HALion 6 and HALion Sonic 3

[Matthias Quellmann]

Hi all,

Today we proudly announce the next generations of our VST instrument flagship HALion and its workstation counterpart, HALion Sonic. In only two weeks Steinberg will release HALion 6, HALion Sonic 3 and Absolute 3 with the former two now included in the collection.

Let me give you a brief overview what you will find in HALion 6 and what else has changed in the HALion universe.

The sound and instrument design opportunities in HALion have been vastly extended. You can now easily create and design your own Macro Pages directly in HALion via drag and drop. HALion Script gives you the chance to dive deeper into HALion than ever before. The Library Creator is the new tool to create your own monolithic VST Sound archives with samples, presets, Macro Pages and library icons. The instruments and VST Sound archives that you create in HALion can now also be loaded in HALion Sonic and HALion Sonic SE. Plus, HALion Sonic SE will be available free of charge on the Steinberg website as a stand-alone version and plug-in for VST, AU and AAX. The full process of creating instrument libraries is now covered in HALion.

Another highlight is the new wavetable zone in HALion. If you now think “nah, not another wavetable…”, don’t be too quick to judge. The HALion approach is absolutely unique, ultra-fast and very musical. When importing a new sample in the wavetable zone, markers are instantly set and an envelope is automatically created that blends through the different waves without any artifacts. Spectral analysis, pitch detection, spectrum editing, a dedicated noise oscillator, formant shifting — this wavetable is fully equipped and ready for action.

HALion can now record samples. We have been discussing this feature a lot. Since sampling in Cubase and then importing the wave in HALion has always been a reliable workaround, sampling never made it to the top of our priority list. However, when we finally gave it a try, discussed the concept and played around with the first working sketches, we realized how much fun this is and how much potential this has. The Sample Recorder lets you record single samples or the full key range with one workflow. You can record external sources, other VST instruments and even HALion itself. Automatic mapping, fill gaps, auto trim — it’s so much fun and makes creating your own samples or just experimenting with sounds so easy.

Of course our sound design team has also put a lot of effort in the content development in order to improve the existing HALion library. We carefully analyzed the existing library and collected a lot of user feedback to fill gaps and add new sounds that are most needed. The 25 GB of new content now includes a mix of acoustic instruments perfect for contemporary music productions, experimental sounds for cinematic and avant-garde projects and lots of presets for the new wavetable synthesis for electronic music productions. You can listen to all the new instruments and also catch a first glimpse at the new features at http://www.steinberg.net/halion

The HALion documentation will be made available on the day of release at http://www.steinberg.help. You will also find a link there to an additional documentation platform for the HALion Script, the Macro Page Designer and the Library Creator with detailed descriptions of the parameters and functionalities and lots of examples.

You may also have noticed that the forum structure has slightly changed. HALion and HALion Sonic can now be found under the same roof. There will be new sub-forums for feature requests, pre-sales questions, issues and a completely new forum for sound design topics regarding HALion Script and the Macro Page Designer. You will also find a sub-forum for user content, offering a place to discuss your own instruments, libraries and designs. It is currently not possible to upload your user content to a specific community platform, but there already are some ideas for the future. For now you have to link to your private cloud drive to provide your content.

Last, but still worth mentioning: HALion and HALion Sonic no longer require the USB-eLicenser. If you already have an USB-eLicenser with a HALion license you can, of course, keep your license management on the USB.

[fenderchris]

Wow! That looks good. I can't wait.

With Live Recording Halion finally becomes a real sampler in the true sense of the word. Great stuff.

[TheMaestro]

Scripting alone is a huge step forward!
Not to mention the rest.

Bravo!

[maggie]

Pity, no DX7-compatible FM synthesis, that would be still a highlight.

Maybe in version 6.1?

[lulu m]

Looks so promising, I can't wait to try it out!! Just love Halion. Maybe this update makes me forget the somewhat deceptional Cubase udate

[MrSoundman]

The instruments and VST Sound archives that you create in HALion can now also be loaded in HALion Sonic and HALion Sonic SE. Plus, HALion Sonic SE will be available free of charge on the Steinberg website as a stand-alone version and plug-in for VST, AU and AAX.

