KVR Audio

xphen0m · Post by **xphen0m** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:47 pm

I've narrowed down my search for a new synth workstation to two: Halion Sonic and EWQL Goliath.

WHAT TYPE OF SOUND DO I LIKE: I like SOME "synthy" sounds, but I mostly use natural sounds as I have Sonik Synth, and love what it offers, but am not crazy on the quality and it's not 64 bit.

Which one do you think I'd be more satisfied with?

I had the pleasure to try Hypersonic 2 a long time ago, and absolutely loved it, but I never bought it for whatever reason. I really regret doing that as I can't buy Hypersonic's license at the present. On the upside: I have a friend who is offering me a HS2 installation disc. If I buy Halion Sonic, I'd be able to also use Hypersonic again. That's what's drawing me to Halion Sonic.

But on the flip side, I'd be wanting to use Halion Sonic (as that's what I would've bought). One constant thing I've heard about Hal Sonic is that the HS2 library is more diverse.

Goliath seems as if it'd be more diverse and offer a great range of natural sounding instruments. Also, it's on a massive price drop at Sweetwater.com at the moment (which I pray remains intact for another couple of weeks when I'll be able to buy it).

However, the possibility of being able to use Hypersonic along with Halion Sonic really intrigues me and something keeps drawing me to it. However, I could see myself mostly using Hypersonic, and that wouldn't be right as I paid for Halion Sonic.

I'm at wit's end and I really need some guidance here.

lol

himalaya · Post by **himalaya** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:11 pm

Natural + 'synthy' ? That's Halion Sonic then. The synth engine in Halion SOnic is very deep and sounds great. Mix that with the sample content and you will have a very powerful set of sounds.

I have Sonik Synth, and love what it offers,

I've got that too.

Some very cool sounds in there.

musicdoc · Post by **musicdoc** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 2:00 am

Goliath sounds good on paper, but in reality, there is not as many sounds as you think there, just lots of variations on different base sounds. The drumsets are dated and unflexible. Pianos, I personally find them useless. The GM section sounds are hit and miss. There's a lot of sounds that are extremely detailed, but if you don't like the sound to begin with, than who cares?

All in all my useage of whatever it was called before Goliath(forget the name) was limited in that it just never did it for me despite the gigabytes of sound. When I went to Win7, it just didn't get installed.

Plus in its current incarnation, you get the pleasure of dealing with PLAY, their RAM hungry, resource sucking, inflexible sample engine known for its legendary incompatibility. And as a bonus, I hear their current customer support system leaves a bit to be desired, to put it mildly.

Now Hypersonic/Halion Sonic, they get used in almost every production. Just great bread and butter sounds, percussion, and a nice synth section to boot.

lotus2035 · Post by **lotus2035** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 2:47 am

If you choose Halion Sonic you have the choice to upgrade to Halion 4 later. I did myself and I love Halion 4, it's my favourite piece of software to use.

xphen0m · Post by **xphen0m** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:36 pm

I decided to go with Halion Sonic. There are just too many pros compared to cons to pass up. Actually, there are no real cons.

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:49 pm

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Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:18 pm

xphen0m wrote:I've narrowed down my search for a new synth workstation to two: Halion Sonic and EWQL Goliath.

No doubt you made the right choice. Has Goliath been updated since 2008? Goliath got a big library, but 40GB is less than ships with Kontakt. And don't forget Goliath users need the iLok dongle.

Halion Sonic latest version is from 2012, half the price of Goliath and much more expandable.

As I got an iLok I would consider Goliath second hand if I found it for less than USD80, paying more than that, no way.

MetroSonus · Post by **MetroSonus** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:25 pm

you should read through the halion sonic thread that was just up. especially my post at the end.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=290533

40 gigs in Goliath doesn't add up to that many instruments. It's mostly tied up in round robin samples, multisamples and velocity switched layers. That's good if that's what you want.. but if you want a broad set of sounds, sonic sounds the best. And if you get halion you can extend that set.

halion still needs stineberg's elicenser key.

xphen0m · Post by **xphen0m** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 10:42 pm

Before I purchase, I just have one question for anyone who has experience with the eLicenser dongles:

How hard is it to install and license with the dongle? I'm on Windows 8 64 bit, so I'm curious if it's possible I'll run into any problems or have to jump through hoops to get this working?

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 3:08 am

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xphen0m · Post by **xphen0m** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:30 pm

So, I bought Halion Sonic yesterday and received it today from Sweetwater. (One day shipping FTmfW)

LOVE IT!!! It's freakin' brilliant! I don't have much exposure to other softsynths (I only have Wusikstation that I hardly use, Sonik Synth, and SampleTron) but I know I absolutely love this!

As a plus, as stated before, the license works with Hypersonic 2 as well. That is quite a lot of awesomesauce.

$275 (with the eLicensor dongle) well spent!

yessongs · Post by **yessongs** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 2:14 am

just say no to dongles and get NI Kontakt with komplete.

xphen0m · Post by **xphen0m** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:00 pm

yessongs wrote:just say no to dongles and get NI Kontakt with komplete.

I actually don't mind the dongle. I have enough USB ports on my tower.

Need some advice: Purchasing Halion Sonic or EWQL Goliath. Which one?