar to SH-01a)
• Jupiter-8 – analogue polysynth legend
• Juno-106 – the ’80s staple, with chorus included
• JD-800 – the 1990s pad and string legend

Adding yet more classic synths to Roland Cloud, the ZEN-Core models are included in a Pro subscription and are accessed via the Zenology plugin and presets. Although you need presets to start witn, Zenology allows editing and creation of new sounds with these engines, and they’re full-featured including the ability to use the Juno Chorus I+II setting on a JX-8P patch (for example).

Installation involves updating Zenology, and using Roland Cloud Manager’s ‘library’ function to find the installer for the model (and presets). A lifetime key costs $149 for each model – less tempting given they’re part of the lower-cost subscription.

Zenology – effect-ive multi-FX

After a few years, you forget that the moment your cheap first analogue synth really came alive was when you chained some reverb and delay to it – and so many modern synths since come with that built in that you take it for granted, or hoover-up VST effects like candy.

Zenology’s MFX tab reveals 11 post-processing categories, each filled with modern or modeled filters, phasers and effects. The final option is for some classic combinations – overdrive, amp sims, chorus+delay and so forth.

In fact, Zenology and a Core subscription is probably all most users need (or buy the lifetime licences for the patches you want). It’s a really nice, modern, unpretentious synth engine and ready to tackle any genre, like a truly modern JV-1080. Except, you can’t create your own tones and partials, yet. When you can, it will offer something akin to an updated XV with a new UI, rather than the forced-retronesss of the existing plugin.

My instinct here, as I watch the genuine analog(ue) simulated noise fade off on the SH-101 plugin, is that ACB/DCB goes too far for the vast majority of users. It’s accurate, but it’s simulating stuff that people without golden ears won’t miss, and that people with golden ears spend years perfecting techniques to eradicate – on the offchance that this was the mojo that made an analogue synth better than a VST.

Honestly, the people that care are now an older generation. Every generation of new musicians starts out accepting the sound of the instruments they have and gets creative, whether that’s a basswood cheap guitar, a Bontempi organ or a Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator.

We miss our analogue synths because it’s what we knew, what the bands we idolise play – but if those bands could have had noise-free, cheap, predictable instruments I suspect they, and their sound engineers, would have been over the moon. Zenology’s pretty damn cool.

The Legendary synthesizers in Roland Cloud

These modeled plugins are the reason to subscribe to Ultimate – they’re accurate, and while I’m sure there’s a load of nerdy caveats to throw in to the statement, they’re basically what you’re buying if you pick up the Boutique modern synthesizers or have got a System-8/1 with plug-outs loaded. Given they come straight from Roland, rather than being ‘close emulations’ from third-party developers, they’re not unreasonably priced as standalone models for the most part, either.

Although the ACB code is considered to be the same technique used in plugins, plug-outs and ’boutique’ synthesizers such as the SH-01a or D-05, there are differences – in some cases you may prefer to buy the hardware module. For example, the SH-01a is four-voice polyphonic, where the SH-101 plugin is faithfully mono.

ZEN-Core Models are being added to the range – currently SH-101 and JX-8P – and these are included in a ‘Pro’ subscription, providing access to classic sounds in an easier interface and for less money.

Analogue

• Jupiter 8 – 1981 polyphonic analogue legend, basically. Eight-voice, plug-out to System-8, ACB modeled – $149
• Juno 60 – 1983 six-voice DCO polyphonic analogue classic, restores Chorus I+II capability, ACB modeled eight-voice plugin with plug-out to System-8 – $149
• Juno 106 – 1984 six-voice polyphonic analogue classic, ACB modeled eight-voice plugin with plug-out to System-8 – $149
• JX-3P – 1983, same engine as GR700 guitar synth, six-voice digital/analogue. Closely related to Juno. Eight-voice ACB modeled, Plug-out to System-8. $129
• JX-8P – 1986, same engine as GR-77b bass guitar synth. ABM modeled, part of ZEN-Core. $149
• TB-303 – 1982, analogue squawkbox. Bass-line sequencer/synth that failed, then defined a genre long after production ended. Hardware mapped to TB-03 and TB-3. $149. Yes. Really.
• Promars – analogue beast, monophonic dual VCO, dual-sub osc for bass from the deep. Modeled and rather lovely plug-out for System-1/1m and 8. $99 and worth every cent.
• SH-101 – 1982, and it’s amazing what you can get out of one oscillator. Shame they forgot the step-sequencer – plug-out for System-1/1m as well, the first ACB synth. $99
• SH-101 ZEN – a slightly different model, the SH-101 is also part of ZEN-Core’s Analogue Behaviour Modeling engine. It’s polyphonic, reflecting the abilities of the Boutique SH-01a. $149
• SH-2 – 1978, two oscillators, one sub-oscillator, ACB modeled System-1/1m and System-8 plug-out. $99
• System 100 – 1975, a semi-modular monophonic analogue, modeled and aimed at the System-1m originally. Plug-out for System 1/1m and 8 – $129

