Leave a Review Roland Zenbeats
Good but constant issues.
I absolutely love this app and pay for the ultimate but the sound doesn’t work half the time. Really getting tired of getting a song going and then having the sound not work for multiple hours. Then sometimes it cuts off only for a minute or two. It would be nice to just work through one project without getting a major headache every time. It’s setup perfect if only it worked :(Show lessUltra Ultra Media
Piece of junk
The demo doesn’t allow me to try out plugins, so I’m forced to spend $15 to try it. Sorry, should say 15 points (seriously, do you think your users are 5 years old? We do understand how money works.)
Spent $15 and when I try to use 3rd-party plugins I get a screen asking me to pay to unlock the functionality. The App Store shows that I purchased it, but this piece of junk won’t recognize my purchase.
Even the functionality I can use isn’t much use, as it crashes every now and then. Every time I open it, the app assumes I want to start putting something together with drums, and even if I change the startup setting, it still starts with a drum track. I can only assume that this toy is only aimed at non-musicians.
Avoid it and find an alternative.Show lessMichaelmenary
Cool at first glance
I now wish I never downloaded this it’s cool but crashes when you start to add for then a few loops
The biggest problem wich is the deal breaker is, it randomly mutes audio or won’t play audio from certain drums even if you can clearly see what you put down it wont play ( it plays one note that wasn’t even added by me, basically takes everything you did and adds a random note, so no song.Show lessbarthalimuel
Missing song files
I love this zenbeats app been using it for quite a while now but I wonder about something is there anyway for me to get my song files back when I open the app all of my files were deleted out of my files folderZexxcool
This app needs a complete overhaul
It looks very powerful but it’s also extremely fidgety. There are too many views drop down screens etc to do simple things well. Taping on midi clips doesn’t respond well on iOS . Same goes for audio the interface feels very crowded and like many roland interfaces seems cryptic. I keep trying to get going with zen beats but most likely it’s headed for the trash. Peace Christo👽Show lessMuzikalaChristo
Anything but Zen.
This app is currently very frustrating to work with. Note editing is slow and cumbersome. Basic editing tools are burried behind a press-and-wait hidden menu system; Two seconds of holding to open the menu, then make a selection (which often just fails to execute the action, forcing you to press, hold, repeat) - meanwhile there's fields of unused space in the UI where common task buttons could go, not there. What takes moments in any other DAW takes minutes in this app. This app should still be in private beta, not in the market for sale. I'm so surprised Roland put their name on a product this bad.Show lessEndUseroftheother20%
Developer Response
Hi there! Thank you for taking the time to review Zenbeats and share your experience. We are actively working on a new update to improve much of those features including the layout of shortcuts. Stay tuned in the next few months for more to come.Why?
I've been giving this app a second chance, for about a week. I produce music for multiple outlets, and needed a quick mobile sketchpad. Once you come to grips with the mind boggling mess of a GUI, your left with very strange behavior from AU/VSTish plugins, but still very good sounds. Basic instruments are really good, and the sound banks are very nice as well, which is why this program is so frustrating. It must be an iOS thing, because Cubasis falls flat as well.
Specific Issues:
1. Latest Update breaks monitoring, gives you a fit of Feedback in headphones. Seriously.
2. Settings selection in the main mixer gives you crazy Tetris Esq blocks all over, why?
3. Is basically broken in playback of older songs, they are very low volume and get lost in feedback loops caused by the device microphone, as in the iPad mic.
4. Crashes about every minute or freezes and glitches, unusable currently.
My system is a 2020 Ipad Pro on iOS14.Show lesstokyomachine
I really want to like this... but
EDIT: So this app now works as a GUI for verselab, but no support for MC-707? Downgraded to one star.
I’m a Roland fan. I really want to like and use this app, however navigating the interface is just not intuitive for me. I feel the pricing could be more in line with something like Korg Gadget. I just don’t want to feel nickel and dimes for every feature and sound pack. So minus one for that too.
One star for the “look” of the interface and one for sound quality.
If Roland updates it to work with the MC-707 (which I own), I may try it again.Show lessmikenoface
Audio files missing
I want to give zenbeats 5 stars because when it’s working it deserves nothing less. But occasionally, with no rhyme or reason, a session that I was working on and saved will load up with some or all of the audio files missing. The waveforms will be there as I put them, edited and placed in the exact same way, but they’re empty. This is a huge issue even if it’s a project you just started, and luckily it hasn’t happened on any projects I’ve spent hours working on, but I’m pretty terrified it will and there will be nothing I can do about it. Roland please fix this so I can keep using what’s otherwise my favorite DAW on ios.Show lessjoeytubesocks
Developer Response
We'd love to help. Contact us at https://www.roland.com/backstage/#/zenbeats-support and we'll set something up.This thing is amazing now. The amount of improvement is staggering!
Let me start out by saying Ive been checking in on this app off and on for maybe 6-8 months (just a best guess). My first impression was “ah, this is awesome - real potential here”. But then the bugs and crashes and freezes got me.
I’ve checked back maybe every 45 days or something since then and it’s just been rock solid, steady improvement after steady improvement after steady improvement. I think I own just about every music production app worth owning on iOS these days (and scores of apps not worth owning!) and I have to say, never before have I ever seen an app improve consistently like this. Ever. No where even close that I can think of. This thing has just gotten better and better and better. Now it’s super stable, reliable, powerful and for my money, the best tool for top to bottom on iOS at the moment. I said it. I believe it.
I’m all about Roland these days, extremely refreshing, extremely impressive. This brand has earned my respect and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store.Show lessCodowlsky Polopumus
Developer Response
Hi Codowlsky, Thanks for taking the time to review. We'd love to hear more about your frustration points. Contact us at https://www.roland.com/backstage/#/zenbeats-support and we'll be here to listen.
