GM-800 - Roland Cloud

[arkieboy]

I spent a few hours coaxing the samples and I did manage to get better results.  The choir is nicely strident, and the strings sound like they might just about have emerged from a white plywood box tucked away under a minimoog. 

The vintage synths expansion is nice too, its not that you couldn't easily come up with such sounds from Zenology Pro without buying the waveforms, but there's some nice, unfussy programming in its presets that you rarely hear these days and they are useful reference points if you don't have an older synth sitting around.

I have to say though that I'm quietly impressed with Zenology pro.  I don't think its worth the permanent license key asking price - half that would be more like it IMO - but its relatively easy to use, lots of functionality without being obscure and sounds great.  I do wish there was a 'full screen' option with scalable widget size - my 2k screen makes the main window pretty small so I don't know what it would be like on a 4k monitor, and the Roland devs really should sit down and look at the export workflow.  Heck, even saving your own sound to use in the plugin drops you into a nasty modal window - no excuse for that!

[admin_shawnb]

Yep.  I kept it for 2 months to figure out how it all tied together, then canceled.  Neat, but for me, not worth a subscription.

[arkieboy]

Neat, but for me, not worth a subscription.

Completely agree.  I'll dip in occasionally if I have to edit stuff for a production.

...

Dear Roland/Boss

I would really like to be able to deep edit my GM-800.  Seems to me the simplest, most immediate solution would be if Zenology Pro recognised the GM-800 as a license dongle.  But for the long term, it would be great if there were the screens in the unit or a dedicated computer editor.  Personally I'd prefer a computer editor because if I'm in a rehearsal room, the current level of macro-editing you can make with the front panel and BTS is perfect, and my bandmates are too impatient to have me programming sounds from scratch! 

Love, Arkieboy

PS I'd be happy without the model expansions if you need to keep the differentiation with other Zen-CORE products, but if you want to take my money and make those available as cost extras, the safety catch is off my wallet!!  I'll have the Jupiter 4 straight away!

[admin_shawnb]

Note there is a lifetime license key for Zenology Pro itself - no subscription.  $229 will allow you to do deep editing.

Note most of the sample packs are kinda cheap, only a few bucks.  You can sample & purchase the ones that sound interesting.

[admin_shawnb]

For the record, I started getting the periodic Roland Cloud Manager logon prompt that Elantric reported earlier.

It started after I installed a completely unrelated utility from another vendor.

In Windows10, I disabled the two startup processes for RCM and Roland Cloud.  So far, so good, I think that killed it.  I use it rarely, no need for it to be loaded at startup.

[Nobulusprime]

Anyone know why wave expansions aka exz formats won't load in my gm-800? I get error with every single one.

I got them to load but they won't sound in the GM800. I downloaded the EXZ006 World Instruments Sound pack. They obviously work in the DAW but I only want them for the GM800... Am I doing something stupid? The other Zenology Pro stuff works just fine.

[admin_shawnb]

Did you buy the pack for the gm-800, or, did you download the pack for ZP with a Roland Cloud subscription?

If you bought the pack for the gm-800, they should all load just fine in one step from the usb.  You'll see them all in the tone browser after loading.

If you downloaded the ZP, you will need to export each one-by-one, then move that over by usb to the gm-800.

Make sure all are checked when you import into the gm-800.

[admin_shawnb]

Oh...  One other note...  The GM-800 doesn't load drum kits.

[BROCKSTAR]

Expansion packs won't work in gm-800 unless you bought it.

[arkieboy]

You'll see them all in the tone browser after loading

This I think is the bit we'll have the most trouble with.

You can see the wave expansion tones in the tone browser but there are no scenes.  To be able to play the sounds you'll need to create a new scene or modify an existing one.

[Nobulusprime]

To save me hunting around aimlessly for ages does anyone know if there are any of the of the following available through Roland Cloud, either expansion packs, sound packs or other?:

PANart Hang Drum Hang Pan
Good Mellotron style samples
Old upright and prepared pianos
Programmable Sequenced and or arpeggiated synths

[arkieboy]

Good Mellotron style samples

Vintage Keys has decent Tron choirs, strings and flutes.  I didn't notice any brass - I don't use them anyway.  Both 3 Violins and String sounds are there and a couple of choirs, but don't expect anything from the original left hand mk2 frames.

(So Strawberry Fields, yes, Bungalo Bill intro, no can do)

If you're serious about Tron then you'll have a dedicated plug-in or several or sample sets so you can get too sniffy about the presets included with the pack, but sit down with Zenology pro, the raw tones, turn down the attack slightly, add a bit of flattering release and a plate reverb to taste and you'll have a functioning M400. 

(You'll have to supply the 12 string guitar and leafy glade yourself  )

[arkieboy]

Vintage Keys has decent Tron choirs, strings and flutes.  I didn't notice any brass - I don't use them anyway.  Both 3 Violins and String sounds are there and a couple of choirs, but don't expect anything from the original left hand mk2 frames.

(So Strawberry Fields, yes, Bungalo Bill intro, no can do)

If you're serious about Tron then you'll have a dedicated plug-in or several or sample sets so you can get too sniffy about the presets included with the pack, but sit down with Zenology pro, the raw tones, turn down the attack slightly, add a bit of flattering release and a plate reverb to taste and you'll have a functioning M400. 

(You'll have to supply the 12 string guitar and leafy glade yourself  )

Specifically, the raw waveforms in EXZ008 are mostly logically ordered with the B3, Farfisa, Piano, Tron etc samples all together, but the synth waveforms are somewhat less well organised.  I'm not completely ruling out there being a lone Tron Brass lurking in the higher numbered slots, but for the life of me, I can't spot them if they are.

The Tron waveform list is: Tron Str A; Tron Str B; Tron Str C; Tron Str2 A; Tron Str2 B; Tron Str2 C; Tron Vlns A; Tron Vlns B; Tron Vlns C; Tron Cello A; Tron Cello B; Tron Cello C; Tron Flute A; Tron Flute B; Tron Flute C; Tron Choir A; Tron Choir B; Tron Choir C; Tron Cho.1; A Tron Cho.1 B; Tron Cho.1 C; Tron Cho.2 A; Tron Cho.2 B; Tron Cho.2 C.

So two different string ensembles, violins, cellos, flutes and three different choirs.  The A, B and C sound like slight variations probably to help stereo spread.

Fairly certain this is the software version of https://www.synthmania.com/sr-jv80-08.htm so you can hear some of the sounds there.

No prepared pianos in this pack.