Digital

• D-50 – 1987 polyphonic digital (LA-synthesis) synthesizer. Sample+Synth, distinctive and not readily available elsewhere. DCB modeled – $149 – included with ‘Pro’ subscription
• JV-1080 – 1994 studio workhorse sample+synthsis machine, modeled but essentially a sample-playback box. $129. Though it is also, preset names aside, pretty much the XV-5080 plugin with a different skin, and technically not an accurate JV-1080…
• XV-5080 – 2000 evolved JV-1080. Well-worn library, but new musicians will find it a well-trodden path, too. SRX expansions are XV-5080 based. $129

Drum machines

• TR-808 – 1980 genuinely legendary analogue drum machine, modeled. $149 – included with ‘Pro’ subscription
• TR-606 – 1981 baby-analogue machine designed to accompany the TB-303 – $149.
• TR-909 – 1983 slightly-less-legendary PCM sample plus analogue drum machine, modeled – $149

AIRA synth engines in Roland Cloud

• System-1 – the four-voice polyphonic virtual analogue built on ACB technology, and the first plug-out synth hardware, $99
• System-8 – impressive eight-voice polyphonic virtual analogue. The hardware supports the larger plug-outs such as Jupiter 8, but it’s a decent synth engine in its own right. $129

When Roland released the concept of ACB and the distinctive green-and-black AIRA series, the System-1’s ability to emulate an SH-101, SH-2 or Promars in hardware, no computers needed, was very novel and very welcome.

Now there are real analogue recreations of some of those, and cheap ones at that, it’s less of a USP – but the System-1 is a 21st-century synth, and the plug-in has plenty to offer for $99. You can import presets and it benefits from the same additional waveforms added to the System 1 after launch, because it’s pretty much the same instrument sans hardware.

The real bargain has to be the System-8 plugin, though, at $129. This one is worth having, a powerful virtual analogue in essence, and one that holds its own as hardware in 2021. Much of the hardware’s appeal is in the emulations, but that means the System-8’s native sound is far too readily overlooked. It’s got huge potential for almost any electronic genre.

Remember that though much of the aesthetic has been lost, the System-8 is the spiritual successor to the JP-8000 – a legend Roland has yet to reanimate in zombie software form.

Roland Cloud FX: plugin effects based on classic Roland hardware

Roland introduced standalone software effects to the Cloud range, starting with Zenology FX. Expect more to join this selection over time, with the latest release being the RE-201 Space Echo. There are many modelled space-echo (tape delay) VSTs already – but they are often just as expensive as Roland’s own. Does it deserve the claim ‘The only authentic Roland RE-201 Space Echo plug-in’?

Discontinued Roland Cloud instruments

• Sound Canvas VA. General MIDI on steroids. Discontinued September 1 2024

Roland Plugin value

Buying a lifetime licence for a plugin varies depending on the instrument. Most Roland classics have been emulated (or cloned) elsewhere, or are sufficiently generic-analog that a good softsynth like u-He Diva can do anything they can do and more, but the Roland D-50 stands alone – and is $149 to buy outright, essentially putting the code of the D-05 boutique on your computer.

Most of the plugins vary in price according to complexity and power, but the TB-303 is up there with the Jupiter 8 and D-50…

A virtual 303. $149. Do you buy the plugin TB-303, download a free squarewave filtered squelch-noise sequencer that sounds like a 303, get an established third-party 303 plugin like AudioRealism ABL3, or buy a Behringer TD-3? I’m not sure Roland’s really been listening to users (or considering the wider market) entirely here…

303s aside, much of the modeled line-up for Roland Cloud really does justify the ‘Legendary’ title. Most of them are competitively priced, and the appeal of a D-50 or Jupiter 8 with accurate circuit-level modeling is pretty strong for $149; simpler instruments, such as the SH-101, cost less.

