SampleTank 3 VS Halion Sonic 3?

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HALion 7$349.99Buy HALion Sonic 7 Collection$249.99Buy SampleTank 3

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Absolute 3 is basically buying Halion 6 and the full version of Groove Agent 4 (which has mostly exclusive content) together and getting a bunch of other stuff for free. It's worth considering since everything Steinberg releases from now on will likely be included with Absolute, and you'll be able to get it for cheap.
db3 wrote:
CT007 wrote:Looking for an affordable, quality(non-ultra realistic) workstation library. I love harpsichords and also JV-1080/5080-ish "fun"/non-realistic sounds..
If only you didn't need to subscribe...
https://www.rolandcloud.com/catalog/legendary/jv-1080
This only comes with the stock sounds, and like I said above the acoustic instruments are roughly on par with the vanilla SC-88 Sound Canvas. Not worth the price, which is almost the same as Halion Sonic. HS sounds better and is a much bigger bang for the buck.

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bill45 wrote:I like the bass and drums in sampletank3 better.
Hard to say, without testing the full ST3, heh. There's a pretty decent range of electric bass in HS3, so hopefully I won't be missing much D: Good electric bass seems hard to find, tho.

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CT007 wrote:Looking for an affordable, quality(non-ultra realistic) workstation library. I love harpsichords and also JV-1080/5080-ish "fun"/non-realistic sounds. ST3 sounds a LOT better to me than ST2, but HS3 seems to have more of everything.

What do you guys think? ST3? HS3? ST3 + JV-2080..?

Thanks! ^ ^
Please note that Miroslav Philharmonik 2 has one of the best sounding harpsichords available. There are also some very nice synth harpsichords in Syntronik. All of which you can of course load into SampleTank 3.

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Peter - IK Multimedia wrote:Please note that Miroslav Philharmonik 2 has one of the best sounding harpsichords available. There are also some very nice synth harpsichords in Syntronik. All of which you can of course load into SampleTank 3.
I wish I could demo the full ST3 (& MP2) against Halion Sonic 3 :\

I'm having trouble with getting Halion's MIDI velocity sensitivity to feel right. :s Certain samples/instruments seem to have a min hardcoded velocity. Sampletank's velocity is spot-on, even though I don't see a curve editor for it. I love that you can go fullscreen with Halion 6, but not with HS3. Halion picks up my MIDI controller(Roland A300) controls automatically; Sampletank does not. ST3 has crashed once so far; Halion has not.

I'm finding ST3 to be more playable, with less goofy soundfx & filters to deal with, and less setup required. The sound quality of the ST3 demo is pretty good. :)
Last edited by CT007 on Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:49 pm, edited 10 times in total.

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I am curious about the Absolute collection. For those who have it - is it worth the extra $150 over just Halion? I have Komplete, so I can crossgrade to either.

I have Cubase Pro, so I already have Retrologue 2. I don't really care about the Pianos (I have plenty), and the Symphonic orchestra is a pretty old library.

So, for anyone with the Absolute collection, I would be curious as to your thoughts if the collection is truly worth $150 more than just Halion.

Thank you.

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Groove Agent 4 has hundreds of excellent electronic drums that aren't included with GA SE 4. You also get Padshop Pro with the Zero Gravity expansion, which has presets that take advantage of Padshop Pro's effects.

The Halion expansions can be useful depending on the kind of music you make. The most interesting to me is Dark Planet, which has many Omnisphere/Distorted Reality style pads and SFX. Halion Symphonic Orchestra is old but not bad, and can be great for layering since each string ensemble section gets two different sounding variations.
CT007 wrote: I'm having trouble with getting Halion's MIDI velocity sensitivity to feel right. :s Certain samples/instruments seem to have a min hardcoded velocity.
In the Amplifier Envelope tab, change the "Vel > Lev" parameter to increase or decrease the dynamic range based on MIDI velocity. Some presets have this set low to help prevent you from playing almost inaudible notes with some MIDI controllers, or because the real instrument doesn't respond to velocity, like the harpsichord.

The MIDI velocity handling in Halion Sonic is very flexible and the velocity layer mapping is usually the same as Yamaha's keyboards, which are optimized for live playing. If you're still having trouble finding good settings, I would recommend playing around with your keyboard's own velocity curves if it has any.

You can globally bypass the internal effects.

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CT007 wrote:
bill45 wrote:I like the bass and drums in sampletank3 better.
Hard to say, without testing the full ST3, heh. There's a pretty decent range of electric bass in HS3, so hopefully I won't be missing much D: Good electric bass seems hard to find, tho.
The Fretless bass sound In sample tank 3 is awesome.the fender six string is good too.
Sample tank se may have the fretless

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bill45 wrote:
CT007 wrote:
bill45 wrote:I like the bass and drums in sampletank3 better.
Hard to say, without testing the full ST3, heh. There's a pretty decent range of electric bass in HS3, so hopefully I won't be missing much D: Good electric bass seems hard to find, tho.
The Fretless bass sound In sample tank 3 is awesome.the fender six string is good too.
Sample tank se may have the fretless
Thank you for the kind works. SampleTank 3 SE has the following fretless sounds:

Fretless J Bass
Chorus Fretless 1
Chorus Fretless 2
Fretless J Bass Soft
Fretless J Bass Solo
Fretless J Bass
Pnk Jazz
Soft Attack Fretless
VintPhaser Fretless
Warm Groove J

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Do the expansions ie.American acoustic work in se.
I bought an IK usb 37 To get an se license,but, they didn't give it to me'because I upgraded to
The full sample tank 3

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bill45 wrote:Do the expansions ie.American acoustic work in se.
I bought an IK usb 37 To get an se license,but, they didn't give it to me'because I upgraded to
The full sample tank 3
SampleTank 3 SE
Fully functional, affordable special edition of the ultimate sound and groove workstation with a 6.5 GB instrument library (400 carefully selected, meticulously sampled instruments from 20 categories).

n addition to its library of sound, you can also choose from a growing selection of exciting and inspiring SampleTank instruments collections, available on the online store and in the Custom Shop.
If you Registered the keyboard, then I would think that you will have both ST3 and ST3 SE (and ST3 CS) registered in your User Area / My Products area.
DarkStar, ... Interesting, if true
Inspired by ...

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DarkStar wrote:
bill45 wrote:Do the expansions ie.American acoustic work in se.
I bought an IK usb 37 To get an se license,but, they didn't give it to me'because I upgraded to
The full sample tank 3
SampleTank 3 SE
Fully functional, affordable special edition of the ultimate sound and groove workstation with a 6.5 GB instrument library (400 carefully selected, meticulously sampled instruments from 20 categories).

n addition to its library of sound, you can also choose from a growing selection of exciting and inspiring SampleTank instruments collections, available on the online store and in the Custom Shop.
If you Registered the keyboard, then I would think that you will have both ST3 and ST3 SE (and ST3 CS) registered in your User Area / My Products area.
Yeah That's what I thought.

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