Roland Cloud SRX and XV module updates from £18.50

It’s full steam ahead for Roland’s Cloud. Andy Jones checks out the latest four sound modules to reach for the skies

- Andy Jones

Roland’s Cloud service is becoming more of an attractive proposition thanks to the company’s continued additions to the service, of which we have four on test here. The Cloud delivers bone-fide Roland instruments and sound packs in software, within categories like Legendary (for classic synths), Aira (for the newer System-1 and System-8 emulations), Anthology and SRX (for sample-based instruments) and Drum (for soft drum machines including the TR-808 and 909). The instruments are expertly modelled using ACB and DCB (Analog and Digital Circuit Behavior) technology so you get everything from a vintage Jupiter-8 or TB-303 emulation to more digital offerings like the D-50, while other sampled-based categories give you all the tools for hip hop, orchestral and other genre production.

You subscribe for £18.95 a month and you’ll get to keep one instrument per year on a permanent license. While the instruments on the Roland Cloud have so far been mostly vintage ’80s and ’90s models, the latest sound module updates all break (just) into the 21st century with a trio of SRX expander instruments and the mighty XV-5080 rack module. The original SRX expanders were plugin boards of 64MB of sound ROM, released in 2000 for a range of Roland hardware including the XV modules and Fantom series of keyboards. You literally plugged them in and played extra sounds, with each board themed by genre or instrument category. They were successors to the likes of the SR-JV80 range, smaller 8MB boards that appeared in classic ’90s gear like the JV-1080 – also up in the Cloud, and another worthy addition to this particular sonic fog.