HALion 7

[billcarroll]

And 4 more on this page

https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instrumen ... qUQAvD_BwE

Nice find.

I know where to go now when I need an Alto Glockenspiel

[morecookies]

right now it seems like HALion offers much more in general but less popular?

NI has the content established from years ago I guess.

It's much easier for HALion users to put libraries out so that HALion Sonic/SE users could use them for free - something that you can't do with Kontakt Player, so HALion's ability to share is actually greater too....

But I wonder if that somehow goes against Steinberg when it comes to third party commercial sound library creators? i.e. how easy is it to secure your IP with HALion?

Maybe that's something that NI has better sown up, particularly as no reliance on something like the eLicenser as HALion had in the past.

So, any public/free user-made HALion library can be played with HALion Sonic ?

Does this count?

https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/colors-free/

Not really, they are made by Steinberg (?) but i see more here https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/halion-instruments

However, there are not many of them, so i hope there are more websites and more publishers

[digitallysane]

Just the pure Yamaha FM engine is worth alone to buy if you FM enthusiast. U can select dx7, tx81z, and fm-x. All with exact Yamaha replication. Or create from scratch what you want for operator and modulator and algorithm.

If you are into FM you can buy just FM Lab, which is only the new FM engine (plus effects and arpeggiators) in HALion 7 and costs 150EUR instead of 350.

[billcarroll]

right now it seems like HALion offers much more in general but less popular?

NI has the content established from years ago I guess.

It's much easier for HALion users to put libraries out so that HALion Sonic/SE users could use them for free - something that you can't do with Kontakt Player, so HALion's ability to share is actually greater too....

But I wonder if that somehow goes against Steinberg when it comes to third party commercial sound library creators? i.e. how easy is it to secure your IP with HALion?

Maybe that's something that NI has better sown up, particularly as no reliance on something like the eLicenser as HALion had in the past.

So, any public/free user-made HALion library can be played with HALion Sonic ?

Does this count?

https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/colors-free/

Not really, they are made by Steinberg (?) but i see more here https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/halion-instruments

However, there are not many of them, so i hope there are more websites and more publishers

Colors Free is made by Cinematique Instruments, and there is a full version that can be purchased.

Post back here with any good ones you find

[skijumptoes]

So, any public/free user-made HALion library can be played with HALion Sonic ?

Yup, and you just pass on the .vstsound file, and end user double clicks it and it gets added to the library - it's really simple to share once you've learnt how to create them (Which is more complicated)

When you save as a VST preset there's a 'Sonic' layer option that you tick and HALion will check for compatibility... i.e. because in Sonic you can't go adding elements, it expects that you have already created elements such as Voice Management and Flex Phraser as these are fixed options in Sonic.

[skijumptoes]

Yes, it may be a better platform but it had dongle copy protection which pretty much limited its use to Cubase users...that has now changed so we will see if its use increases...

But beyond that, if a third party wanted to sell HALion presets and protect their content from being freely distributed. I'm not sure what they would do in that instance? Would they have to go through Steinberg and have it saleable via the Steinberg store only, and thus pay for Steinberg Licensing fees? (I presume).

It seems that Kontakt third parties can distribute protected content themselves, unless i'm mistaken? Just thinking of libraries i've purchased in the past like Zero-G Ethera etc. I didn't have to go through NI for that from memory.

[Masterofdisaster]

Just the pure Yamaha FM engine is worth alone to buy if you FM enthusiast. U can select dx7, tx81z, and fm-x. All with exact Yamaha replication. Or create from scratch what you want for operator and modulator and algorithm.

If you are into FM you can buy just FM Lab, which is only the new FM engine (plus effects and arpeggiators) in HALion 7 and costs 150EUR instead of 350.

Correct me if I wrong but FM lab is just a instrument based on the FM engine. But if you buy halion you get the full engine

[SLiC]

Correct me if I wrong but FM lab is just a instrument based on the FM engine. But if you buy halion you get the full engine

That is correct

[SLiC]

And 4 more on this page

https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instrumen ... qUQAvD_BwE

Nice find.

I know where to go now when I need an Alto Glockenspiel

To confuse things further these have to be activated via an the web site top get an emailed serial to enter in the 'elicence app' (now I know why you need this as well!)- you can do this through the download assistance (use the download code slot) but it opens the elicence manager.

You then have to find them individually in the download assistant and install them....they are under VST instruments (surely there should be a separate category for HAlion/Sonic instruments?)

