Just got this from Roland Cloud:
We’ve got some great news for you! Based on feedback from Roland Cloud Members, we’ve drastically extended the time required between Roland Cloud sign-ins. We’ve gone from “internet always required” to “internet not required for up to a week between sign-ins.” To take advantage of this and many more new features and fixes, simply open Roland Cloud Manager and let it update your instruments.
Click HERE to get more details.
Terry
That is good news and removes a large concern of mine, which stopped me from looking at this option.
The other concern of mine was how much you pay over the years, with no outright ownership and what happens when you deactivate you account, so lose the VSTis you have come to rely upon. Either this was there from the outset and I missed it, or it is a another change, but I saw the following in the FAQ
For every 12 months as an active subscriber to Roland Cloud, you will be able to pick one out of any of your favorite Software Instruments or Software Studio tools that are included with your basic subscription tier to become yours permanently, regardless of your subscription status, forever. It doesn’t matter that this instrument or studio tool would individually sell for more than the cost of your basic subscription over 12-month period. We want you to have it. Since we’re always adding new software instruments and studio tools, every 12 months you’ll always have a new and exciting batch of rewards to choose from.
So at that point I might evaluate what they have via the demo and see if it is worth $20 a month.
They really throw a ton of stuff at you for the $20/month - more than you could ever use, I’d wager. Presets galore, a bunch of sample-based versions of the sounds, and even an audio editor that seems similar to Spectralayers (formerly from Sony, now from Magix). I’d say if you find it not that useful, to freeze all your tracks or bounce them to audio tracks (which is wise anyway as some of these emulations are true CPU eaters). Then you no longer need the VSTi’s.
Anyway - there is a month demo with everything. Danger - it is musical heroine! (At least you can drop out and come back in any time without penalty - except to get the 12-month-straight thing that qualifies you for the freebie you mentioned.)
Terry
Hi, Terry
To use a double negative, I don’t disagree… 
I was not going to look at it when it first came out. Due to the very restrictive subscription model. I have other software on subscription like the IDE I program my Java librarians in. The thing is there is when I choose to longer subscribe, I have the last version to keep working with. When the Roland Cloud first came out, they had not catered for live musicians and when you stopped subscribing, “that was the end my friend”.
I am one of these people who never finish songs, but abandon them for a period of time, and sometimes want to go back to them. I can do that so far with all of my current synths or VSTs because I pick them carefully, and so far all VSTis still run for me and the ones I have paid for will still hopefully do so for a while.
So in its first guise the Roland Cloud was not for me. Looking at it today, with the changes, I am all signed up, ready to give the trial a go when I get five minutes. I’ll report back
Finally got some time tonight with the Roland Cloud and think I will be subscribing. The standouts for me were the D50 emulation (such an iconic instrument), the Jupiter 8 and the System 8. I quite liked the Juno as well. If the original sounded like that, then you can see why it was popular; despite only being a single DCO, the chorus really warms it up.
As I mentioned above, when the Roland Cloud idea was first mooted, I was against it for the main reason being it would be no good outside of a studio due to needing to be online, and then what would happen when you stopped subscribing. Those concerns are gone now, You can use the system offline now for up to ten days without having to log in, and every 12 months you get to pick a synth to keep.
So at that point for $20 a month I’m in. If they do a could emulation of the VP330, I will be a happy man
I’m currently working on a new song - a combination of live (Montage, Kronos, AN1x) and VSTi (Diva) and I’ve already found a cool System 8 sound to drop in. To play this live with Cantabile, I am going to have to get my “brick computer” built
Nothing like a little incentification! 
I’m “all in” with Roland Cloud for the same synths and reasons as you. I’m only beginning to explore the sample-based offerings (much lower CPU hit with those) and many of those are D-50 based, if I remember correctly.
Terry
As I understand, the Anthology 1987 is based on the D-50 sounds, the Anthologyy 1990 is supposed to be based on sampled D-70 sounds. The Anthology 1985 is understood by most to be sounds from the Alpha Juno (“the Hoover is back”).
All pretty nice samples of the most popular patches of these synths, so a quite useful (and resource-efficient) collection.
Cheers,
Torsten
Yeah. I have been doing insane hours in work lately, so doing this has been knocked backwards, but I should be starting it soon, will probably order the components by the end of the month, which means going over all those threads for recommendations. I want to do the song I am currently working on down my local music venue soon, and for that I will need to run at least Diva 
in addition to my Montage and Kronos, so I will need the Brick for that, as my current gig laptop is not up to the task!
Up a week 
so funny
I’m in two minds about the Roland Cloud at present. If they added a VP330 or RS505, I’d probably jump in immediately.
