KVR Audio

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 6:33 pm

OK- I cracked and bought today for cross grade price

Just played with standalone for 40 minutes - crashed twice! (once lost sound after using mod wheel and once shut down when adding a zone). Hopefully just teething problems and will soon be fixed.

Lots to play with and sounds good, just wish it had scaling as its so hard to see anything and looks ridiculously small on a 34 inch 4K monitor!

bnz · Post by **bnz** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:10 pm

So what's next for Halion? For me, I'd like to add multiple modulation sources as I like (e.g. multiple separate user envelopes to modulate the operator level of certain operators, but also additional envelopes, lfos, x-lfos, stepmods etc.) and assign them for modulation instead of only the static ones. And I'd like to use custom waveforms for the FM operators. That would be pretty awesome. But I do like this update a lot. I'm actually kinda glad they didn't overhaul the whole interface as some wished. For me, it's pretty functional though it misses some text/button size scaling.

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:48 pm

The new FM Lab is the star of the show for me, shows they can do large clear well laid out instruments. It’s definitely a lot of fun working with the zones and layers…no more difficult than Falcon to learn (with great power), all in all I am pretty impressed.

tkmh · Post by **tkmh** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 11:43 pm

Are there any significant updates to the main core library? Any new instruments
(besides the Tales guitar and the FM stuff)?

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 1:03 am

Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.
Like we all know the DX-7 sound was all over everything in the 80s'.
Back then, I went from curiosity, to dislike to complete hatred of the sound for the most part.

If 2023 rsp had told 1980's rsp that one day you will one day find so much joy in the playing the sounds of the dx7, I would have called him a liar.

I am quite enjoying the FM Lab stuff...
rsp

tekknovator · Post by **tekknovator** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 9:16 am

BJ wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 4:59 pm Do the older discontinued instruments still work if you upgrade from 6 to 7? I’d hate to lose Neo Soul Keys.

Works here, but elicenser needs to stay connected

.

jules99 · Post by **jules99** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 11:53 am

Trial version is available.

dionenoid · Post by **dionenoid** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 12:19 pm

zvenx wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 1:03 am Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.
Like we all know the DX-7 sound was all over everything in the 80s'.
Back then, I went from curiosity, to dislike to complete hatred of the sound for the most part.

If 2023 rsp had told 1980's rsp that one day you will one day find so much joy in the playing the sounds of the dx7, I would have called him a liar.

I am quite enjoying the FM Lab stuff...
rsp

Don't forget the 90's. The "Lately Bass" was all over everything in the 90's. I bought a TX81Z back then especially for that preset

mothra · Post by **mothra** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 4:38 pm

Does anybody here also own Pigments and can give me a comparison between the two?? I've been waiting for this to drop for awhile now, skipped the Absolute sale a few months ago because there was no indication Absolute was going to be updated at the same time, but now Im wondering if I need to rush and grab it..

I wanted Halion for my big bad in the box sampler (I write 99% of the time with an MPC Live and an EMU E6400).. I've got TAL Sampler, but it leaves a lot to be desired in the sample mangling area. I had completely forgotten Pigments can do a lot of what Halion can, and last night started swapping out some TAL tracks with Pigments as a 'sampler' and dug it.. Aside from the FM Zone/Lab, what real advantages does Halion have over Pigments?? Is there anything big I'll be missing out on?? I don't really do multisampling (Pigments does have two engines if I need it), I'm more curious about the sample manipulation, modulation, etc.. I noticed in Halion, the filter settings have an A/B option, can you possibly morph between the two?? Not expecting EMU Z-Plane action but would be nice (I use Rift and MorphEQ for this once in awhile when Im working in Cubase).. Oddly, switching those tracks last night from TAL Sampler to Pigments seems to have dropped some CPU usage in my project too?? Never expected that one!

I figure I'll probably still grab it, but not until it's on sale in a few months, but I'm still really curious about Steinbergs big sampler, and wondering just how different it is. Already read over the website several times now, figured I'd ask the hands on users..

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:10 pm

mothra wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 4:38 pm Does anybody here also own Pigments and can give me a comparison between the two?? I've been waiting for this to drop for awhile now, skipped the Absolute sale a few months ago because there was no indication Absolute was going to be updated at the same time, but now Im wondering if I need to rush and grab it..

I wanted Halion for my big bad in the box sampler (I write 99% of the time with an MPC Live and an EMU E6400).. I've got TAL Sampler, but it leaves a lot to be desired in the sample mangling area. I had completely forgotten Pigments can do a lot of what Halion can, and last night started swapping out some TAL tracks with Pigments as a 'sampler' and dug it.. Aside from the FM Zone/Lab, what real advantages does Halion have over Pigments?? Is there anything big I'll be missing out on?? I don't really do multisampling (Pigments does have two engines if I need it), I'm more curious about the sample manipulation, modulation, etc.. I noticed in Halion, the filter settings have an A/B option, can you possibly morph between the two?? Not expecting EMU Z-Plane action but would be nice (I use Rift and MorphEQ for this once in awhile when Im working in Cubase).. Oddly, switching those tracks last night from TAL Sampler to Pigments seems to have dropped some CPU usage in my project too?? Never expected that one!

