Roland announces the availability of the RE-201 Space Echo Plug-in on Roland Cloud
by The Press Desk   10th July 2024

And....still no JP-8000.

Finally a re201, I only have 4 or more from the competion. But without the joys of the cloud framework and its 100s of outbound connections and data logging

Would be curious to hear how this compares to UAD and audiothing

And IK Multimedia, because their Space Delay is also good.

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trspacedelay/

Hats off to those prognosticators who suggested there was a big delay involved in the Roland Cloud release schedule.

It would have more interesting to me if they’d gone for the RE-501 Chorus Echo as I think there’s only the Nembrini version available, whereas there are numerous 201 models out there.

There's another 501 emu available: https://safaripedals.com/products/fo...a-vintage-vibe

And it's not bad actually, sounds way dirtier than Nembrini's, which has a really polished character. I got both, and it's like sugar vs. pepper

Modnetic by Surreal Machines also emulates the Roland Chorus Echo:
https://www.surrealmachines.com/prod...achines-vstau/
It sounds more lush to me than the Safari Pedals and Nembrini ones from memory, but I haven’t done a comprehensive shootout.

Thanks for that mustakatu and Squeegee 303. I wasn’t aware of these and the 501 has a special place in my heart as it was the first fx unit I ever used, back in ‘82.

This new one is not bad actually. With some tweaks in EQ and condition and motor torque, I can get it to sound pretty cool with just the feedback / max intensity, a bit like playing on a real one.

Fuk subscription only plugin and apps .

Same sound as the hardware RE-202?

I did 2 years sub with Roland so I could get the soft synths I wanted as I own some of the hardware.

1. JD800 (Own The Hardware)
2. XV-5080 (Own the 1080 with 4 cards/Own the JV880 w/1 card & The JD-990 with 1 card)
3. TR-303 (I wish I owned)
4. Jupiter-8 (Again, I Wish I owned it)
5. D-50 (Never Owned but loved this synth from the 90's)
6. PROMARS (Never Owned)

If I get something from Roland, it would be the "Zenology", a great synth.

Roland used to do their effects through UA.

If Roland does the Dimension D (SDD-320) I'd get it. Though I love the UA one and I think they did a great job on it, also Arturia did a great job on theirs.

Marc

Do you have to be online to use these plugins ? Or maybe login every month or something ?

Yeah, if I remember correctly, it checks I think once a month.

Not sure if they still do that.

Marc

If you disable the Roland Cloud Manager and whatnot, (as yes I agree with the other comments regarding it's constantly phoning home (every second actually, in use or not, at least previous iterations).. but once I did that, I just have to login once a month or thereabouts and that's it...

It says quite clearly in the press release that this can be had either has a subscription or as a lifetime key. So if you prefer to buy it, go ahead.

I also think Roland is one of the better Clouds, since you get to keep products as lifetime keys for every year you subscribe. So, depending on your needs, you could “save up” to the products you want and then stop subscribing, or just buy what you want up front.

And yes, you need to login once a month to update the license. This also goes for the lifetime keys.

Thanks for you answers

How do I 'or buy what I want up front' without being required to join their cloud?
I can't see that option.

You need an account to buy, just like NI. Both free and both use an app to deliver. You’re not joining their subscription.

I've got my Little Snitch firewall up right now. RCMService (Roland Cloud Manager) seems to make an attempt to phone home every 5 seconds, and if it doesn't get through after 5 attempts, it stops... for 30 seconds. Then it does the every-5-seconds thing again. Over and over. It's crazy.

I'd be more positive about Roland Cloud if the licensing method wasn't so crazy & tied to the internet, at least for the lifetime keys. The discounted lifetime keys with Play4Life is cool.

You've been made a hostage. Some don't care and some won't comprehend they're being held over a barrel until the shock of the great internet outage crisis.

https://www.businessinsider.nl/cyber...er-grid-2019-4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yo...ackout_of_1977

Mad Max, but instead of a giant gasoline reservoir, it's a tome full of serial numbers

Missiles reigning down, flames everywhere, famine, disease, and non cloud users happily playing on their $49 plugin, winking

Yeah, I was monitoring it via that and Radio Silence on macOS, and it was pinging every second... more then anything else on my system by a large margin.

But I turned it off from login items and whatnot, and no problem since, and just have to check in once a month (or thereabouts, not sure if it's random around the period or what), but it hasn't been phoning home, nagging me outside of that periodicity...

But yeah, I agree about lifetime keys, when you have them, you should just have them.. and I can see why it would want to phone home on update or installation etc... but shouldn't have to authorize once a month or whatever...

but it hasn't been a hassle really since then (note: I am on older version of RCM due to other users like Eigenwert having issues etc which hopefully have been mitigated since, but I'm an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" guy...

1.41gb installation for the portal, not including any plugs you want to install.

i only own 3 plugs which comes to around 90 mb when i just keep vst3's

As I look over my own shoulder in the back of this room, I see Roland hardware and interfaces that were quietly abandoned and have no support for modern operating systems. I even have some old software of theirs too - no support at all. They don't exist to Roland. To no suprise, Roland have already started to discontinue their early Cloud stuff (Sound Canvas VA) despite telling people a revamp was in the works.

Roland Cloud's framework is bloated, phones home constantly, it's a huge memory resource hog, constantly forgets your login and authorizations and you're often told to just downgrade to early versions because not even Roland themselves really know what's going on. Their copy protection is extremely paranoid - prepare to be treated like a pirate for buying/renting their software.

And to top it all off, your lifetime keys are not "lifetime", they're 30 day keys that you have to renew each month... well, until Roland calls it quits for that particular piece of software.

I do not wish to jump through these extreme amounts of hoops. Software should be convenient and fast, yet if I ever want Roland sounds... I'm ignoring my Cloud investment and hooking up my actual XV-5050. It's honestly faster and less hassle.

Just something to consider for anyone who wants to join this platform. Also, AudioThing and IK have a good Space Echo. I wasn't a fan of Arturia's or Cherry Audio's.

Bingo! You've accurately articulated the big catch much of the audience fails to realize.

Time to switch over to ilok.

If they do that, that’s when I leave Roland Cloud. The only thing I recognise from that description is having to login monthly. But I do that anyway, so it’s not a problem for my use case.

So I guess it comes down to preference since iLok will never be installed here.

But sure, if they offer it alongside what they offer today, that’s fine.