You should think very hard if you’re tempted by the XV5080, JV1080 or SRX plugins as a lifetime purchase though, particularly with Zenology’s refinements and extensive library – . More on that later…

Subscribing to Ultimate gets you all of these instruments – and you’d be subscribing for a decade to buy them all outright. For loyalty programme customers, Roland gives a lifetime licence for one or two plugins of your choice for every full year of subscription, but the promotions do vary.

Pro subscription: the legendary synths NOT emulated in Roland Cloud

• Roland Alpha Juno – Anthology 1985
• Roland JX-8P/SuperJX 10/MKS-70 – Anthology 1986 (now available as a ZEN-Core model as well)
• Roland D-50 – Anthology 1987 (why? There’s a plugin. It’s not 2.26Gb)
• Roland D70 – Anthology 1990
• Roland JD-800/990 – Anthology 1993 Vol 1/2/3 – this is now emulated in Zenology
• Roland JV-80 orchestral expansion – Anthology Orchestra 1/2/3/4
• EP14 – electric piano, a small download but covered nicely in Zenology
• A deep-sampled Grand Piano, a 70 year old guitar, and some acoustic drums…

A few of Roland’s most memorable keyboards slip through the cracks here – but they’re in the Anthology sample player instead. Given the appeal of instruments like the JD-800 was in the expansive control hardware, not the rompler-with-teeth sound engine that in computer terms, has long been surpassed, it’s understandable.But hey. Nostalgia…

Anthology is a big download of multisampled classics, but there’s no lifetime licence for it yet. It’s part of the Pro subscription, which will also introduce the ability to create patches from the ZEN-Core library and includes the 808 and D-50 plugins as well.

Yes, they are basically samples of synths playing samples by the time you’re into 1987-onwards – and the basic sound of most of those synths is on offer in plugins. Confused? I am…

Pro subscribers also get the Drum Studio/Acoustic One system, which is a good solid ‘real’ drumkit for your DAW, the weirdly chunky FLAVR system of ‘themed’ genre sounds, the Tera piano and Guitar (not, as the name suggests, a terabyte library, but at 2.0Gb enough to sit with the likes of The Grand).

Further expansions: SRX and ‘meet the hardware’

Staying up to date is pretty easy here – Zenology’s ZEN-Core ‘program’ is in essence what you get when you buy an up-to-date modern Roland synthesizer – specifically, the Jupiter X/m, the Fantom 6/7/8 or the RD-88 stage piano.

There’s a bit of old-school cool too, in the shape of SRX expansions. These reflect the boards we used to pay a fair bit for (or hoped to find in used synths) and until Cloud came along, were sought-after (or forgotten) even though they were just another set of PCM samples. Things aren’t entirely as they seem, though…

• Roland JV-1080 includes all the waveforms of XV-5080 with fewer presets, and 78 effects
• Roland XV-5080 has a full set of waveforms and presets, and 78 effects
• SRX expansions have a full set of XV waveforms, the SRX waveforms, and 78 effects, with just the SRX card presets

The SRX synthesizers are, in essence, the XV-5080 plugin with a given expansion library included. The graphics are different with relocated buttons, and the XV includes four direct controls for cutoff, resonance, attack and decay – but the edit screen is the same with the addition of the ‘Wave Group’ menu to select the internal sounds instead of the SRX expansion sounds. This is necessary – a lot of SRX or SR-JV patches used both internal and expansion waveforms.

You can save patches you’ve created, but preset banks from the XV or JV won’t load in SRX plugins… guess there must be something to identify which plugin the preset is for in the preset file…

For nostalgia-freaks, these expansions are now $69 each, no searching on eBay and wondering if the seller’s wrapped them in static-cling while playing with a Tesla coil in their nylon PJs.

Does it need pointing out that the full Zenology library probably includes a fair number of reworked versions of these samples, in true LA/JV/XP/XV lineage-style?

Don’t buy the Roland XV-5080/JV-1080 or SRX plugins!

If you weren’t paying attention and just – reasonably – wanted to buy the classic Roland synths, you could end up paying 10x $69 for the SRX expansion cards, $129 for the JV-1080 because ‘1994 sounds’ and $129 for the XV-5080. That’s $948 to buy the same plugin code 12x over, and 12x the installation footprint for it too as each SRX is a whole new plugin.

