Halion 6 Soundbytes Review

[Echoes in the Attic]

Does this 50% off apply to the cross grade purchase too I wonder?

[freimann]

unfortunately not - crossgrades are excluded ...

[Touch The Universe]

I understand that Halion 6 now doesn't require the dongle to operate.

How did you guys transfer over the license from the dongle to elicenser? If I remove the dongle H6 won't work.

I wrote a ticket but expect to wait a few days. Would be nice to learn what I can in the meantime.

I'm hoping I don't have to pay money for this to happen but will if I have to. It was an upgrade from HS2 so maybe that might complicate things?

[felis]

I could be wrong about this, but I think you can always transfer an e-license to a dongle,
but you can never convert a dongle license to an e-license.

https://www.steinberg.net/nc/en/support ... -elicenser

"....Important: A license transfer into the opposite direction - from USB-eLicenser to Soft-eLicenser - is not possible. As soon as a license has been transferred to an USB-eLicenser, there is no way back onto the hard disk. That means the USB-eLicenser holding the transferred license has to be connected when running the corresponding program. ..."

Copy protection schemes, and buying something without owning it,
are a couple of the reasons why I always prefer to get hardware when possible.
Some things are still done only (or mainly) in the software realm though,
and there's always the financial aspect of it too.

[Romantique Tp]

Yes, but the eLicenser team is trying to make it possible to convert hardware licenses to software ones in the future, along with other changes to the system to make it far more user friendly for people who use laptops and multiple computers. They mentioned that in the Dorico and Nuendo forums.

I'm not sure if Steinberg support can convert your license already, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[deastman]

Copy protection schemes, and buying something without owning it,
are a couple of the reasons why I always prefer to get hardware when possible.
Some things are still done only (or mainly) in the software realm though,
and there's always the financial aspect of it too.

Yes, but your hardware won’t run without that rather large dongle either, and you only get one instance at a time.

(I’m mostly joking. I have lots of hardware myself)

As much as I detest dongles, I prefer to go that way rather than software dongles tied to a hard drive or mobo. I’ve had too many drives go bad over time and then -poof!- there goes your software license.

[CrystalWizard]

Congrats on the acknowledgement in the article.

There are several different types of synthesis that would be welcome additions,
but it would probably become too unwieldy and bloated as a program, and there are
others available that can do those types. I'm thinking mostly of FM, Additive, and Physical Modeling.
Personally, I think those would require less disc space than excessive samples and such.
Just one opinion though.

But overall, I'm pleased with Halion 6, think it's worth the cost, and hope it becomes more popular.

It would be particularly nice to see some of the patented PM algorithms from Yamaha added to Halion.

[Touch The Universe]

I could be wrong about this, but I think you can always transfer an e-license to a dongle,
but you can never convert a dongle license to an e-license.

https://www.steinberg.net/nc/en/support ... -elicenser

"....Important: A license transfer into the opposite direction - from USB-eLicenser to Soft-eLicenser - is not possible. As soon as a license has been transferred to an USB-eLicenser, there is no way back onto the hard disk. That means the USB-eLicenser holding the transferred license has to be connected when running the corresponding program. ..."

Wow, I really hope there is a way around this. Not thrilled about that.

I will try to find a way around this. If I do, I'll share it.

I also found a way to use Hypersonic 2 with a Halion 6 license, which overwrites the Hypersonic 2 license.
One must open a ticket to request an additional Halion 5 add on license so Hypersonic can be used.

[Touch The Universe]

Copy protection schemes, and buying something without owning it,
are a couple of the reasons why I always prefer to get hardware when possible.
Some things are still done only (or mainly) in the software realm though,
and there's always the financial aspect of it too.

Yes, but your hardware won’t run without that rather large single either, and you only get one instance at a time.

(I’m mostly joking. I have lots of hardware myself)

As much as I detest dongles, I prefer to go that way rather than software dongles tied to a hard drive or mobo. I’ve had too many drives go bad over time and then -poof!- there goes your software license.

Having licenses on a usb is convinient, but what is equally as incovenient is using one on a laptop -- not cool (more likely to break and just annoying).

[chili beans]

They should should design laptops with USB ports embedded underneath. Just like a tv remote control has its batteries. Slide off the cover and slide in the usb stick then slide the cover back on. I hate having thumb drives sticking out especially with a curious 2 yr old running around.

[Protocol_b]

Thank you Op for the heads-up - I would have missed out on my $50.00 H6 upgrade. Appreciated!

[simmo75]

Copy protection schemes, and buying something without owning it,
are a couple of the reasons why I always prefer to get hardware when possible.
Some things are still done only (or mainly) in the software realm though,
and there's always the financial aspect of it too.

Yes, but your hardware won’t run without that rather large single either, and you only get one instance at a time.

(I’m mostly joking. I have lots of hardware myself)

As much as I detest dongles, I prefer to go that way rather than software dongles tied to a hard drive or mobo. I’ve had too many drives go bad over time and then -poof!- there goes your software license.

Having licenses on a usb is convinient, but what is equally as incovenient is using one on a laptop -- not cool (more likely to break and just annoying).

Hey man, I just bought and installed on my studio mac, I used the soft elicenser. I couldn’t get elicenser working on my MacBook so I went to their live chat support and they gave me another license. Might be worth an ask.
PS, please keep the sale going untill the end of the month, I really want to buy your Halion library, sounds incredible!

[h2ogun99]

Hello - I downloaded the demo, went through an hour plus trying to get the e-licencer to work. Turned out I had to use a 'helper' app to remedy the problem. It was not easy finding that solution - first world problem, no doubt.

I'm taken back at how small the GUI is of the provided instruments. At first I was convinced these must be some sort of small representation of the larger interface. The videos you see do not properly show how small they really are. For fun I set my screen to 720 and then it was what i'd call acceptable. They are smaller than v-station, but I expect v-station to be the size it is based on it's age, not a current day instrument. Granted you can enlarge Anima wavetables in another tab, but Skylab, yikes? I'm sure I'm overlooking something, as these can't be the GUI size for these instruments?

Here's a side by side:

Anima next to v-station
Anima next to Matrix-V @ 90% scale

https://imgur.com/a/CWNS4


L

[EvilDragon]

Yes, those are the GUI sizes.

[Romantique Tp]

The macro pages are optimized for Halion Sonic (the Halion content is technically mostly Halion Sonic content), which needs to be usable with the minimum required Cubase resolution (1366x768, unfortunately still common in laptops).

Halion-only libraries can have macro pages of any size.

When Wavelab 9.5 came out, Steinberg hinted at the possibility of making fully HiDPI compatible interfaces for their plugins in the future. This will probably include scalable interfaces for the Halion family at some point.