Sergio

Well... thats it!!! It's Black Friday and the System-8 here is priced $100 over the the Sweetwater retail price. This may sound expensive but, believe me, in my country the usual prices are 50% ,100% and sometimes even 200% more expensive than the US retail prices. So, i figured that this is not a bad deal after all and... GOT IT!!! 😀 Now I just need to wait and see if everything runs fine with my credit card. Almost there... The consequence: I'll get the Roland Cloud ultimate subscription by the end of December and I'll have to refrain buying anything else related to music (software or otherwise) until the end of October 2022. I already feel like an addicted trying to leave the drugs but it's for a good cause 😬 Hummmmm..... maybe I should avoid this forum for a while 🤔

Oh... and I forgot to comment this Zo. The new JD-08 boutique probably will not be a good external controller for anything. The sliders are too tiny. Check the discussion in https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1365285-new-roland-boutiques-jd-08-amp-jx-08-a.html

Yes, Zo. The System-1, System-1m and System-8 have the capability to host some of the Roland plugins and run them independently of a computer. The System-1 series can host one of the monophonic plugins at a time (SH-101, SH-2, Promars and System-100) and the System-8 can host these plus the polyphonic ones (Jupiter-8, JX-3p, Juno 106 and Juno 60, the first 3 come free when you buy the keyboard) and it can keep 3 of these in the memory (you can select them with dedicated button on the front panel). At this moment only this 8 plugins have this so called "Plugout" capability in Rolandspeech. This is somewhat old news... as I said Roland alerady sort of phased out this technology in favor of the more efficient Zen-Core engine. But, as I also said, the ACB technology that empowers this Keyboards and plugins is the more realistic analog emulation that Roland have produced to this date. And I can attest the long way they come until it 'cause I have a JP-8080 HW synth to compare, powered with the very first Roland virtual analog engine (the same of the JP-8000, with some minor improvements). Here are some demonstrations:

Congratulations for your great acquisition!!! The Sequential Prophet is another object of desire of mine but, in that case, I'm satisfied having the u-He Repro emulations and a Pioneer/DSI Toraiz AS1 monosynth, which has one voice of the Prophet 6, for a taste of the real 'analogness'.

Hey Zo. Thanks for your insight. I already have real synths; of all kinds: analog, virtual analog, digital... mono and poly versions. I have even some vintage Rolands. What I don't have and (sort of) always wanted is a Jupiter-8, a Juno-60 and some other vintage Roland monosynths. And, for me, the ACB plugout technology solves this without the absurd prices, the maintenance and the space problems. As I said, I already have the System-1m to host the monosynths. I just need the System-8 for the remaining ones. I'm sure the Zen-Core based devices are great (like most of what Roland does) but, in that case, having them as plugins in my DAW is good enough for me. And I can even buy the Zenology Pro Lifetime Key after the subscription renewal ends (as it is not included in the promotion). I'll think about this when the time comes. I think you can choose the Lifetime Keys you want and include them in your account after one year of subscription has passed. But this does not matter, as you can fully use them from the start. The Lifetime aspect only keeps it working after the subscription ends. But you'll have to keeep at least a free account for that. Regarding the owners of running plans, I'll transcribe the FAQ bellow: Q: What if I already have a membership, can I join the Play 4 Life promotion? A: Yes! Our upgrade functionality is here to benefit YOU. Here's how: You can upgrade the remainder of your membership to the Play 4 Life promotion through our membership page HERE You'll be charged the difference from your current plan to the new plan you have selected. For annual members moving from a plan of the same price (Ex. Ultimate Annual to Ultimate Play 4 Life). You will not see a difference in your next charge date after upgrading Users paying in a local currency may see a small charge, or refund, based on currency fluctuation since last bill. Monthly members will see a pro-rated upgrade charge, and have their next bill date moved into the future to align with the new annual Play 4 Life plan.

I've just received an answer from Roland about this and I'll transcribe it bellow: Hello Sergio Simoes, Thanks for contacting us. You can't pre-purchase a membership, but the membership auto-renews, so at the end of the year you'd be charged again and get another two lifetime keys. You just have to have purchased by December 31st of this year. Please let us know if you have further questions concerning this matter. Regards, Travis Roland Customer Support

Hi Zo. Roland does not disclose much about this Zen-Core technology but it sure have PCM samples at its heart. You can read about this in this page: https://www.gak.co.uk/blog/roland-zen-core/ You can compare with the ACB (Analog Circuit Behavior) technology here: https://rolandcorp.com.au/blog/what-is-analog-circuit-behaviour-acb And although Zen-Core is perfect for emulating their sample based synths (or ROMplers), like the JD-800, JV-1080 and even the D-50, when we're talking about the emulation of analog synthesizer (Jupiters, Junos, System-100, SH2, Promars, the analog drum machines, etc) the ACB is still the way to go. It's a thorough simulation of the original circuits and, even with current technology and dedicated FPGA chips, it's so CPU heavy that they cannot go over 8 note polyphony on the flagship synths. This is more expensive and less commercially viable than Zen-Core and, IMO, that's why it's been sort of relegated to a secondary role at Roland right now. In short, Zen-Core achieves high performance in terms of polyphony and effects because they take some shortcuts, like using PCM samples. The differences can be negligible in the mix but if I'll spend money in a hardware synth I want the more authentic emulation. This will end my quest for the perfect Roland vintage analogs.

