Roland's Jupiter-8, Juno-106 and System-8 plugins available

[desmond]

They've finally released these long awaited plugins/plugouts - currently only available in the Roland Cloud subscription plan, but I expect they'll be available separately as well, like all the others.

First impressions - the Jupiter-8 sounds *great*, an subjectively feels much more alive than the Arturia plugin.

The Juno-106 sounds good, only had a brief time spent flicking through some presets, but in general it's not as nice a sounding synth as the JP8, for me at least. How accurate these are I don't know. With the chorus modes switched in, the noise is faithfully generated, which may be accurate, but was a little disconcerting...

The System-8 is a weird one, kinda like the System-1 before it - sometimes it sounds a bit cheap and plasticy, and then you come across some patches than sound great. The Sys-8 does have some lovely smooth powerful stuff in there though, so will probably reward some deep diving.

As the other plugins, the interfaces are small, and though they can be resized larger, then look blurry as it only uses the one set of graphics at the smaller size. (Note to the Roland - if you only want to include one set of graphics, render them for the *large* size, and then resize downwards...). And the controls are small, steppy and fiddly as before, and I think only respond in that crappy circular fashion.

Did I say the JP8 sounds great?

[knolan]

For subscription only - and - outrageously expensive!

[D-Collector]

That subscribtion bs is one of the best things Roland could do to alienate their customers. Seriously, what are they thinking...? I read somewhere that you will be able, after a year of subscribtion, to "own" a plugin of your choice Wooow, thats nice right?

And why not just call them VSTs? Working at Roland must be totally confusing. But it is nice to hear that the JP8 vst sounds nice. Lets hope they can update it and fix the interfaces.

I read some rumors they are developing a full D-50 VST. I'm holding out for that one. It's the only one I would actually get onboard this "deal" for.

[Ashe37]

because they are thinking they can follow the patterns of many types of 'professional software'

[ninja6485]

Who in their right mind would subscribe to something like that? You could end up spending a fortune for some software emulations, and be left with peanuts when you decide to stop paying.

The only way it could make sense is if the rates are very low, and you use it for a short period of time - like if you want it for a tour. Even then, I would probably just use something else and save the cash...

I think Roland wants you to be ready to get rid of this product as soon as they have a new one on the market - or have pared down synths floating aroundin ten years - so the only way to have the full experience is by staying up to date and keeping a steady flow of cash to the company. ...Which is really a shame. No company has benefited more from having high quality vintage products than Roland. It's their whole marketing strategy in a nutshell. You'd think they, if anyone, would see the value of making products that have the potential to be future heavyweights on the vintage market?

[Solderman]

Roland cracks me up. They look over at Korg's Legacy Collection on the cr@ppy UVI engine 13 years ago and say "We can do better". They spend 10 years building a fancy dongle disguised as a controller during R&D and call it System 1. They churn out more simulations over the next 2 years but still want that coveted slot in your DAW. "I know", says some capitalist creep one morning in a board meeting, "let's make a subscription service for the native version!" <For the Love of Money by the O'Jays begins to play>

And most of you are still hoping they will follow Korg's lead and bring back the fully analogue JP8. Roland are the George Lucas of synthesizer companies.

[Ashe37]

Korg on UVI engine? what are you talking about

[Solderman]

Spectrasonics and Korg Legacy licensed usage of the older UVI engine. There's a rendering bug associated with it, and it creates stuck notes periodically.

I read some rumors they are developing a full D-50 VST. I'm holding out for that one. It's the only one I would actually get onboard this "deal" for.

Speaking of UVI, check out their Digital Synsations. I've heard a demo of the Roland subscription version, and generally wasn't that impressed.

[Ashe37]

Spectrasonics and Korg Legacy licensed usage of the older UVI engine. There's a rendering bug associated with it, and it creates stuck notes periodically.

I read some rumors they are developing a full D-50 VST. I'm holding out for that one. It's the only one I would actually get onboard this "deal" for.

Speaking of UVI, check out their Digital Synsations. I've heard a demo of the Roland subscription version, and generally wasn't that impressed.

ah ok, so for the M1 plugin....

Digital synsations is nice, but its just sampled presets, and everything has the same generic digital filter and envelopes instead of the filters and envelopes of the actual units... that and you're tweaking a preset you can't actually make new sounds from the unit's synth engine, and the presets aren't the ones these units are known for...

(I'm specifically referring to the VFX as i have wanted an accurate VFX plugin for years)

[desmond]

Spectrasonics and Korg Legacy licensed usage of the older UVI engine.

