Roland Corporation and Virtual Sonics Form Joint Venture

Started by Elantric, February 02, 2016, 12:30:08 PM

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Elantric

Seattle Based duo works with Roland to form a community for musicians
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/namm-2016-roland-virtual-sonics-promises-cloud-based-virtual-instruments-633957
Roland Corporation and Seattle-based Virtual Sonics are pleased to announce an exciting joint venture: Roland Virtual Sonics, a software, services and media solutions provider. Roland Virtual Sonics represents the next wave in the evolution of modern music creation and was developed to solve several challenges present in the current music creation landscape.

Although Roland Virtual Sonics co-directors and brothers Jeremy and Julian Soule had created iconic music for projects ranging from video to video games to chart-topping singles, they felt constrained by the modern music creation and production landscape. The lack of fidelity in virtual instruments, the challenges musicians faced on the path to becoming professionals, and the less-than-modern collaborative community all made one thing clear: there was a huge opportunity to create an ecosystem that would benefit all musicians.

"The timing was perfect," Roland Corporation CEO & Representative Director Jun-ichi Miki stated. "Roland clearly recognized the melding worlds of physical musical instruments and virtual instruments. We also shared the same desire to connect musicians and to lower the barrier of entry for all to create music. Joining forces with Virtual Sonics in 2015 was a natural result." Together, as Roland Virtual Sonics, the vision is most simply expressed in their mantra: "Change the world through music."

The first product release supporting this change will arrive during the Summer of 2016 in the form of Roland Cloud, a cloud-based suite of high-fidelity instruments, connected services and software for modern music creators and producers. Roland Cloud seeks to revolutionize the current musical ecosystem by leveraging the cloud to connect musical artists to their sounds, their workflow and most-importantly, each other.

Flowing from the Roland Cloud are a myriad of new, high fidelity virtual instruments. From the revolutionary and cutting-edge way these instruments are captured to the way they are delivered to popular digital workstations, music and media creators can expect the ability to express their creative aspirations in intuitive ways never before imagined.

Another foundational solution provided by the Roland Cloud comes via its collaborative, connected community. Composers, producers, and musicians of every genre will have a voice in the largest connected community of artists in the world. "Roland Cloud is much more than just the sum of its components," said Roland Virtual Sonics Co-Director Jeremy Soule. "It is also the name of the connected community that musicians will come to call home."


http://rolandcloud.com/




http://rolandvs.co/

admin

#1
More Roland Cloud
https://www.rolandcloud.com/

https://www.rolandcloud.com/policies/terms-of-use

https://www.rolandcloud.com/about-us

Roland Virtual Sonics LLC. represents the joint venture between Roland Corporation and Seattle based Virtual Sonics. We are a software, services and media solutions provider that represents the next wave in the evolution of modern music creation, addressing several challenges present in the current music creation landscape.
We exist to alleviate many pain-points that plague modern musicians and media producers: The lack of extreme-fidelity of virtual instruments, the challenges faced to become professional musicians and the less-than-modern collaborative community and online spaces available.
Roland Cloud represents a cloud-based suite of high-fidelity instruments, connected services and software for modern music creators and producers. Roland Cloud revolutionizes the current musical ecosystem by leveraging the cloud to connect musical artists to their sounds, their workflow and most-importantly, each other.
The Roland Cloud community is the destination for Composers, producers, and musicians of every genre and skill level will be have a voice in the largest connected community of artists on planet Earth.
Flowing from Roland Cloud are a myriad of new, high-fidelity virtual instruments. Roland Cloud delivers innovation on all fronts, from the revolutionary and cutting-edge way digital instruments are captured to the way they are delivered to popular digital workstations. As an ecosystem, Roland Cloud's community of music and media creators can expect the ability to express their creative aspirations in intuitive ways never before imagined.
Roland Virtual Sonics
1118 1st Street, Suite 301
Snohomish, WA 98290




















pasha811

#2
The Cloud Model of today's Software companies it's about subscriptions, monthly fees and the like.
The Idea behind seems to be good even if expensive in the long run.
19 dollars per month it's 228 dollars / year and you have access to all the stuff. Cool when compared to single buy from other Virtual Instruments companies. In 4 years you have shelled out about 1000 $. Lower compared to single buys.
What remains to be seen is if it's possible like with other Cloud Services (not in the music industry) quit the subscription anytime with little fees. That would be great for musicians. Need a sound for an album? You subscribe, use and then quit when finished. Interesting if other companies will follow with similar Business Models. 