[digitallysane]

Correct me if I wrong but FM lab is just a instrument based on the FM engine. But if you buy halion you get the full engine

It is correct, but it's the full engine. That is, FM Lab is a HALion-made instrument that fully exposes the FM engine in HALion, with an interface that is actually better crafted than the one in HALion.

[mothra]

Yes, it may be a better platform but it had dongle copy protection which pretty much limited its use to Cubase users...that has now changed so we will see if its use increases...

But beyond that, if a third party wanted to sell HALion presets and protect their content from being freely distributed. I'm not sure what they would do in that instance? Would they have to go through Steinberg and have it saleable via the Steinberg store only, and thus pay for Steinberg Licensing fees? (I presume).

It seems that Kontakt third parties can distribute protected content themselves, unless i'm mistaken? Just thinking of libraries i've purchased in the past like Zero-G Ethera etc. I didn't have to go through NI for that from memory.

Someone from SB actually addressed this in a post on their forums over the weekend. Poster was asking how you go about selling an 'official' sound set, the dev basically said, when you get something done, contact us, we'll check it out and if we like it, we'll follow up and get a contract going.
Kontakt, I believe, you just sign up/pay for licensing and then do whatever. That licensing gets you the copy protection that Kontakt uses, I dont think there is any dealing with NI beyond the money part of it.

[Weasel-Boy]

I did the same on my M1 Max and did not have CPU issues at all, so it's possible there were other factors. Even modulating the multi No. and many other parameters didn't give me CPU issues. I tried to push it and was surprised. This was in Cubase 12 running strictly apple silicone.

Hmm. I’d guess that factor is that I ran my test under Rosetta. I can’t run Cubase silicon natively yet because too many key plug-ins haven’t been made the silicon jump yet. I suppose I could temp-boot natively and see if it makes a diff. I’ll let you know.

You could just open HALion standalone

There is a huge difference between opening H7 as a Stand-Alone natively and within Cubase 12 natively (with those Spectral Synth settings I posted about 2 pages back).

As a Stand-Alone and playing 3 or 4 note chords, H7's Audio Performance meter displayed about 20% max. Seems reasonable. However....

With Cubase 12 launched natively, I got the same CPU usage as when I ran the same test under Rosetta...90-95% along with overload peaks in Cubase's Audio Performance meter. And this was using only a single Track running H7. The sample used in all cases was a 5 second 44.1kHz .AIFF stereo acoustic guitar.

Rosetta or natively, H7 seems to have CPU overload issues running the Spectral engine under the conditions I've described....particularly when Multi and a number of voices are engaged within the Cubase environment.

[skijumptoes]

FM Lab is a HALion-made instrument that fully exposes the FM engine in HALion, with an interface that is actually better crafted than the one in HALion.

It makes you wish the whole of HALion was brought up to the standard of that interface really. Just a whole lot easier to navigate and read.

I think the only obvious lacking in FM Lab vs the FM Zone in full HALion is the ability to make custom Algorithms, and obviously layering additional sounds within a single program - which is something I'm really enjoying with the FM zone, can get some really nice evolving sounds with FM And Spectral coming together.

[skijumptoes]

Rosetta or natively, H7 seems to have CPU overload issues running the Spectral engine under the conditions I've described....particularly when Multi and a number of voices are engaged within the Cubase environment.

But of course, this depends on your Cubase settings too. Such as multi-processing option, buffer, sample rate, ASIO guard. And whether you have anything on your master bus or control room outs.

ASIO performance meter isn't necessarily the same as total CPU use vs available too, as I think Cubase processes each channel strip within it's own core.

But I just tried, and I get around 20% usage H7 standalone and peaking at 67% within Cubase using similar presets, and that's using HALion's own performance meter for both. Yet I can add multiple instances within Cubase and it doesn't really push the ASIO meter any further.

Rabbits hole that one!

[felis]

Some of the differences I've noticed between an FM zone and FM Lab are that they have different modulation options, FM zone doesn't have a Macro page, while FM Lab has a Macro page but doesn't have an editable Zone.
Probably plenty of others I haven't noticed yet.

It seems to me that FM Zone is more for making or designing sounds, and FM Lab is more for playing them, although you can do both in either.

What I haven't done yet is make a sound in FM Zone that uses stuff that is exclusive to it,
and then playing it in FM lab and seeing if that stuff transfers over.
I think I'll try it right now.