# Roland Cloud Tread Carefully



## dpasdernick (Sep 24, 2019)

Guys and Gals,

I have been a Roland Cloud customer for quite a while. If you're a member you may know of a "rent-to-own" deal where after a year of subscribing you were able to secure two instruments that would live on beyond your subscription. I basically paid $240.00 for the D-50 and the JV-1080 and kept subscribing hoping to secure a few more in my second year. They don't give you a download link and you're still at the mercy of the cloud but do have access to the two instruments.

I have heard a rumor that they discontinued this incentive (you no longer get two permanent plugins every year) and that they also could yank the D-50 out of the cloud and I'd be forced to choose another instrument. It even hints to this in their FAQ. This, to me, is bait and switch and I have 3 emails into their customer support over an extended period of time and have had zero response. I love Roland kit. I have a ton of it and have had many tons of it over the years but this Cloud concept and the people that run it are souring my taste to Roland.

I sold my D-550 hardware because it was redundant to the D-50 plugin. Now I'm thinking for the $240 I spent on the cloud I should just buy D-05 boutique and cancelled the subscription.

Has anyone here had a similar experience? I'm at the end of my rope with these guys.

All the very best,

Darren


----------



## 2chris (Nov 3, 2019)

Roland has made good stuff, and it’s had numerous “golden eras”, but I just am not a big fan of their products lately. Behringer is doing WAY better with real analog (and amazing pricing), and their groove box drum machines are cheesy sounding. That leaves stage pianos, an updated fantom, and the cloud stuff (basically, of course there is more...).

They are so inconsistent and they usually refuse to support things long term (firmware updates?) that I’m just not ever excited to buy their stuff. It turns into trade fodder or a classified ad. I lean Yamaha and Korg, and if I wanted a groove box I’d go Elektron.

The main problem I have with the cloud platform is that you could have bought Uhe, Native Instruments, Synapse Audio, Spectrasonics, or a synth from someone making better software with 3rd party support. The idea they have is good, but if they aren’t heavily updating and let you keep stuff - how does that makes sense to subscribe long term?


----------



## JPComposer (Nov 3, 2019)

As far as I am aware Seattle based Virtualsonics is behind Roland Cloud. Jeremy Soule is co-director - never let this man get his hands in your wallet. He has a long history of promising and not delivering. 

He didn't even have the decency to shut down his abandoned Patreon account after recent events which caused him to close all his other social media. Just so he can still get the couple of hundred bucks from the poor suckers who have forgotten they're still paying him $5 a month.


----------



## Henu (Nov 3, 2019)

JPComposer said:


> He has a long history of promising and not delivering.



Not that I'm smelling tar and pitchforks in general, but this especiallly needs some clarification. Care to elaborate?


----------



## JPComposer (Nov 4, 2019)

Henu said:


> Not that I'm smelling tar and pitchforks in general, but this especiallly needs some clarification. Care to elaborate?



Here's a couple to get you going. He's let down a lot of people over the years.









Class Action Lawsuit for DirectSong


Members of the Guild Wars 2 community are putting together a class action lawsuit against Jeremy Soule and his DirectSong company for failure to deliver purchased soundtracks.




www.tentonhammer.com








__





Crowdfunding Fraudsters: Jeremy Soule and The Northerners, a Five Year Ballad | MMO Fallout


Fraudster: 2a: a person who is not what he or she pretends to be :impostor; Today's Crowdfunding Fraudsters sucks, and not because of the content but the subject itself. I'll be the first to admit that I had, and despite this piece, still have a lot of admiration for Jeremy Soule and the career...




mmofallout.com


----------



## Henu (Nov 4, 2019)

Oops. :D


----------



## Mark Schmieder (Nov 6, 2019)

OK, so I'm still failing to understand the issue for us Roland Cloud subscribers? Is this just a case of spreading fear (aka "FUD"), that we might lose access even if we paid several years in advance? Is there a REAL problem being addressed here, or just some concern that our investment may not be honoured at some point?


----------



## JPComposer (Nov 6, 2019)

Like myself and thousands of Skyrim OST, Guild Wars 2 OST, and Kickstarter supporters you may find that you have paid money but no one is replying to your emails anymore. Kickstarter supporters paid him over $100,000 and he still has it 6 years later, refusing refunds (or not replying to emails which amounts to the same thing).

When you send a support request to Roland Cloud I suspect it goes to Virtualsonics (the company Soule set up to develop the software) rather than Roland. But no one is answering it.

Just don't be surprised if what is delivered does not match the promises, that's all I'm saying.


----------



## Mark Schmieder (Nov 6, 2019)

OK. It's all news to me. I didn't know until recently (through this thread) that Roland had outsourced the work. I only know of this company from its one-off library of "breath" sounds that are meant for adding more realism to MIDI-based sample library performances.


----------



## vitocorleone123 (Nov 6, 2019)

Side note: Somehow Roland went and shipped the SE-02, which is a bad ass little mono synth worth every bit its now-$400 list price. But other than that one real analog synth... kinda crickets, so it’s good Behringer is stepping up.


----------



## JPQ (Nov 8, 2019)

I tired get free month but says plugins are not authorized when i try install them any ideas what is wrong? they not yet ansvered to me. Good i know if this true about Roland Cloud makes me want avoid them.


----------



## JPQ (Nov 8, 2019)

And i send two messages for them no ansvers a least yet. and they luckily dont have my card number or my address only name and email.


----------



## SoNowWhat? (Nov 10, 2019)

dpasdernick said:


> Guys and Gals,
> 
> I have been a Roland Cloud customer for quite a while. If you're a member you may know of a "rent-to-own" deal where after a year of subscribing you were able to secure two instruments that would live on beyond your subscription. I basically paid $240.00 for the D-50 and the JV-1080 and kept subscribing hoping to secure a few more in my second year. They don't give you a download link and you're still at the mercy of the cloud but do have access to the two instruments.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the clarification Darren. I looked at this a year or two ago being a bit of a Roland fan from back in the day (now I only have my old Juno106). I had assumed (there’s that word again) that the two instruments you received each year would be available for you to download if you ever ceased subs but apparently not. Oh well, I’m not inclined to subs models anyway so this kind of puts a stop to any thoughts I may have entertained about it.


----------

