NAMM 2017: Roland Cloud gives you all their Plug-Out synths as plug-ins
Roland have unveiled the beta version of their new Roland Cloud subscription model. It’s designed to give you access to software versions of all their ACB Plug-Out synths plus sample based instruments. The damage will usually be $29.95 a month but this early access beta version is set at $19.95. As a NAMM special you can sign up for one free month right now (although that window may now have passed).
Plug-Out
So what exactly does this mean? Well, right now I am playing with a genuine and authentic ACB version of a Roland SH-101, SH-2, Promars, System 100 and System-1 for free. And they are flippin’ awesome! No Plug-Out hardware required, these are software versions sitting in my DAW. They are stunning, I am speechless.
I’ve put together this video of a bunch of the presets for all the synths:
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Anthology
But not only that. There’s something called the Anthology series which, they say, “captures the essence of iconic synthesizers that you loved “way back when” and puts it at your fingertips today.” The first instrument is called Anthology 1987 and, oh-my-god, it’s a D-50. It has that slap bass, and brass and future pads and it exactly captures that essence they were talking about.
The Anthology installs in an instrument browser plug-in called Concerto which gives you access to the “Cloud Instrument Library”. So presumably this is only the first in a series of instruments.
Roland Anthology 1987 · Source: screen shot
Acoustic
There’s another section called “Acoustic” and this currently holds the Tera Piano. The Tera Piano is an 8TB sample library hosted in the cloud. It uses RAINLINK which is a high-resolution communication technology to give you precision control over expression. A bit like a high-resolution MIDI. When you install the Tera Piano it downloads about 1GB as a local version for you to play in real-time. Then you can render your performance in the cloud using the whole depth and extraordinary sample size of the full 8TBs. To be honest I’m too scared to even attempt to install it. They have Tera Drums on the way. Check out the video below for more details and sound examples.
Roland Tera Piano · Source: rolandcloud.com
Roland Cloud
So the big question will be – are these instruments valuable enough and useful enough to you to justify $30 a month? I mean I wouldn’t mind paying 100 quid or so for the bundle of Plug-Out synths, or maybe 50 quid each to keep, but to keep on paying gets a bit frightening after a while. It really depends on what else is coming along. If you’re getting access to a continually evolving collection of instruments then it might be worth it. You could easily spend $360, a years subscription, on a new sample based instrument library at least one a year, if that’s your thing.
Very interesting Roland – well done! If you want to try this out then head over the RolandCloud.com and create an account. Have fun!
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8 responses to “NAMM 2017: Roland Cloud gives you all their Plug-Out synths as plug-ins”
How do you sign up for free? I registered and only see the $20/month beta option.
I’m afraid you might have missed the window.
If there were an award for shooting your own products in the foot, I don’t know who would win, but it would be either Sony or Roland. $30 a month? Not a f-ing chance. No. I get Pro Tools HD for less than that, and it comes with enugh soft synths to do pretty much anything you need.
Pro Tools HD for $30 a month? More like $85 for HD and the handful plugs you get are the run-of-the-mill average quality stuff. You think Air Musical Tech Baby Grand will stand up to an 8 Terabyte piano? Well good luck with that.
Good luck with your bandwidth issues and dropped notes because of that. 8TB of samples online is no picnic. Local storage is impossible, and pulling samples of 10-100MB/tone is no fun.
My Apple 450MB Steinway Grand is perfect, and free.
The 8TB does not get transferred to your PC. You record your part with the “live” version (I think about 3GB) of the plugin and then, when your performance is to your satisfaction, you transfer your MIDI file to Roland Cloud, where it is rendered using the 8TB of samples using not the simple 128 steps of velocity MIDI offers, but over 30,000 levels of velocity that is supposed to bring a new level of realism unavailable from the status quo.
As well, this service will be using the RainLink technology and not regular internet connections.
So no live use. I’ll stick to Garage Band’s Grand Piano. Probably won’t hear it.
Pc only???
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