I figure I'll probably still grab it, but not until it's on sale in a few months, but I'm still really curious about Steinbergs big sampler, and wondering just how different it is. Already read over the website several times now, figured I'd ask the hands on users..

You can trail it for 30 days with no limitations, just go for it (although be prepared for a lot of Steinberg authorises and downloaders on your computer!)

It isn't very similar to Pigments, more Like Flacon or even Kontakt. It's multitimbral, pretty much unmaimed combination of up to 6 engines (zones) in multiple layers..you could build a monster patch (although most of the pre-sets are just basic synth and simple sampled stuff!)

I can't recommend it currently if you are on 4K, no scaling...but other than that its pretty good. I would say overall Falcon is better as an all round synth/Rompler...but HALion is a real 'sampler' as in it sampler audio from a mike etc and the FM is better than Falcon. Glad to have them both, I hope Steinberg update as often as UVI do!

Genetic_Junk · Post by **Genetic_Junk** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:11 pm

Does Steinberg have an annual/regular sale on updates (e.g. sale that would apply to the update to Halion7)?

tkmh wrote: Mon Feb 20, 2023 11:43 pm Are there any significant updates to the main core library? Any new instruments
(besides the Tales guitar and the FM stuff)?

I don't think so as the additional content needed for those with Halion 6 is 5.4 GB, which is the about the download size for Tales.

sessionthree · Post by **sessionthree** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:31 pm

SLiC wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:10 pm I can't recommend it currently if you are on 4K, no scaling...

This isn't entirely true. It does have a high DPI mode in its settings which scales it up. However, it doesn't have continuous scaling or multiple scaling levels, so I understood the complaint. Having said that, I am running 4k at 125% desktop scaling and Halion 7 is just fine (comfortable even). I am running on a 43" screen, so I understand that someone running 4k on a smaller screen with 100% desktop scaling might have issues.

skijumptoes · Post by **skijumptoes** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:56 pm

mothra wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 4:38 pm Does anybody here also own Pigments and can give me a comparison between the two?? I've been waiting for this to drop for awhile now, skipped the Absolute sale a few months ago because there was no indication Absolute was going to be updated at the same time, but now Im wondering if I need to rush and grab it..

Hmmm.. To be honest it's hard to compare the two as HALion is far more of a slog when it comes to sound design vs to the free flow of Pigments. It's nowhere near as enjoyable and instantaneous... Pigments just kills it for usability (imo).

I don't know if you're a Cubase user or not, but if you've been looking at Absolute collection it also comes with Padshop 2 - That is more immediate and more akin to Pigments in my mind. But it really depends what sounds you're into.

The spectral engine in HALion 7 seems to be very good from what i've played and heard from it, even if you slow it right down the sample still retains great sound quality. The FM section is great too. And of course HALion has the acoustic instruments that come with it - more bread and butter than outstanding though.

vata44 · Post by **vata44** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:10 pm

BJ wrote: Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:37 pm Wonder what the upgrade price will be

looks like $99 ugh

mothra · Post by **mothra** » Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:13 pm

skijumptoes wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:56 pm Hmmm.. To be honest it's hard to compare the two as HALion is far more of a slog when it comes to sound design vs to the free flow of Pigments. It's nowhere near as enjoyable and instantaneous... Pigments just kills it for usability (imo).

I don't know if you're a Cubase user or not, but if you've been looking at Absolute collection it also comes with Padshop 2 - That is more immediate and more akin to Pigments in my mind. But it really depends what sounds you're into.

The spectral engine in HALion 7 seems to be very good from what i've played and heard from it, even if you slow it right down the sample still retains great sound quality. The FM section is great too. And of course HALion has the acoustic instruments that come with it - more bread and butter than outstanding though.

I realized last night I had Padshop as well (I'm a Cubase 12 user) but I think I've only opened it once to check it out when I first installed Cubase 11 a couple years ago haha. I had a couple sampler tracks I was going to convert to those and see what the big deal with that is, but didn't get around to it before I went to bed.

The spectral engine sounds pretty awesome, seen a couple YouTube vids on that already, and the fact that it can import Akai/EMU libraries had me thinking 'well maybe I DO need it sooner than later'. That would basically let me just move my whole library from my E6400 to Halion and pick up where it left off. It's just the price has me thinking (one of those rare moments) 'Do I already have all this functionality elsewhere'? The bread and butter stuff would be nice, as Halion will essentially be the ITB version of my EMU. I've got Groove Agent taking over the MPC drum duties very nicely already (except for that little bug that crashes after you switch presets enough times).

My monitors crapped out on me last week, so I had to buy some new ones otherwise I probably would've just bought Halion when it came out without thinking.