Roland Cloud Manager on Windows 10
7 Jan 2021, 11:26Hi team,
Love the instruments but the experince is ruined by the RCM software. Frankly, if this was open source or something, I would have rolled up my sleeves and done something about it. But to pay (subscription too!) for software and get this is really not on.
So here is a rant. I am really annoyed and aggravated by the experience and struggling to understand why is RCM so bad. It sucks so bad that I have to separate suckiness into categories.
Category 1 - User experience - suckiness by design
1.1 It is not possible to select and install (or even find) items that you have subscribed to. For example, if you subscibe to Core, there is no way to install all core components without going over 100+ items and manually checking each one (from library, click on the item, then on the next screen you can see in the top right corner which subscription level it requires, then you go back to library - and of course, the list has been scrolled back up to top so you have to find the item again)
1.2 Why do I need to select folder every time I click "Download" button in the library?
1.3 Why doesn't RCM show the RCM window when I start the application? (it hides away to tray). If the user has launched the app by clicking on it, at least you should have decency to show a window.
1.4 Why doesn't RCM tray icon have any actions (right-click) menu? (see next question for what should be on the menu)
1.5 Why doesn't RCM show the RCM window when I double click the tray icon? (instead it shows Jerked up black box that makes you click again to launch)
1.6 Why can't RCM remember where the window was shown last ? (for me it always ends up partly off-screen when it launches)
1.7 Why can't RCM show my subscription level???
1.7.1 First, it inaccurately and misleadingly shows Ultimate on the bottom-left side - I expect this is trial but it's just wrong that there is no way to see the actual subscription level).
1.7.2 Second, in the membership screen it shows nothing but prices for various packages.
1.8 The worst by far is the Library screen - the whole purpose of this software.
1.8.1 You can filter by useless "categories" and "series", but not by subscription level.
1.8.2 You can't resize the columns, and interestingly, the column you lose if things can't fit is the product name (see 2.8) which makes it completely unusable see 2.7
Category 2 - Bugginess - suckiness by incompetence
2.1 It constantly pops up with errors when I am not using any of the Roland software, completely out of the blue. This is the most annoying of all bugs. It is incessant and breaks all the time in the middle of serious work. Shut the f...k up! (as a side note, I have disabled "desktop notifications" in RCM settings but this didn't help)
2.2 Uninstall doesn't remove things from AppData so reinstalling doesn't really reinstall cleanly.
2.3 Why doesn't RCM work and scale properly for users that use large fonts in windows (e.g. due to poor sight, I use 150% fonts), which makes RCM look horrible.
2.4 Why can't RCM remember my username and password? I am constantly asked to login over and over again. Also, login window is jerked up when you use large fonts in windows
2.5 Why can't RCM - at the very least - start with a reasonable window location so that whole window is visible.
2.6 Why can't RCM decide which screen it wants to use? The initial dialog (on double clicking tray icon) shows on one screen, but RCM login shows on the other.
2.7 For me, when launched, RCM shows somewhere to the right of the right screen (mostly off screen) and can't be moved (have to resize the window which is already the width of two screens). The only way I can use it is to resize a little so I can see the title bar, then maximise which forces RCM to fit into the screen.
2.7 If I try to resize the window from top-right, it resizes quicker than I move the mouse so quickly ends up off screen. You can't recover from this - have to kill RCM from task manager and restart.
2.8 If you use increased font sizes, library screen choses to show all the whitespace and stuff you don't care about (series, category etc), but doesn't show the names of products.
Hardware: i3-9100f on MS H310M PRO-VD, 16G Ram, SanDisk Ultra 500G ssd, GTX 970, 2x Samsung LT24C300 @ 2048x1152, yamaha AG06
Software: Windows 10 18363, all vanilla settings apart from using 150% screen fonts.
Note that I have not a single complaint about instruments!
Thanks
Love the instruments but the experince is ruined by the RCM software. Frankly, if this was open source or something, I would have rolled up my sleeves and done something about it. But to pay (subscription too!) for software and get this is really not on.
So here is a rant. I am really annoyed and aggravated by the experience and struggling to understand why is RCM so bad. It sucks so bad that I have to separate suckiness into categories.
Category 1 - User experience - suckiness by design
1.1 It is not possible to select and install (or even find) items that you have subscribed to. For example, if you subscibe to Core, there is no way to install all core components without going over 100+ items and manually checking each one (from library, click on the item, then on the next screen you can see in the top right corner which subscription level it requires, then you go back to library - and of course, the list has been scrolled back up to top so you have to find the item again)
1.2 Why do I need to select folder every time I click "Download" button in the library?
1.3 Why doesn't RCM show the RCM window when I start the application? (it hides away to tray). If the user has launched the app by clicking on it, at least you should have decency to show a window.
1.4 Why doesn't RCM tray icon have any actions (right-click) menu? (see next question for what should be on the menu)
1.5 Why doesn't RCM show the RCM window when I double click the tray icon? (instead it shows Jerked up black box that makes you click again to launch)
1.6 Why can't RCM remember where the window was shown last ? (for me it always ends up partly off-screen when it launches)
1.7 Why can't RCM show my subscription level???
1.7.1 First, it inaccurately and misleadingly shows Ultimate on the bottom-left side - I expect this is trial but it's just wrong that there is no way to see the actual subscription level).
1.7.2 Second, in the membership screen it shows nothing but prices for various packages.
1.8 The worst by far is the Library screen - the whole purpose of this software.
1.8.1 You can filter by useless "categories" and "series", but not by subscription level.
1.8.2 You can't resize the columns, and interestingly, the column you lose if things can't fit is the product name (see 2.8) which makes it completely unusable see 2.7
Category 2 - Bugginess - suckiness by incompetence
2.1 It constantly pops up with errors when I am not using any of the Roland software, completely out of the blue. This is the most annoying of all bugs. It is incessant and breaks all the time in the middle of serious work. Shut the f...k up! (as a side note, I have disabled "desktop notifications" in RCM settings but this didn't help)
2.2 Uninstall doesn't remove things from AppData so reinstalling doesn't really reinstall cleanly.
2.3 Why doesn't RCM work and scale properly for users that use large fonts in windows (e.g. due to poor sight, I use 150% fonts), which makes RCM look horrible.
2.4 Why can't RCM remember my username and password? I am constantly asked to login over and over again. Also, login window is jerked up when you use large fonts in windows
2.5 Why can't RCM - at the very least - start with a reasonable window location so that whole window is visible.
2.6 Why can't RCM decide which screen it wants to use? The initial dialog (on double clicking tray icon) shows on one screen, but RCM login shows on the other.
2.7 For me, when launched, RCM shows somewhere to the right of the right screen (mostly off screen) and can't be moved (have to resize the window which is already the width of two screens). The only way I can use it is to resize a little so I can see the title bar, then maximise which forces RCM to fit into the screen.
2.7 If I try to resize the window from top-right, it resizes quicker than I move the mouse so quickly ends up off screen. You can't recover from this - have to kill RCM from task manager and restart.
2.8 If you use increased font sizes, library screen choses to show all the whitespace and stuff you don't care about (series, category etc), but doesn't show the names of products.
Hardware: i3-9100f on MS H310M PRO-VD, 16G Ram, SanDisk Ultra 500G ssd, GTX 970, 2x Samsung LT24C300 @ 2048x1152, yamaha AG06
Software: Windows 10 18363, all vanilla settings apart from using 150% screen fonts.
Note that I have not a single complaint about instruments!
Thanks