I recently purchased a hardware System 8 and it is a brilliant synth. It doesn’t sound in any way to be an emulation to me. I have a Juno 106 that I’ve only recently given a whole lot of TLC. I fixed all the 80017a voice chips and did a complete factory calibration and alignment on it. It is about as close as possible to a brand new 106 straight from the factory.
As a result, I got curious to see how close the System 8 Juno plugout actually is. I created a few patches on the Juno (pads, leads and basses) and copied all the settings manually to the System 8 and I have to say, there really is NOTHING in it! They sound pretty much identical to me. If there are any differences, I’d have to put them down to component tolerances in my hardware Juno. In fact, I’d probably go as far as to state that the difference between two hardware Junos would be greater than the difference between a System 8 Juno plugout patch and a real Juno.
Another thing regarding the System 8. I also have two boutique JP08 synths and, while they sound very good, the System 8 Jupiter 8 plugout sounds better. I put it down to the ‘condition’ parameter on the System 8 which the boutiques don’t have. This basically emulates component drift and tolerance and makes all the difference regarding the subtle difference between notes and their tuning, especially when playing chords. The effect of component tolerance here really thickens chords and adds that extra fatness that the boutiques are slightly lacking in.
The boutiques are still great synths but the System 8 Jupiter 8 plugout is pretty much spot on like the Juno 106 plugout is.
If the VSTi Cloud System 8 is as good as the hardware, then it is a no brainer IMHO.
If I let my laptop connect to the interwebs to authorize this though MS and Windows will get in there and start doing potential Bad Things. I’d really love to figure out how to load LTSB and then that wouldn’t be a concern. My “no internet” rule is a major PITA for VST updates and authorizations in general.
Fred, I have my studio PC set to use WiFi as the only Internet connection and have it set as a metered connection. I haven’t had it try to download an update automatically at all yet.
I haven’t tried this next tip personally yet but am going to try it… Disable the Windows Update service. Some say it restarts itself occasionally though so might be worth keeping an eye on it.
I’m trying to get rid of any software that requires an Internet connection but one that I can’t avoid is the Blue Ripple Sound Ambisonic plugins. They require a connection to keep the licenses fresh every few weeks. I use them on everything and they are the core of my Ambisonic workflow. Hopefully, if Richard gets enough feedback from his customers, he will change his licensing scheme. His plugins are top notch quality and stability wise though.
On Win10- at least, the version I have- it seems you can’t disable updates. That’s my biggest issue right now. I’ll occasionally enable wifi for one reason or another but I make sure it’s weeks out from a gig lol
Fred, that post I made about disabling updates is specifically for Windows 10. I’m running Win 10 Home on my Sony Viao and Win 10 Pro on my studio PC. This works on both PC’s perfectly.
What edition/build are you running?
Fred, my laptop is running the Anniversary edition Win 10 home. Studio system is running Creators edition Win 10 Pro. The WiFi metered connection works on both.
Hi, Fred. Don’t think that will save you. I always kept WIFI disabled at least a week before a gig, and at my penultimate gig with Welsh Floyd, we had just started sound checking and Windoze 10 on my laptop decided it was going to go and do a MAJOR update. It took an hour before it had finished. Fortunately I had a backup machine running WIN7…
Conclusion, going to the free WIN10 Home from Win 7 was a huge mistake which I bitterly regret. I will soon be specifying that “brick PC” for my VSTis (and Cantabile of course), and I will be specifying Win 10 pro. The price difference was not that great and worth it to save my sanity!
BTW, I need to try it some time and will report back, but I did acquire some cheap (but legit) WIN10 pro licenses from “Software Geeks” which I keep meaning to put onto my gig laptop and music PC. The licenses were only about £20, so worth a try if it gets control back. But I have been so busy work wise this year, I have not been gigging for six months, so the urgency to apply these went away. Hopefully I will have time in a few weeks, I intend to get my computers backed up and try this out.
AHA! I see how the metered connection thing works now! Yeah, that could work. However, I read this:
"Note that this just affects the Wi-Fi network you’re currently connected to. Windows will remember this setting, however, and that particular Wi-Fi network will always be treated as a metered network whenever you connect.
As soon as you leave the Wi-Fi network and connect to another Wi-Fi network that isn’t considered metered, Windows 10 will resume automatically downloading updates and using the other restricted features. You’ll need to set that Wi-Fi connection as metered after you connect to stop this from happening."
So be ready for that- you head to a gig and Windows finds a new wifi connection and goes YAAAAY and starts downloading crap again. I’d still keep my adapter turned off except at home.