Spectrasonics did for their first generation instruments, but what makes you think Korg did? I've never seen any reference to that, and I do not believe it without some supporting evidence.

If they could manage to build the original analog Legacy plugins, they could certainly do the digital ones without requiring third party help...

There's a rendering bug associated with it, and it creates stuck notes periodically.

I've not experienced that, on either set of instruments.

Speaking of UVI, check out their Digital Synsations. I've heard a demo of the Roland subscription version, and generally wasn't that impressed.

The current Anthology plugin is not made by Roland, it's made by a third-party they've teamed up with on this Cloud thing. And it's just a bunch of presets sampled averagely with a crappy playback engine. It's so good Roland won't allow the D-50 name, logo, or trade dress on it...

Digital Synsations is Ok, it sounds decent, has been well sampled (small selection of patches though), but it's not the D-50 presets or engine, it's samples of their own patches that avoid any very recognisable D-50 sample content for legal reasons.

[D-Collector]

Speaking of UVI, check out their Digital Synsations. I've heard a demo of the Roland subscription version, and generally wasn't that impressed.

The current Anthology plugin is not made by Roland, it's made by a third-party they've teamed up with on this Cloud thing. And it's just a bunch of presets sampled averagely with a crappy playback engine. It's so good Roland won't allow the D-50 name, logo, or trade dress on it...

Digital Synsations is Ok, it sounds decent, has been well sampled (small selection of patches though), but it's not the D-50 presets or engine, it's samples of their own patches that avoid any very recognisable D-50 sample content for legal reasons.

Exactly. No interest in the "Anthology 1987" plugin from me. A sample library of just the 64 original patches is almost completely useless. And we have had D-50 samples since Amiga 500 times. But several people are talking about an upcoming true D-50 vst, a complete emulation. Don't know if it is just a false internet rumor, but now would be a good time to bring it out. (just 10 years too late) Hopefully a good graphic representation of the original too, like Korgs M1 legacy VST which I love and use all the time. How difficult could it be for Roland, they have the old software code, the rights, everything. Just do it, and do it right.

[meatballfulton]

Get used to more subscription plans as time goes on. It solves a problem for the vendors, namely getting people to buy upgrades.

[desmond]

But several people are talking about an upcoming true D-50 vst, a complete emulation. Don't know if it is just a false internet rumor, but now would be a good time to bring it out.

The source of this news is Roland themselves, via the RolandCloud facebook page.

Probably another reason they didn't want the Anthology looking anything like a D-50...

[desmond]

Get used to more subscription plans as time goes on. It solves a problem for the vendors, namely getting people to buy upgrades.

It makes sense for vendors, but the viability for endusers is variable, depending on the product.

By the time you have 10 things via a subscription plan, you've used up your monthly disposable income, and adding any more just gets more and more costly.

*If* subscription plans are ever going to become mainstream, I think developers are going to have to radically rethink their costings. At the moment, they are trying to justify high subscription costs by offering a log of stuff - eg, *all* the Roland plugs, *all* the Slate stuff etc, whether or not you use it, or use it all regularly.

What they need to do is make things flexible, and low cost. At $30/month for the Roland stuff, and the various machinations (you can't open you old projects unless you are paying your subscription fees, you need to have you daw online a reauthorise every few days etc), it works out very expensive and annoying. At a few bucks a month, then more people are likely to sign up, and sign up for longer term.

Subscription fatigue is a real thing, and with more and more stuff going subscription-only, it just means it gets to the point where you *can't* buy into more stuff, because your monthly costs are skyrocketing - whether or not you are using the stuff or not.

It must be a fun realisation when that because you had a crazy busy month, you didn't get a chance to do any music, and it's cost you $250 in subscription fees for that month for those things you didn't use... (and that's just music stuff, let alone all the other things in your life that companies want subscription money for)

[D-Collector]

But several people are talking about an upcoming true D-50 vst, a complete emulation. Don't know if it is just a false internet rumor, but now would be a good time to bring it out.

The source of this news is Roland themselves, via the RolandCloud facebook page.

Probably another reason they didn't want the Anthology looking anything like a D-50...

Yeah, I just found the post.. And I read most of the comments. That guy is having a hard time defending Roland for this model. And presents the same answer to everyone. And somehow manages to say that there is a lot of enthusiasm for it! (And talking down Korg Legacy btw) The general concensus on facebook and most of the forums is that this is a disaster...

I think they are going to have to backtrack once again. They will not benefit from this.