Zenology new update (2.03) crashes reaper

Hey MINDKeys, it’s Jon from Roland Cloud. I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing this issue. Could you please provide me with more details about the nature of the problem? What triggers the crash? Does it occur immediately after loading ZENOLOGY? Also, please let me know the type of machine and operating system you’re running. Additionally, have you ensured that all involved software is up to date and the latest versions are installed?

I am having the same issue with Cakewalk. I updated to the new Zenology yesterday and I can no longer open ANY of my Cakewalk projects that use the the Zenology VST. As I have made a commitment to Roland Cloud this is almost ALL of my work from the last 2 years. This is an absolute disaster. I cannot do ANYTHING. Evry project I try to open that uses Zenology VST causes Cakewalk to crash.
If I start a new project it takes several minutes to load an instance of Zenology and the computer runs slow.
There are massive issues with this update and it needs reversing immediately and fixed

I have looked further into this and it appears to be a problem where there are multiple instances of the Zenology VST in the same project.
Projects with just 1 do open. However, even 1 instance of the VST causes projects to hang on opening and projects that would normally open in 10 or 20 seconds are taking well over a minute. Also, while working, any instance of the VST in a project slows things up dramatically. The computer keeps hanging and pausing.
I ran the update yesterday morning (23/3/25) and the problem started immediately. I have never had this issue before and have been using Zenology for years.
All projects that done use Zenology open fine in the normal load time and run without an issue.

PC Specs:
Intel i7-7700 3.6 GHz
32 GB RAM
Windows 10 / Cakewalk / VSTs all running on 500 GB M.2 SSD (193 GB Free)
Cakewalk Projects saved to independent 250 GB M.2 SSD (231 GB Free)

JSRoland1031 wrote:

Hey MINDKeys, it’s Jon from Roland Cloud. I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing this issue. Could you please provide me with more details about the nature of the problem? What triggers the crash? Does it occur immediately after loading ZENOLOGY? Also, please let me know the type of machine and operating system you’re running. Additionally, have you ensured that all involved software is up to date and the latest versions are installed?

Hello. I opened a case already with support (#850377)
Anyway i have an I7 8700K running Windows 11, 23H2 - 22631.5039.
Reaper was version REAPER v7.34 now updated to v7.35 but problem still remains (altough it seems now takes more instances to crash.

The issu is simple to recreate, just create new project in reaper, add Zenology to the FX, add another Zenology, another, another... GUI fails, can't access any instance of Zenology, might crash...

Best regards

@JSRoland1031 Seems i am not the only one, not good for the image... Hope this is P1 for Roland, I was trying to see if i can depend on Roland Cloud for tracking duties as it is simpler than connecting the Fantom all the time... Can't even imagine depending on this live...

MINDKeys wrote:

@JSRoland1031 Seems i am not the only one, not good for the image... Hope this is P1 for Roland, I was trying to see if i can depend on Roland Cloud for tracking duties as it is simpler than connecting the Fantom all the time... Can't even imagine depending on this live...

Voxneon wrote:

I am having the same issue with Cakewalk. I updated to the new Zenology yesterday and I can no longer open ANY of my Cakewalk projects that use the the Zenology VST. As I have made a commitment to Roland Cloud this is almost ALL of my work from the last 2 years. This is an absolute disaster. I cannot do ANYTHING. Evry project I try to open that uses Zenology VST causes Cakewalk to crash.
If I start a new project it takes several minutes to load an instance of Zenology and the computer runs slow.
There are massive issues with this update and it needs reversing immediately and fixed

I’m sorry to hear you’re both facing these problems. Along with MINDKeys, many users have already this issue to customer support, and they’re actively investigating it. We hope to have a solution for you very soon.

JSRoland1031 wrote:

I’m sorry to hear you’re both facing these problems. Along with MINDKeys, many users have already this issue to customer support, and they’re actively investigating it. We hope to have a solution for you very soon.

