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Halion 6 shape of things to come

I was excited at first, but the strings, brass, piano and wavetable demos tempered that quite a bit. I will stick with Halion 5 atm and will take a good look at Falcon, seems the way to go for an hybrid synth/sampler.
 
The library demos are indeed surprisingly terrible.

But wouldn't that be the wrong way to judge a sampler anyway? Who cares about what libraries it ships with. It's as significant as the Kontakt Factory Library.
 
But wouldn't that be the wrong way to judge a sampler anyway? Who cares about what libraries it ships with. It's as significant as the Kontakt Factory Library.
What makes these libraries ridiculous to me:
1. These libraries are getting released in 2017 (they are unacceptable with today's standards)
2. They are made by Steinberg (one of the best music software companies in the world)
3. The guy in the videos keeps saying how incredible they are (which means he has no idea about realistic samples of today)
4. They named the brass library "Hot Brass"

If I were boss of Steinberg, I would fire the sampling team. Because they are hurting Steinberg's reputation.
 
What makes these libraries ridiculous to me:
1. These libraries are getting released in 2017 (they are unacceptable with today's standards)
2. They are made by Steinberg (one of the best music software companies in the world)
3. The guy in the videos keeps saying how incredible they are (which means he has no idea about realistic samples of today)
4. They named the brass library "Hot Brass"

If I were boss of Steinberg, I would fire the sampling team. Because they are hurting Steinberg's reputation.

Friends, great truth. Something wrong between Dorico and Halion 6. Steinberg have to think this marketing. Horrible! For me is better Club Cubase, amazing videos!
 
I agree 100% that the HALion 6 strings and brass are pretty terrible, and of course I'll never use them. If you're looking for a sampler/hybrid that has great libraries that comes with it or you can buy--HALion is not for you.

What makes HALion 6 special is that it has tools to automate making your own sampled instrument. For example, you hit one note, pause, then the next note, pause, etc. and HALion makes all the files, names them and arranges them on the keyboard to build your (basic) instrument. And if you want to share that instrument, HALion also comes with a host of knobs, sliders, buttons, etc for you to make your own interface. Very intuitive--drag them into place, and then assign their functions in a way similar to using MIDI learn. You want a picture? Drag one on.

These instruments can be exported and played by anyone in the free HALion Sonic SE player available on the Steinberg site.

For those who don't know, HALion a hybrid sampler/synth that allows you to combine 4 layers into a "program" (preset/patch) There are 5 possible layers--synth (including typical analog, but also wavetable & granular), sample, instrument, drum, and sliced loops. You can then assemble up to 64 programs into a multi. So when you're judging, for example, the two pianos that come with HALion 6, perhaps it makes more sense to think about how they can become elements in complex hybrid sounds, rather than to compare them with your favorite Kontakt piano libraries (where they probably lose). They are decent, but they shine in preset multis and the multis you make yourself.

There are also many synths in HALion that I think are quite good, particularly the wavetable synth Anima, the granular synth Auron, and the moog-style Analog synth Voltage. You're meant to layer this stuff up in HALion 6.

I haven't been exploring HALion that long, but the third thing that has my attention is a very intriguing arpeggiator-thingie called the Flex Phraser. If you have Cubase, you may have noticed it in HALion SE instruments like FlexPhrased Folk Nylon. In fact, every guitar sound that involves strumming, arpeggios, or finger-picking in HALion SE uses the FlexPhraser. With HALion 6 you have an enormous amount of flex phraser arps available for guitar, piano, bass, strings, drums, etc. in various genres.

flex phraser.jpg

All of these can be assigned to any instrument or layer and can be adjusted. The flex phrasers work in two ways. If you hold down one key they play something like a strum or a riff or an arp. But if you play chords it follows your playing, no matter what you play (no limitations on chords). Although I have many guitar apps, I find the flex phraser strumming and picking to be the most playable I've ever found. As a guitar player I tend to be constantly changing chords and a lot of libraries choke and stutter unless I make changes on the measures. The HALion stuff is the first time I've ever got a guitar VI to play the way I want it to. And there are adjustable dynamics built into them which make them more realistic. If you don't like the HALion guitars, the Flex Phrasers can be saved as MIDI files and used with any instrument you like.

If you have Cubase, try the Halion SE guitar picking and strumming and see what you think.
 
I am sure that Halion can sound very good when very good sample libraries are done for this sampler. Why not? :)
Perhaps I didn't explain myself well, and I apologize for that. I love Halion 6 and think there are many, many reasons why people should get it.

There's no reason why very good sample libraries can't be made for HALion 6. It's just that obviously very few developers are doing that yet. If what you are looking for today are already-existing products by Spitfire, Cinematic Studio series, Bohemian Violin, Embertone, Impact Soundworks, Heavyocity, and a hundred other companies, then HALion 6 isn't the best choice today. You may have a very long wait.

HALion is not a sampler, like Kontakt. It's a hybrid, more like Falcon, and has some characteristics of Omnisphere too.

I was trying (failing I guess) to spotlight that there are wonderful things that you CAN do with HALion 6, and you can't do with as well or as easily with any other product. People were putting down the string and brass sounds in this thread, and I wanted to speak up for what I feel are some of the strengths I am discovering as a new user.

Using HALion as a guitar strummer is like using my Omnisphere box as a doorstop. It represents less than .0000001% of what it can do. It is a very, very deep instrument. But all the same I've spent hundreds of dollars more trying to get the very satisfying results I've found using HALion as a guitar-pickin VI.

If you own Kontakt or Omnisphere it's only $249 for the crossgrade and you get a hell of a lot for that.
 
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Steinberg HALion | Behind-the-Scenes Developer Interview
A behind-the-scene interview with the head of the Steinberg instrument development team, where he explains the story and vision of their hybrid sound creation system: HALion

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What makes HALion 6 special is that it has tools to automate making your own sampled instrument. For example, you hit one note, pause, then the next note, pause, etc. and HALion makes all the files, names them and arranges them on the keyboard to build your (basic) instrument. And if you want to share that instrument, HALion also comes with a host of knobs, sliders, buttons, etc for you to make your own interface. Very intuitive--drag them into place, and then assign their functions in a way similar to using MIDI learn. You want a picture? Drag one on.

Is this possible in Halion 5? Is there a tutorial on this or is it pretty easy to do?
 
Since we seem to be the only developer making a real splash in the Halion platform at the moment (hopefully more developers will pop up) I thought I would point you all to a post for our 4th instrument coming October 16th...

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/sample-fuel-announces-revolution-reverse-instrument.75045/

Please check out our other instruments at www.samplefuel.com

Will HALion Sonic SE 3 continue to be adequate for Sample Fuel growth and creativity?
Is HALion 6 a likely move in near future ??
 
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Will HALion Sonic SE 3 continue to be adequate for Sample Fuel growth and creativity?
Is HALion 6 a likely move in near future ??
What's great about all the instruments that anybody can create in HALion 6 is that they can be played in Sonic Free player, which you can download from the Steinberg site.

It's similar to the free UVI player and Falcon. You can play all the instruments through the Sonic free player, but if you have HALion 6 you can do a lot more with them.
 
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