Steinberg releases HALion v3.5

Steinberg has announced the release of version 3.5 of its HALion 3 virtual sampler VST instrument (actually v3.5.593). The update adds native support for 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, as well as a new Factory Content sound bank consisting of 128 new electronic instruments and drum kits.

Adding compatibility to 64-bit Vista, HALion 3.5 can now address vast amounts of memory, allowing many more additional instruments to be loaded simultaneously.

Changes:

• HALion 3.5 is available as a native 64-bit plug-in and should work in any VST 2.4 compatible native 64-bit sequencer, like Cubase 5 or Cubase Studio 5. The dramatically enhanced memory address space gives new possibilities for really large setups and very detailed sampled instruments.
• New HALion 3 Factory 5 Content bank with 128 brand new sounds available.
• New entry available in the file menu: "Save as default Bank" allowing to save the current bank as default bank.
• New "Choose External Audio Editor" option in the global context menu to choose an external audio editor (like Wavelab or Sound Forge).
• Improved resampling algorithm quality.
• Preload time settable as global default by clicking on the apply button with Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (OS X) pressed.
• Changes in the disk-streaming engine: under specific circumstances HALion 3.5 features more reliable play back of disk streamed voices.

Due to several changes needed for 64-Bit compatibility, projects created with HALion 3.5 can not be loaded with any prior version (of course you can load projects created with versions before in 3.5). For 32-Bit and OS X users it is recommended to continue using HALion 3.3.2, except if you need compatibility to the HALion 3.5 64-Bit version. For example in dual boot configurations with 32/64-Bit Vista you need to install HALion 3.5 on the 32-Bit machine as well to keep compatibility between both.