Steinberg HALion | Behind-the-Scenes Developer Interview

[tripleflows]

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

[dmbaer]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

[ChamomileShark]

yes, thanks for posting this - sounds as if there will be more added in a maintenance update in summer.

[EvilDragon]

Hopefully FM engine, but we'll see.

[Tj Shredder]

I would not call this a "behind the scenes" interview, but I think Halion is much underrated and needs some extra attention.
If I look at all those "free" Kontakt libraries, I must say, the Halion engine and their licensing scheme has the potential to create really free instruments. The whole free sample library creators comunity should switch to Halion and abandon Kontakt. Not everybody has a full Kontakt...

[maximoog]

Hopefully FM engine, but we'll see.

FM is definitely fixed. But it will be something special for HALion and not DX compatible.

[EvilDragon]

Interesting, and shame. At least DX compatibility should be easy if it's done via 6x6 matrix or something... Doesn't seem too problematic to do.

[Tj Shredder]

For DX compatibility we have dexed, or if you want to pay, Arturia, FM7-8... I do not consider DX compatibility an important feature, nice to have, but I would never want to pay for a feature I don't really need, or could work around. I am keen on new approaches, "FM the Halion" way sounds much more promising than "it can load 35 year old DX-7 patches", even if I have no idea what that could be...; - )

[EvilDragon]

It's nice to have it at least as initial startpoints for modifying patches, or just adding them as another layer etc.... it would surely be nice.

[biomechanoid]

I would not call this a "behind the scenes" interview, but I think Halion is much underrated and needs some extra attention.
If I look at all those "free" Kontakt libraries, I must say, the Halion engine and their licensing scheme has the potential to create really free instruments. The whole free sample library creators comunity should switch to Halion and abandon Kontakt. Not everybody has a full Kontakt...

I bought Halion recently, primarily because of their licensing scheme for library developers. However, I've been unable to use it because I had issues authorising it, and 3 weeks later have had literally zero help from their support - no reply at all despite multiple messages - and have had to resort to opening a PayPal dispute to get my money back. If they want to encourage creators to use their software they need to do a much, much better job supporting their software.

[fmr]

For DX compatibility we have dexed, or if you want to pay, Arturia, FM7-8... I do not consider DX compatibility an important feature, nice to have, but I would never want to pay for a feature I don't really need, or could work around. I am keen on new approaches, "FM the Halion" way sounds much more promising than "it can load 35 year old DX-7 patches", even if I have no idea what that could be...; - )

I hope Yamaha finally take the SY series approach, and unite FM with sampling (RCM). If they are including FM, I hope for at least six operators, and therefore, adding the RCM will be as simple as allowing another layer to be a modulation input, or allowing one of the operators to load a sample.

THAT's what I would like to see in the FM implementation in a sampler.

[tripleflows]

Intermodulation between all type of current sound generator section as modulator is something that makes sense, similarly to Avenger.

I also vote for a new, improved yet intuitive FM synthesis instead of following the legacy standards.

[Romantique Tp]

The FM synthesis engine most likely wont have SysEx import, but you'll probably be able to replicate classic patches quite easily if it's flexible enough. Looking at the other Halion synth engines, I'm sure that it wont disappoint.

Note that many people who did sound design for Yamaha's FM synths still work for them, so there's a good chance that it will come with updated versions of various classic sounds out of the box if Yamaha and Steinberg cooperate again.

I bought Halion recently, primarily because of their licensing scheme for library developers. However, I've been unable to use it because I had issues authorising it, and 3 weeks later have had literally zero help from their support - no reply at all despite multiple messages - and have had to resort to opening a PayPal dispute to get my money back. If they want to encourage creators to use their software they need to do a much, much better job supporting their software.

What was the issue? If you couldn't activate your license at all (which I've never seen happen with Halion) you could just have messaged asknet support and asked for a refund. No need to get PayPal involved.

[biomechanoid]

What was the issue? If you couldn't activate your license at all (which I've never seen happen with Halion) you could just have messaged asknet support and asked for a refund. No need to get PayPal involved.

I got the download links on their website at end of purchase process, but the purchase didn't show up in the existing Steinberg account I was logged into, and I didn't get any emails with authorisation info. Therefore I can't authorise as I have no codes to input. Emailed both Steinberg & Asknet asking politely for help multiple times, literally zero response. Asknet didn't respond to multiple messages via Paypal before I opened dispute either. FWIW, there are others on Twitter reporting similar stories with Steinberg support at the moment.

Anyway, probably not the right thread for this.

[himalaya]

Hello Colin? Is that you?
Long time no see!

I've also been thinking about Halion and its locensing scheme. I loved working in Halion Sonic for some of its factory content, a powerful beast, Halion even more so.
Need more time in the day though!