@JSRoland1031 It would be great if there was a way to revert to the previous version so users can have a way to continue working if a new update breaks something.
My sugestion for a feature, instead of only Remove option in Roland Cloud Manager for a Software you could add the option: "Revert to previous version"

Right now i'm stuck, i was trying to build a workflow to use Zenology instead of Roland to record in the DAW, have to revert to using the Fantom and abandon Roland Cloud.

MINDKeys wrote:

JSRoland1031 wrote:

I’m sorry to hear you’re both facing these problems. Along with MINDKeys, many users have already this issue to customer support, and they’re actively investigating it. We hope to have a solution for you very soon.

@JSRoland1031 It would be great if there was a way to revert to the previous version so users can have a way to continue working if a new update breaks something.
My sugestion for a feature, instead of only Remove option in Roland Cloud Manager for a Software you could add the option: "Revert to previous version"

Right now i'm stuck, i was trying to build a workflow to use Zenology instead of Roland to record in the DAW, have to revert to using the Fantom and abandon Roland Cloud.

Absolutely, MINDKeys. I am having random timeouts on this forum restricting me from commenting randomly. The best course of action might be to reach out through customer support, we will happily get you a previous version while we get this all figured out.

The same problem occurs here with Cubase 14 Pro and Zenology Pro Collection. In the past few weeks I have worked a lot on projects that use an instance of Zenology for all sounds. In some projects 15-20 instances (like individual drum channels). Projects with only Zenology for instruments and no other VST brands.
When I worked with that on my old ASUS laptop (i7-4710HQ + NVidia GPU, updated to full RAM and new SSD drives) it was no problem at all up to 2 days ago, although I sometimes had to "Freeze" instruments to be able to work smoothly. Not strange with such an old CPU... but it worked great.

Yesterday (or the day before?) I installed the Zenology update (2.0.3). Projects with all instruments frozen load fine... but woe betide when I try to unfreeze a few instances (4 if I remember well). Then the Cubase GUI goes haywire and everything turns white... white like a snowstorm at the South Pole.

Projects with Zenology instances (three or four) not frozen, the GUI goes haywire after loading the project. The screens open without an error message (which would be unreadable)... there is just nothing to see of a project... only white. If I close Cubase via the cross in the upper right corner, then that also goes without messages and I just end up in the Cubase Hub where I can choose another project... which goes haywire when Zenology joins in...

I have some technical insight into the workings of software, but given the long loading time of each Zenology instance I get the impression that no resources are shared but that each instance of Zenology is loaded as if it were the only one.
Previously, loading only took longer for the first instance and the following instances were each loaded in a much shorter time.

I haven't tested transferring projects to the more modern on-site PC yet, but given previous user reports I think that's pointless.

In reaper you can load the Performance Meter and monitor the RAM usage, each instance of Zenology is just taking an aditional 100/150MB as it was before... Except it takes long time as you said and now crashes after 4 instances.

If we are to believe the forum moderator, we can expect a solution soon. Such a problem occurs by accident and usually has an obvious reason. Someone with a bit of programming experience should be able to solve this within a few days.

JSRoland1031 wrote:

The best course of action might be to reach out through customer support, we will happily get you a previous version while we get this all figured out.

I can confirm this. Everything is working fine here again after v2.0.3 was replaced by v2.0.2. Thanks for the quick support!

Also requested the older version to downgrade, working ok now with more instances, except for something that already happened before, sometimes it slows down a lot when loading a new instance and the can't connect to Roland Cloud windows comes up, also changing patches becomes extremely slow sporadically. Have Roland CLoud Pro license, Net OK, Roland services are OK...

Hoping all get fixed soon in the next version.

I have purchased a Lifetime License for everything I use regularly, such as Zenology Pro, EXZ expansions, JD-800 and Vocal Designer. Roland Cloud (probably) does not need to be connected for that. In any case, I never get connection notifications. I even regularly turn off the internet connection when I work with Cubase.
Presumably, with a subscription, it has to be checked more regularly.