Thanks for you opinion Matthew but I have a different perspective about this being a good deal or not. I have a System-1m hardware synth and I'm planning to buy a System-8 keyboard next year. On these devices I can load the ACB "plugouts" and have them as standalone synths, controllable by the front panel. And the Roland ACB emulations are top notch! I want to have them all, but not in a time-limited way. About the subscription I understand that you're buying a Play4Life subscription, and this subscription can be renewed 4 times. And this is a different type of subscription than you had before, even if the price was the same. And this is reinforced by the fact that current owners can 'upgrade' to this new type (although this is not fair to someone who already paid $199 in advance IMO, as they'll have to pay more for the same product). But I agree the FAQ is not clear. I'll ask Roland about this.

Let me see if I understood this right: If I buy an Ultimate subscription for a single $199 payment after one year I can choose 2 lifetime keys for any of the products on there that have this option, and also I'll have the option at this occasion to pay another $199 to renew the subscription for another year and get 2 more keys after that.... and so on up to four times? What I'm asking (and forgive me if this sounds stupid) is that I'll not have to pay $1000 in advance for those 5 years of subscription. Right? I still hate the subscription Idea but I'm looking this mainly just as an opportunity to get the Roland lifetime keys I'm interested for a cheaper price.

I'm glad I moved my Xils Lab licenses from eLicenser to iLok some time back. I think these "must be online" license schemes a bit convoluted. The Roland Cloud is the same. I much prefer the iLok model: you can install the license on your machine (which I avoid, as I have lost licenses that way in the past), you can deposit your license in a dongle and you can insure it for $30/year (which is negligible considering the value of the licenses) and, lately and for some softwares, you can create a session on the cloud to access your license for the job at hand and have zero risk of losing it in any way (the best method IMO). BTW... I always thought that what defines the date to include your license in the grace period or not was the activation (installing the license on the eLicenser or on the computer to unlock the program) and not the registration of the software at Steinberg, what I always did immediately after purchase as a security measure.

I think the Nucleus pack is (still) the free one. Ignite has more things. For all the current virtual modular synths the one I like more soundwise is Softube's. But I don't like the interface. I think reproducing the routing limitations of modular (having to replicate entire structures to achieve polyphony for instance) is not needed in a virtual environment. And that's what I like most in te Cherry Audio's ecosystem. You usually have polyphonic version of the modules with polyphonic connections, etc. and you can build more complex systems without the real estate and cable mess explosion.

The final free sound pack this week is Thump Machine - Kick Drum & Bass Designer. https://puremagnetik.com/products/thump-machine-bass-kick-drum-designer?_pos=1&_sid=6dc9b5e1f&_ss=r

Today’s free sound pack is Kardoni: https://puremagnetik.com/products/kardoni-arp-omni-mk2-ableton-live-pack-kontakt-instrument

Got this! Nice price for a potentially useful tool.

Today's free pack: K-Station Atmospheres https://puremagnetik.com/products/k-station-atmospheres?_pos=1&_sid=b528b76a0&_ss=r

Free pack today: Mark One Brooklyn Fender Rhodes https://puremagnetik.com/products/mark-one-fender-rhodes-ableton-live-pack-kontakt-instrument-apple-logic-samples?_pos=2&_sid=17d00a75b&_ss=r

Free pack for today: FM Drums https://puremagnetik.com/products/fm-drums-yamaha-dx7-ableton-live-pack-kontakt-instrument-apple-logic-samples?_pos=1&_sid=d0b8fac86&_ss=r

$69.99 with the coupon MIXMONOLITH6999 less any voucher you still have. And don't forget the recent user survey voucher. I just don't know if this tool is that great though. Any informed opinions?

I'll do that. But you can also check directly on their page on Instagram. The pack for today has not been posted yet. https://www.instagram.com/puremagnetik/ And, I don't know why, the tinyurl link I posted before is not working right now. Here's the full path to the featured B-System XL sale: https://puremagnetik.com/collections/bundles/products/b-system-buchla-200e-ableton-live-pack-kontakt-instrument-samples

Today's free offer: Archmachine https://puremagnetik.com/products/archmachine

B-System XL for $10 (Buchla 200e samples) and also free sound packs all this week. Check for yourself on Puremagnetik: https://tinyurl.com/48pzer86

I'd rather get one of the new consoles. But, for this price and with the monthly voucher... it's a no brainer. But as the offer is through November 3 I'll wait until the end of the month, just in case.

Welcome back!!!! Edith says: not quite that one, you idiot!!!

Get it on Puremagnetik https://puremagnetik.com/products/blip-atari-ableton-live-pack-kontakt-instrument-apple-logic-samples

I bought the new Suhr amp some days ago and all the amps are $29.99 for me. With this voucher I got the bx_Rockergain for $9.99 I'll spend all refreshes buying the amps I still don't have 🙂