Hi people,

Anyone using Halion with SF2 files? How well does it convert them? Do they sound like the originals (or better?)
I ask cos I'm looking at getting a sampler in the next few days and would like to be able to use the SF2 sounds i have. (plus they're cheap/free & easily available)

Any thoughts would be appreciated

cheers

I use HALion with SF2 files all the time, in fact they're my main source of sounds now, and they import really well. I don't know about filters and stuff because I tend to use sampled "real" instruments, but for those it does a good job.

Hi Smeagol,

yes, you should also think about Virtual Sampler. This Sampler is the only one, that can truely read Soundfonts. All the other Samplers have to convert SF2's first into their own format.

BUT: the more complex the Soundfont is written, the more mistakes will occur while a sampler imports them. Some mistakes will always come up.
That's the advantage of Soundcards that support the SF2-format. You can play the sounds as they really are.

The most cheap alternative would be bismark's BS-1
Soundfontplayer...

Grtz!

[ 31 July 2002, 08:57: Message edited by: TrekStar ]

TrekStar writes :"you should also think about Virtual Sampler. This Sampler is the only one, that can truely read Soundfonts", so don't forget about NI Kontakt.

[ 31 July 2002, 13:50: Message edited by: Jackart ]

Thanks for the advise peeps (and the 2 cents Josmoker )

I'll probably be stoned to death for saying it but I don't like Kontact. I tried the demo and although it did sound good the interface was 'strange' and didn't do things the way i thought it would.

Call me a fussy bugger but I wasn't too keen on Virtual Sampler either. Gonna play around with the demo a bit more to make sure.

Is there a demo version of Halion about? - Steinberg web site doesn't show one but seeing as everyone else has demos it seems a big crazy not to.

Hi,

I recently bought Halion. Have had some problems with reading AKAI CDs, but an update to v1.1.1 did it.
SF2: The most SF2s were imported properly, specially when they had been originally programmed by EMU. However, I experienced some problems with several SF2, e.g. with a stereo 20 MB Steinway Grand Piano SF2 (Warren Trachtman), where only the samples from the left channel have been imported.

I am sure that a little bit tweaking at the import options or of the structure of the SF2 in Vienna could fix these minor problems.

About HALion in general: I am not sure whether I can recommend it, because I own it since one week. I had many troubles (v1.1.0 didn`t want to import AKAI; v1.1.1 did import AKAI was was not playable in SONAR, so I had to downgrade to v1.1.0 again after I have had converted all my AKAI stuff.
To anyone who is thinking about to use HALion in conjunction with SONAR: Better think of a different combination, cause HALion + SONAR = many, many trouble!!! Even the guys from Steinberg support told me, that they are testing HALion (and other VSTi) only with Cubase and they can not guarantee that HALion, even its future updates will run with SONAR (by the means of a VST adapter). So, don't burn your fingers on that combination!

Best regards

DavidP

Hello

Soundfonts is my format too, and I've tried all samplers that imports/load/read soundfonts. Vsampler 2.74 reads them well, but not well enough. Both HALion and Kontakt have problems, wrong loop-points, wrong filter settingins and sometimes they put the samples on the wrong place. The new Vsampler3 looks very promising, and they are working with soundfontimport to get it as right as possible.

The only alternative now is Jeskola XS-1 and Bismarc BS-1, but they are a litlle bit limited. BS-1 are not multitimbral, and the Jeskola are 4 part multitimbral.

Another option for Soundfonts is Reasons NN-XT. This sampler is proberly the sampler that read Soundfonts best now, but since i dont need all the other stuff that Reason provides, I will continue to use my Vsampler, and upgrade to 3.0 when available.

You can download a demo of all these samplers, and try for yourself. There can be differences between pro made Soundfonts and free downloaded Soundfonts, so you better try as many as possible.

I've bought some Soundfonts from www.sonicimplants.com and they are great. All their Soundfonts' samples are based on their samplelibrary for AKAI, EMU and Giga, and they are very playable, and great sounding.