New cross-platform music application - Zenbeats from Roland

[Mighty Motif Max]

Just received an email from Roland about this. Looks like it's oriented towards hip-hop producers/beatmakers maybe but I've downloaded it and will let you know what I think of it. Works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Has sounds from the TR-808, TR-909, and TR-707, a sampler, and also supports MPE.

 

https://www.roland.com/us/products/zenbeats/

[parker7]

I am not convinced. Or more specifically I am curious what the point of Zenbeats is. An app to help get beginners into the Roland/Boss/V-Moda ecosystem? Guess I'll try it out myself for Mac...

[Dr Mike Metlay]

It seems to be mostly demands for you to spend money on added stuff. Deleted.

 

[parker7]

It seems to be mostly demands for you to spend money on added stuff. Deleted.

 

Totally my impression as well.

[Stephen Fortner]

It's worth mention that Zenbeats used to be known as Stagelight, which was developed by Open Labs. That's right, the same Open Labs that gave us the Neko and Miko all-in-one PC-keyboard-controller workstation thingies. Post-hardware, Open Labs focused on software and this was their most successful product. Roland recently acquired Open Labs, and existing Stagelight users have a path for transferring all of their purchased content into the Zenbeats platform. All that said, I haven't had much experience with it myself, but regular prompts for in-app purchases would certainly be nothing I wanted in my workflow.

[DevonB]

I miss the days of buying a piece of software, and it just works forever until it breaks with a host or OS update eventually. All these subscriptions, and in app purchase stuff, 'eh, not liking it very much. I guess technically yearly updates that are paid are close, but I don't have to authorize with their website every few days either. I just don't want to be nagged to buy stuff and certainly not while I'm actually making music. Almost bought into the Roland Cloud last year with their subscribe for the year and get two synths instead of one at the end. In the end, I just really wanted the D-50, so I bought a D-05 instead and didn't subscribe. At least whenever Roland decides to abandon Cloud, my synth (hopefully) will continue to work for years to come, or I can buy a replacement.

 

Too many promises and too much stuff abandoned over the last ~25 years of electronic music for me to trust things are going to be there and work tomorrow.It's worse when it relies on the internet connection to authorize, which is my main consternation. More careful where I invest my money these days.

[Mike Rivers]

I miss the days of buying a piece of software, and it just works forever until it breaks with a host or OS update eventually. All these subscriptions, and in app purchase stuff, 'eh, not liking it very much. I guess technically yearly updates that are paid are close, but I don't have to authorize with their website every few days either.

 

Another thing is that plug-ins used to be cheap - $10-$25. Now some are close to $500. I know that software development isn't cheap, and many of the new plug-ins are extremely sophisticated. Claims that they are just like or better than the "original hardware" but how many people really need that? Maybe that's part of the problem. Used to be that you could spend under $50 and get a few alternative flavors of EQ or compressor than what came along with your DAW, and they probably sold like hotcakes. I realize that there are some for which having the latest and most perfect model of a piece of obsolete hardware is important for their own satisfaction or to make their clients happy, but I hope that the large number of hobbyists realize that slapping a $500 model of the compressor that was used on a Beatles record isn't going to automatically make them sound like the Beatles (if they even want to).

 

[Mighty Motif Max]

Roland has made the iOS and Android versions free, with all in-apps unlocked as well.

 

 

 

 

Yep, I uninstalled the desktop version too. 100% worthless in every way for me.

[Dr Mike Metlay]

It's interesting how hit-or-miss they are on the software end of things. Zenbeats is a big ol' clunker for any serious musician, but I know several musos who live and die by the virtual models available from Roland Cloud...