Whereas the new expansions for Zenology are $19.99 ($299 to buy all 15). Even if you wanted to buy them for Zenology and your Jupiter X synthesizer, you’d be saving $350.

Zenology essentially renders the virtual XV-5080, JV-1080 and SRX boards obsolete; as a reviewer, I really recommend that you don’t pay money for these plugins – and if you must, just buy the SRX with the presets you want most of all, as you’ve got access to all the JV/XV waveforms in it for almost half the expense.

Unless you specifically want a sound from a particular SRX and can’t find it in Zenology, I wouldn’t even download them as part of Ultimate subscription now – just get Zenology and the expansions, it’s faster to browse, has an easier-to-read, more efficient UI and different effects.

Expansions for Jupiter X/m, MC-101/707 and RD-88

The hardware synths benefit from an easier way of getting expansions too, and they’re $19.99. Fantom owners seem to have access to them all with the subscription. Unlike the sound libraries, the $0.99 sound packs usually have around 30 new patches and a drum kit without any need for extra samples/models, and they’re a diverse set.

You only need to pay for them if you want to use them on the hardware – they’re already included in Zenology with the subscription, but if you do want a lifetime licence you need to buy one for Zenology and one for your hardware synth, such as the Jupiter X/m – they’re distinct products, not shared.

What’s missing?

Probably lots of things, but the most obvious omission from my experience of using Roland Cloud is a proper sound library manager. It always shows the jam tracks and sample packs as downloadable, rather than remembering that you’ve downloaded them and then alerting you to updates or new packs.

On the other hand, I’ve only looked at these packs out of curiosity, the only extra content I’ve really found useful has been extra patches for the Legendary synths. This may change with DW Soundworks however, assuming it works well with my old V-Drums (TD11 – the earliest generation of V-Drums supported by Cloud appears to be the TD17/27/50 series).

Content store migration

If you own Roland plugins from the content store – including the ones included free with AIRA synths – these should have migrated to your Roland Cloud library as lifetime licences now.

• – SYSTEM-1 Software Synthesizer (PG-SYSTEM1)
• – SYSTEM-100 PLUG-OUT Software Synthesizer (PG-SYS100)
• – SH-101 PLUG-OUT Software Synthesizer (PG-SH101)
• – SH-2 PLUG-OUT Software Synthesizer (PG-SH2)
• – PROMARS PLUG-OUT Software Synthesizer (PG-PRMRS)
• – SOUND Canvas VA (SC-VA)
• – R-MIX for Windows

Make sure you’ve logged in and updated your software. You will still need to log in on the Roland Cloud Manager for activation, but your existing, activated content store versions remain usable if you aren’t a Cloud member.

Roland Cloud verdict: 2024’s package is great value for new musicians

With the shift away from the Legendary synths as the core benefit, and more emphasis on Zenology, Galaxias and Zen-Beats as complete tools for musicians which also cost rather less to get involved with, it feels like Roland’s decided to position Cloud less as a package for pros, and more as a user-friendly benefit for consumers, hobbyists and new musicians.

Or to put it another way, retro-recreations of old systems for lots of money are only appealing to old farts who remember the hardware the first time around and are obsessed with some unknown magic of the past, rather than just making new things with new tools.

One of the strongest indicators of Roland’s good intentions with Cloud’s potential is found within the Roland GO:KEYS 3 and 5 home keyboards. I remember the original GO:KEYS, it was one of the nicer ‘home keyboard/piano’ solutions for kids to noodle on but it was not cool. It still had a slightly ‘fancy synths are too grown up’ feel about it. The new models embrace ZEN-Core potential for new sounds, and Roland Cloud has lots of new, free content for GO:KEYS 3 and 5 players (and some paid expansions as well).

There’s a lot for professionals to take advantage of as well – but there’s also a huge amount of competition for the plug-in space, and only so many times the wheel can be reinvented virtually in terms of synthesizer architecture and sounds when free software such as Surge XT, or paid instruments like Artutia Pigments, can recreate most synthesis technologies – and yes, when hardware was all you did need multiple synths, but now you can just run multiple instances of the same plugin.

Chances are, you may be just as happy buying a lifetime key for the software, and a couple of boutique synths to get the retro sounds and experience. After all, the little hardware boxes don’t need logging into a server and activating every so often…

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