Roland Cloud bits and trinkets now free

[Zolton]

...according to this announcement:

https://rekkerd.org/roland-cloud-discontinues-concerto-anthology-series-more-now-free/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=roland-cloud-discontinues-concerto-anthology-series-more-now-free

I don't see the news on the Roland site, and I had to go through a series of Roland Cloud Manager app updates (I'd dabbled, but hadn't used it in quite a while), but with the latest RCM installed (and not before), I see the goodies mentioned in the article, and possibly others, available for download.

I'm on the "freeloader" tier, so if they're unlocked for me, it would seem any Jane or Joe off the street can also have a go, if you're game.

[Fleer]

Thanks. Great find. I wonder if that Concerto plug-in is M1 native. 
 

Edith doesn’t think so: check this at the bottom https://www.roland.com/global/support/support_news/210720applerc/?lang=en-JM

Edith believes this may be the reason why this stuff is EOL and free. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Fleer

[Lemar Sain]

I saw these in the Roland App unlocked. Wasn't sure is they were still functional as they also said discontinued. Early on when Roland 1st started using the app. Random stuff would suddenly become unlocked but would turn out to be just demos, which added to my confusion. Thanks for the info.

[Zo]

There's some great gem's on those , don't overlook them .....

[Lemar Sain]

3 hours ago, Zolton said:

I'm on the "freeloader" tier, so if they're unlocked for me, it would seem any Jane or Joe off the street can also have a go, if you're game.

I grabbed a few. Seem to be working here.

[Vst0nE]

how do you select where you wish to install those especially big libraries, i cant find some way in roland cloud app.  how to select different location? there is nothing in preferences...thx

[azslow3]

I am still periodically look into direction "free" from "Roland"... Well. I have tried Tera piano. Just to find out that: (a) "concerto" is unable to work with 64 samples buffer (all cores start do "something", even so nothing is played; and no, my computer is not so slow), check under 2 DAWs, with 2 different interfaces, with 128 samples everything ok and consumes no CPU (b) there is almost no dynamics (tried all presets), I mean fff is still mf-f.

So, to render some piano MIDI for free it is good (for me better then other free piano solutions I have tried). But there are good reasons why it is "discontinued"...

[Jim Roseberry]

Loaded the Tera Piano.

For the file size, it's not particularly great.  I can't hear much (any?) velocity switching.

Running in VST Live (new live host from Steinberg), the Concerto instrument (with Tera Piano loaded) overloads the CPU at small ASIO buffer sizes.

I'm testing on a machine running an i9 12900ks CPU  (16 cores, 5.5GHz).  That's the fastest CPU (for DAW purposes) currently available.

 

Just loaded the first Orchestra Anthology Volume 1... and it loads/runs just fine.

Pretty sure the issue with Tera Piano is a bug.

 

The Orchestral Anthology Volume 1 sound pretty decent.

The Patch browsing (compared to Zenology) is tedious.

ie:  You can't use the arrow keys on a keyboard to move up/down the list of patches.   Mouse only (unless I've missed something)

 

 

 

[Jim Roseberry]

1 hour ago, azslow3 said:

I am still periodically look into direction "free" from "Roland"... Well. I have tried Tera piano. Just to find out that: (a) "concerto" is unable to work with 64 samples buffer (all cores start do "something", even so nothing is played; and no, my computer is not so slow), check under 2 DAWs, with 2 different interfaces, with 128 samples everything ok and consumes no CPU (b) there is almost no dynamics (tried all presets), I mean fff is still mf-f.

So, to render some piano MIDI for free it is good (for me better then other free piano solutions I have tried). But there are good reasons why it is "discontinued"...

You posted this right as I was typing the same exact finding.?

[chris.r]

9 hours ago, dee said:

how do you select where you wish to install those especially big libraries, i cant find some way in roland cloud app.  how to select different location? there is nothing in preferences...thx

Anyone found the solution yet? Thx

[Zolton]

When I select "Download" for any item within the RCM app, it asks me to "Select destination folder for hardware" (whether the download is labeled "Hardware" or "Software" doesn't seem to matter).

That just downloads the (usually large) installer, but the installers I've run have put the final instrument file in the same directory as the download (which happens to be what I want). I can't say whether that first choice locks something in somehow, or if each installer puts the data in the current directory by default (or something else entirely), but that's how it worked in my little corner of the universe.

If the RCM app somehow informs the Concerto app where the libs are expected, it might mean going back to the download step to set the lib location. That would be an awfully weird way to manage things, but it's sort of an unusual handshake-y system to begin with.

