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SFM Tutorials: Roland Zenology GX - Is it worth it?
Roland ZENOLOGY GX - IS IT WORTH IT? MY review!🔥
Comments
Tx again, Leo
This app is strange, it is ok but not special in my view. I do not know what other thinks but i found the sounds not modern anymore… back now to do some LP tutorials
I'm not sure if "modern" would be what I'd want, lol. I like that the sounds seem mostly from Sound Canvas.
Zenology GX feels like the (spiritual) successor to iOS Sound Canvas, and those are the sounds I like to use for "videogame OST" music. Nintendo has used Sound Canvas sounds for their soundtracks a lot in the past, including in Zelda games, Smash Bros, Mario Kart games, the original Animal Crossing games, etc.
Of course we'll see how much I use Zenology GX once the AUv3 is implemented.
Yes sounds a bit Sound Canvas
Yes, more LP tutorials please, Leo! Your LP and Drambo vids have been tremendously helpful!
As for Zenology, I decided pretty much right away and without even testing it that it wasn't for me. No shade, just honestly too much app for me. TBH I've also felt the same way about the four-track apps that have been cropping up. I need to dig deeper into what I've already got, and right now I really want both my music and the process by which I make it to be simpler.
I must admit that at the moment I’m underwhelmed by it and currently not concerned that I’ll almost certainly not be able to afford the lifetime unlock purchase when it’s no longer free.
A lot, for me, will depend on what the Pro Edit mode adds. They’re still working on that apparently and it could potentially still make it something special.
Will be very interested to watch your video and hear your take Leo.
Hi @daddyfalldown,
You have just hit the nail on the head for most of us, I reckon the majority of us have more than enough great sounds synth apps that already have more than equally as good sounds, take the iwavestation and iM1, they are packed with superb sounding presets.
The Zenology GX is not for me.
Mike
Hopefully the lifetime unlock won't be super expensive. 🫣
@sfm : I’m afraid you’re right, so far Leo . Nothing special to date .. You can really tell when you hear the upright bass . Nothing remotely close to the UB on Logic Pro.
@jwmmakerofmusic : “Sound Canvas”, that was genius, lol . Square on the money .
@MatthewAtZenbeats : I remain optimistic though. Roland have always ruled the romper kingdom as far back as I can imagine . Even if they took sounds from the 1080 it’d be great .. We ALL what Roland COULD do in that regard if it only wanted to. Here’s a golden opportunity for them to strut their stuff .. Let’s hope the step up.
Lol! 😂 Well, the PCM sounds already included sound extremely close if not dead-on to the sounds in the Sound Canvas series. If the iOS lifetime unlock will be $99, I'll probably purchase Zenology GX. If it's more than that, well I'll think about it.
None of the music creation environments I currently use (Auxy Studio, FL Studio Mobile, and Gadget) host AUv3 plugins. Okay, AUM hosts AUv3, but I use that exclusively for live Ambient stuff. Not sure how Zenology GX would fit into that workflow yet.
The one AUv3 host I used that had an easy, streamlined workflow was sunset by the developer simply because he couldn't be arsed to pay 100 quid annually. 🙄 I'm talking about Nanostudio 2 of course. I heavily relied on that for client work.
I love Cubasis for mastering tracks and EPs and albums, and I love Cubasis for recording and processing my vocals. However, it's clunky for music creation.
I think the point I'm making is - unless an AUv3 host like Nanostudio 2 is released, or FLSM gains AUv3 hosting capabilities, I'm not sure what use I'd have for Zenology GX. Especially since I have tons of soundfonts that cover all my needs in apps like KQ Sampei and FL Studio Mobile.
Oh yeah, I miss updates on Nanostudio 2…
I’m genuinely interested that you think you’d pay $99 for this? It would have to be way, way, way cheaper than that for me to be interested (and I realize it’s very unlikely to be that cheap!).
So far, to me, it seems that it’s leaning pretty heavily on the appeal of nostalgia for old Roland sounds, accurately recreated. Nothing wrong with that, those synths and drum machines are amazing, but I just don’t, so far (maybe Pro Edit will shake things up?), see anything innovative or super flexible about the way it’s making and allowing you to sculpt sounds.
I think I must have misunderstood what to expect from it: I was expecting more synth than rompler. I thought the whole Zenology idea was that it was a very clever synth engine that recreated their classic sounds without resorting to using samples but this seems to be sample based? I guess I should have done my homework a bit better!
@Robin2 :You’re looking for the capabilities of Zenology Pro. This is NOT that. Look them up on the Roland US site.
Same here, mate.
Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of Zenology GX. I like those classic Roland sounds, don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to figure out how this would fit into my workflow/if I'd actually need it. We'll see what Pro Edit entails.
I’m waiting to see how AuUv3 works but if they do a good job it’s totally worth $99 for a lifetime key.
If they keep the same feature as they have in standalone mode and replicate it to work as AUv3, then yes it is interesting. As i said in the video then you have sequencer and arpeggiator inside each instance with 4 partials running and 2 LFO2 with lot of modulation. Keep will be also to have some AU parameters exposed to control it as well from other apps like a DAW
I’m sure that’s right. As I said, I should have done my homework to manage my expectations better!
For those who would be willing to pay $99 for this, you might be interested to know that Zenology Pro is currently £88 on Plugin Boutique if you use desktop too.
