Is there a Roland Cloud compatible rack mount unit?

12 Apr 2025, 15:03

Hey, guys.

More and more, it seems like the Roland offerings are essentially hardware wrappers for the Roland Cloud. That being the case, I was wondering if there was some kind of rack mount unit that was also integrated with the cloud. The Integra 7 doesn't appear to be, and I wasn't finding anything else on their site, but I may not be looking in the right place.

I know that you can just use a laptop, but there are times when I prefer the simplicity of dedicated hardware that isn't as twitchy as a computer, so I figured a rack mount unit would be perfect. I do own a Fantom 7, and that's great for tactile controls. However, if I'm just playing the sounds, a rack mount would do just fine.

Am I missing something, or does such a thing just not exist?

Re: Is there a Roland Cloud compatible rack mount unit?

13 Apr 2025, 15:24

As far as I know, Integra 7 was the only one module Roland released a while ago. Noone knows what are Roland plans, but assuming that history is made of recurring events, a new era of instruments in a rack form might be feasible.
Rack and modules were widely used in the nineties of this century, in fact my home studio is built on several expanders from that era, that I'm not willing to sell because they still sound very well, even though they could be substituted by a bunch of virtual instruments. By the way, a full featured Roland Fantom XR with 6 SRX installed. a JV-2080 with 8 SR-JV80 and a JD-990 with Vintage Synth card, except Super Natural, can easily compete with Integra 7.
To sum up, I think that a new series of modules might be liked by modern musicians, even though from the manufacturer point of view, virtual instruments provide higher returns.

Re: Is there a Roland Cloud compatible rack mount unit?

14 Apr 2025, 01:32

I would certainly like such a module. The Jupiter-Xm might come close, and I even like the restrictions (4+1 parts) or the huge midi implementation, though, if they found a way to use the CLAP API over USB or something I wouldn't mind.

Re: Is there a Roland Cloud compatible rack mount unit?

14 Apr 2025, 02:15

The MC-101 is interesting as a module. It supports all the Zen-Core sounds (including all the XV5080 and SuperNatural synth sounds). It can import sounds from the Fantom. It is 4-part multi-trimbral. And it is affordable (~250 USD on the used market).

Re: Is there a Roland Cloud compatible rack mount unit?

14 Apr 2025, 03:45

xp30 wrote:

The MC-101 is interesting as a module. It supports all the Zen-Core sounds (including all the XV5080 and SuperNatural synth sounds). It can import sounds from the Fantom. It is 4-part multi-trimbral. And it is affordable (~250 USD on the used market).

In some way it doesn't support sysex messages as the bigger synths do, so for deeper parameter settings one would set up performances (I think?) and chose them, maybe via MIDI. Not saying it would be a worse solution, maybe even the better solution.

Re: Is there a Roland Cloud compatible rack mount unit?

15 Apr 2025, 19:45

The MC 101 looks powerful for its size. All in all, though, I'm surprised they haven't done a full on rack mount / cloud gizmo. One would think it would be right up their alley.