This is HUGE -- thank you so much!

[DodgingRain]

This is what Halion really needed, looks awesome!

[mozizo]

Looks impressive good job
lot of new and usefull features that allow hopefully to let halion become more popular among users and 3rd party sound designers

[StrangeDaysOnEarth]

Nice indeed! Goes a long way toward mitigating the Cubase 9 disappointment. This is a no-brainer update for sure.

[kimbo72]

What is the upgrade prize from H5 to H6?

[MrSoundman]

What is the upgrade prize from H5 to H6?

We don't know yet, but H4->H5 was €99.

[Matthias Quellmann]

What is the upgrade prize from H5 to H6?

Hi,

the update price will be the same as the update from H4>H5.

[Puma0382]

All looks and reads great, what you've posted so far Matthias... A lot of very promising stuff - some hard work been going on..!

Mind, those Brass and String demos are NOT flattering...

[Matthias Quellmann]

Solo brass demos are always kind of ungrateful. Please trust me, the instruments sound much better in a full track context. Anyhow, you are totally right: We need some better demos for the brass and strings.

[mozizo]

We need some better demos for the brass and strings.

Yes indeed.. hope the actuall sounds are better to use in real projects.
Anyhow looks as a great update.

[kimbo72]

What is the upgrade prize from H5 to H6?

Hi,

the update price will be the same as the update from H4>H5.

99 euro's ? NICE!

And what about NKS files for kompete kontrol keyboards?

[Matthias Quellmann]

And what about NKS files for kompete kontrol keyboards?

There will be no NKS support in the initial release of HALion 6.

[kimbo72]

And what about NKS files for kompete kontrol keyboards?

There will be no NKS support in the initial release of HALion 6.

Ok maybe in the future.

And with the Halion 6 comes Halion sonic 3 and the 25 GB library?

[Matthias Quellmann]

Yes, HALion Sonic 3 and all the new instrument libraries are included in HALion 6.

[roel]

Quote:
You can record external sources, other VST instruments and even HALion itself.

Question:
So, Is the audio input for Halion assignable from connections, sends, or from the audio output of a track ?
Is it one stereo input in Halion or can any (audio/synth) track outputs be send to a Halion input in some sort of mixer ?

tx,
kind regards,
R.

[Matthias Quellmann]

Quote:
You can record external sources, other VST instruments and even HALion itself.

Question:
So, Is the audio input for Halion assignable from connections, sends, or from the audio output of a track ?
Is it one stereo input in Halion or can any (audio/synth) track outputs be send to a Halion input in some sort of mixer ?

Hi,

You can use the sends in Cubase 9 to route stereo audio to HALion. Just like Retrologue 2 in Cubase 9. In the standalone mode you can just use any input from your soundcard.

[funkycornwall]

Very excited to hear about HALion 6 and Sonic 3. I particularly love the Flexphrase feature which I think is a brilliant tool and I was wondering whether there are any updates and improvements to this area in the new version. Very much looking forward to seeing the new products.

[Eneco]

We carefully analyzed the existing library and collected a lot of user feedback to fill gaps and add new sounds that are most needed.

Besides the new instrument sets (Grand Pianos / Brass / Strings / Anima / Skylab), are there any other small instruments that are combined in some sort of factory content?

[Matthias Quellmann]

Very excited to hear about HALion 6 and Sonic 3. I particularly love the Flexphrase feature which I think is a brilliant tool and I was wondering whether there are any updates and improvements to this area in the new version. Very much looking forward to seeing the new products.

There will be two new features in the user mode of the flexphraser:

- There will be a third controller curve available in the arpeggiator
- There will be a additional Velocity Modes that allow external controllers to generate or modulate the velocity of the notes

[Matthias Quellmann]

Besides the new instrument sets (Grand Pianos / Brass / Strings / Anima / Skylab), are there any other small instruments that are combined in some sort of factory content?

No, there will only be new presets for the new libraries and for the new Combi Library that makes use of the layer structure in HALion and HALion Sonic to combine different instruments.