[Jim Roseberry]

FWIW, I chose to download the Orchestra Anthology volume 1 to D:\Roland.

It downloaded the installer to that location.

Running the installer from that location, the library was not installed in D:\Roland.

[Zolton]

Ah, sorry, then -- it must be some different bit of magic.

I did a bit of forum spelunking and it seems RCM and/or Concerto have a rich and storied history with where to put the libraries. Evidently, as of about v4.1.2, the libs went here (on Windows) and preferences be damned:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roland Cloud\Instruments\

(The first lib I installed yesterday created uninstallers there -- but I must have done something special I don't recall to convince all the libs [including that one] and all their uninstallers to live on my external drive instead.)

In some later version, it seems a helper app installed with RCM to allow people to move libs -- but that was no longer the case after v4.1.8 or so., and presumably replaced with some other solution in the current version. But I haven't seen exactly when, or what it is.

Somehow, in my setup, everything is installed on the F:\ drive and confirmed working in the (VST3) Concerto plugin. As far as I can recall, though, I didn't change (or even see) any configurable preferences to make it happen.

[BTP]

On Windows you can open the .exe files in for example 7-Zip. Inside there's a .tar file which contains the instrument file which can be extracted wherever you want.

[Vernon Barnes]

Installation lacks transparency but by luck I have just installed the content on my E drive, exactly where I want it.  The very first instrument I installed asked for the paths, subsequent installations used this same path. If your stuff has ended up on the system drive I suggest uninstalling and reinstalling. (who knows it may need a registry clean).

I tried the demo of concerto a while back and concluded it was not worth the extra subscription cost over Core for me as I had packages covering similar ground. For free, as long as you have the disk space I think its a nice to have with a decent, if not earth shattering, range of sounds.

 

[Gaston Breaux]

I had downloaded and installed one of the free products, and it was installed to my c: drive. I uninstalled Concerto and removed the registry entry, I think it was Roland Cloud or something similar. I also deleted the product from my C: drive. I then ran Cloud Manager again, downloaded  a product, and when I ran the .exe file for it, I was prompted for a location for the instruments. I entered a folder on my D: drive, and that's where the product was installed. When I installed the next one, I was prompted for the locations again. I got an error on the second one when the installer tried to create the concerto.vst3 again, I clicked the Ignore button, and the new product was installed on my D: drive. Hope this helps.

[chris.r]

On my system the InstrumentInstaller.exe didn't ask for any path for VST2 plugin and has put the plugin just straight into 'Program Files\Vstplugins' even though I don't use that path and didn't have such folder on disk. Then it asked for path for VST3 plugin - go figure out!

I first tried with the small EP14 and in Sandboxie I pointed to external disk and it has installed fine there. Then I installed normally and it reported an error regarding that external folder and put the files on my system disk. If it was one of the huge instruments files I would be screwed.

From the consumer point of view the development quality of the whole Roland Cloud is a resource hog and a mess full of small bugs. For example I updated Zenology to the latest and it locked almost 1GB on my disk after that. Why? Has put plugins in wrong places, no wonder less experienced people will have issues. I'm having huge doubts it's all worth it.

[chris.r]

I uninstalled with 'Add or remove programs' and it created a temp file and then deleted that file. That's it. The instrument stays on system disk.

I'm not a programmer but I would have done it better then that ?

EDIT: actually, instead, it tried to delete the 'uninstall' file from under the external path, which obviously is not there. What a bummer.

EDIT 2: it would install to the external disk only when run as administrator. Without it, the installer has put the samples file into 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3'  LOL... not really

Edited July 17, 2022 by chris.r

[Cristian]

To change where files are stored, worst case scenario, just make a link on the disk pointing to your big drive.
Just make sure the drive is connected so it does not confuse the Roland app.

First move the contents of C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roland Cloud\Instruments to your big storage, for example E:\RolandInstruments.

After that, delete C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roland Cloud\Instruments. 

Then open a command prompt and run 

mklink /d "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roland Cloud\Instruments\" E:\RolandInstruments

This replaces the folder with a link. After that, the Roland VST should pick up the instruments.

Edited July 17, 2022 by Cristian

[satya]

I made a list of programs that use high disk space in c drive

ProgramData

Arturia
Akai
Blackmagic Design
kiloHearts
Krotos
Propellerhead Software
Steinberg
Surge

And from appdata/roaming
Acustica