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/4-Synth/15308-ZENOLOGY-PRO
I agree with much of the sentiment here.
It reminds me of the Roland synths I had 20 years ago, and used constantly, but I'm not looking for a 90s/00s sound any more. I was flicking through lots of patches to find one which make me go wow, but realised I can do all of that already, and a bit better.
But it covers a lot of ground and might be a good option for someone who wants a generalist app which covers many bases.
Of course I'm comparing it with the many excellent symths and apps I used daily, which offer more - sharper, deeper, more edgy, which do fewer things really well. and I know this one is not for me.
Roland has been a constant presence in my 40 years of electronic music making and I wish them and this product well!
Having now watched your video @sfm, thanks, it has got things which I’d missed when I had a play with it (it’s massive storage footprint means I haven’t kept it installed) and I’ll revise my opinion slightly to say that I’m now more impressed by it that I was before. I’m still not blown away by its capabilities though.
It will all come down to the price. Will be very interesting to see the pricing for this vs the pricing of the full Synthmaster 3.
Yes difficult to beat SM3
I agree that the provided sounds are not very exciting. If you browse thru the Zen-core pack there is definitively some more modern sounds. The real question is will those the available for sale at all or included. https://www.roland.com/global/categories/roland_cloud/zen-core_sounds/
It’s unfortunate, but this does seem to be a pretty stellar miss by Roland… (They seem to be missing A LOT lately, over like the last decade or so, and this is from a Roland fanboy that has spent tens of thousands of dollars on Roland gear since I was a kid).
Roland seems to have some kind of massive issue internally in terms of product management or something… They will release something like the MC707, which is a F’ing beast, but have usability issue that are soooo glaring there’s no way they could have made it through testing, and if they did, you can just image some PM saying constantly (“that’s out of scope” or “that’s not in line with the vision”)
Take the newish Mood Pad (I know slight thread hijack)… That thing should have kicked ass! Its closest completion is like $3000! But you can tell its usefulness was driven into the ground by a slavish devotion to some PM’s product brief that they refused to bend on chasing a micromarket while sacrificing a potentially HUGE market…
I think this app is the same. It’s very clear Roland’s overall cloud strategy if a massively jumbled mess that’s confusing as hell and at best consumer hostile. You can see the Roland cloud shackles all over this thing. Fears of cannibalism, trying to fit in between other cloud offerings, etc…
Look at Korg’s iM1…
It’s almost perfect in terms of putting a brands synth technology on iPad. And that’s not even considering running it inside Gadget!
And don’t even get me started on all the insanity of Roland constantly touting it ZEN core technology when pretty much every voice I open in this app or on my MC707 is a pcm-based romper voice… smh…
The MC707 shines as a dawless hub, but the sounds… meh… Without even the physical hardware, I don’t see why anyone would use this app if you ever have to pay for it…
Such a sad, missed opportunity from Roland… But that’s been the vibe for like 10-15 years…
One thing that Puzzles me is that both the classinc Sunrizer and Poison-202 do better Super Saw way better than Zenology Pro which feels like it's using sampled waveforms and the the knobs just select a different sample just like the Gaia did...
Actually, some excellent points have been raised here. Yeah, Zenology GX does sound a bit dated. As I said in @sfm 's thread on the matter, the PCMs sound like the old iOS Sound Canvas. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I have a lot of those sounds covered by my huge collection of Soundfonts I can use in KQ Sampei and FL Studio Mobile (since FLSM now has a soundfont player).
We'll see what the upcoming editor will have in terms of shaping sounds, but the more I play with the "shiny new app", the less likely I'm inclined to purchase Sound Canvas Zenology GX outright, especially if it clocks in at above the $50 mark. 🫣 I do apologize to MatthewAtZenbeats, but I was hoping for more than just Sound Canvas sounds. I'm talking sounds from all different Roland romplers and synths with the ability to shape them to my creative will. Like the Roland JV 1080 sounds that were popular in 90s Eurodance music and such.
BY the way, did you try it with Bluetooth headphones? With mine the app becomes not responsive at all and take several attempts to get it back to work including sometimes restarting the iPad…
It's odd. I have a JV 1080 and many of my favourite sounds from that synth are in this app. I haven't checked them all, of course, but it's very far from being just a repackaged Sound Canvas.
I did try it with my Beats, and Zenology GX worked just fine the few times I opened and had a go with it. But eh, Idk man. I'm starting to get "cold feet" about Zenology GX.
Really? A handful of my favorite sounds from the JV 1080 seem to be missing from Zenology GX. But, I am curious as to how this app will evolve over time, so I'll be keeping up with this and the other thread about it.
You will without get a ton of IAP sound packs unless You subscribe to the Cloud Ultimate or something
For JV-1080/2080 and XV-5080 sounds Roland has dedicated apps and as such I doubt they will bake in 'everything' into Zenology Pro as it would make the other apps redundant?!
I will keep an eye on this but with that many PCM waveforms a search function is almost a must, presets can be searches so why not the waveforms as well?
The only Roland hardware I own is a 'broken' Juno 106 and a MC-303 the OG Roland Groovebox...
The MC-303 is loosely based on the Sound Canvas (same architecture but with mostly different samples) and as such those sounds would also bring back a bit of nostalgia with the Sound ROM being a ~1MB in size it would not add that much to the package...
That one requires authorization once a month.
It sounds like this one (ios Gx) will only need to be authorized once.