Listen to my music at :  http://alonetone.com/pasha/

admin

http://cdm.link/2017/01/roland-subscription-plug-ins-cloud-rendering/

Roland does subscription plug-ins and cloud rendering
Peter Kirn — January 25, 2017 22 Comments

Perhaps the most unexpected product news this month is Roland's unveiling of RolandCloud. It's a subscription service from the hardware maker, the biggest component of which is providing access to a range of software plug-ins.

Roland, while one of biggest names ever in hardware and synthesizers, is still a relative newcomer to software. But their PLUG-OUT line has steadily built up to library of a few instruments. That includes modeled remakes of classic synths (SH-101, PROMARS, SH-2, SYSTEM-100) and one new synth (SYSTEM-1).

Those instruments – and two just-announced new ones – are the first additions to the subscription service. Roland tells CDM that all their software instruments will support 32-bit and 64-bit VST, Apple's Audio Units, and "a broad range of OS versions and digital audio workstations."

The instrument range looks nice enough. It appears that if you just want the instruments, you can pay US$19.95/month – the current "beta" subscription rate. A "cloud" subscription is $29.95/mo, and something called "Storm" for $39.95/mo. (Visitors to the NAMM show got a free month.)

But, are they good enough to spend $240 a year (or more) on a Roland subscription rather than spend that money a la carte on other software instruments of your choice? That's the big question, and might explain Roland's "soft launch" approach. The beta is paid, and available only to residents of the United States. Roland says they'll offer up more software and services – and more countries – over time.

If you do live in the USA, and you didn't get access yet, Roland says you can text the word "RolandCloud" to 33233 – or visit https://www.rolandcloud.com/EarlyAccess



The new instruments may make or break the idea. There's the ANTHOLOGY 1987 soft synth, which appears to be a recreation of the D-50. And, hey – that sounds like a good idea, as the 1987 digital synth is one of the sources of some of the best-known patches in Roland's back catalog. (For some absurd reason, Roland dances around referring to the D-50 by name. That's common when releasing a recreation of someone else's product and avoiding trademark disputes, but ... weird when it's Roland. But, whatever – 1987 Roland sounds it is.)

The "ANTHOLOGY" series would appear to promise more of the same. That seems to suggest JV series sounds or, say, a 727 drum machine might make future appearances.



And there's the TERA series, starting with a TERA concert grand, with sampled sounds and convolution reverb.

The subscription plug-in model isn't specific to Roland, though it seems – whatever Adobe may or may not be doing for graphic artists – musicians aren't all rushing to adopt this kind of pricing yet.

I think its biggest competition may actually be from Roland itself. Buy a piece of hardware, and there's a clear sense of lasting value. Part of what makes Roland appealing as a maker is just that. Look at the recent success of the AIRA and Boutique line – people enjoy having physical gear, machines independent from computers, and tangible controls.

But if the subscription model makes sense, Roland is adopting an approach to cloud rendering that is likely to be simply baffling.

There are some clues to this in the product copy for the existing products. For instance, the TERA promises "ultra-deep sampling," whatever that is, but also spec's its samples as 48kHz stereo VBR (variable bit rate) .OGG files. That's a lossy format, and not what you'd normally use for a piano.

Roland also is unveiling something called RAINLINK. I went through some massively circular conversations about what this is. As near as I can figure, Roland's idea is to send high-resolution performance data in its own format for cloud rendering. Then, a server can spit out a higher-quality version of a performance than your local computer's storage and computation could handle itself.

In other words, "RolandCloud" is meant partly as a way of linking local plug-ins to cloud services. And it seems they'll charge extra for the privilege.

Buzzword-compliant as that may be, of course, it raises a question of who this is for. If you have run out of processing power locally, it probably wasn't running something like a piano. Even devices like $200 ChromeBooks now have pretty decent CPU horsepower – and Roland is supporting plug-in formats like VST and AU, not Web instruments or mobile apps.

I'm going to walk away from this one, at least having (mostly, I think) parsed what Roland was trying to say.

It's interesting to watch Roland try ideas like PLUG-OUT and RolandCloud. But meanwhile, I think it's their hardware that really has us hooked.