HALion 7

[EnGee]

There are two engines in Montage/MODX: AWM2 and FMX. Many patches/presets are a mix of the two engines, so there is no way that Halion can have the same presets (neither the functions or design).
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-montage-7

[skijumptoes]

There are two engines in Montage/MODX: AWM2 and FMX. Many patches/presets are a mix of the two engines, so there is no way that Halion can have the same presets

The biggest leap that the Montage made over the Motif range was turning multi-timbrality on it's head too. A preset was no longer a single voice, but many voices layered with their own routings, effects, engines and modulation options.

To recreate this in HALion you'd be looking at going the multi's route and potentially having 6 presets loaded up at once. People that jumped straight in on the MODX/Montage range probably aren't aware of how big a change this was, and you can only relate to HALion when you appreciate the multi-aspect.

[EnGee]

There are two engines in Montage/MODX: AWM2 and FMX. Many patches/presets are a mix of the two engines, so there is no way that Halion can have the same presets

The biggest leap that the Montage made over the Motif range was turning multi-timbrality on it's head too. A preset was no longer a single voice, but many voices layered with their own routings, effects, engines and modulation options.

To recreate this in HALion you'd be looking at going the multi's route and potentially having 6 presets loaded up at once. People that jumped straight in on the MODX/Montage range probably aren't aware of how big a change this was, and you can only relate to HALion when you appreciate the multi-aspect.

I don't know how Motif really did its multi-timber but in MODX/Montage the performance has one or more presets each on its own midi channel. This made me crazy at first trying to figure what's going on! So mapping the whole performance and playing it back is kinda tricky.

You can do the same with Halion Sonic 7 (or SE). I don't have Halion but of course you can do the same by loading presets into the channels but maybe you need to map them all to channel 1? or assign a midi track to every channel. Anyway, the sounds that exist with AWM2 engine are not there in Halion (as far as I know), but you can replicate the workflow or most of it.

From another side, Halion does have several VA and Granular synths (engines) that MODX/Monatage doesn't have! So, I believe you win something on each choice but not all! Still, IMO, the software is more flexible and more practical for studio work than hardware. I might pick up Halion when discounted as I think I would use it more than my MODX.

[BoogerSnot]

I'm finding HALion 7 to be really good, once I set up my own interface and got a handle on all that is going on.

Which is good, because buyer's remorse was setting in, but now I have 4 different engines to dump samples in (which was one of the main reasons I bought it) with the ability to map those engines/samples across a keyboard.

Good stuff man!

I'm particularly impressed with the wavetable creator: Choose a sample, quickly and easily create a wavetable, adjust and modulate playback, etc.

[bundoo]

Would be great to get the serum and massive x wavetables in halion 7. Anyone know how this would be possible?

[Sampleconstruct]

Would be great to get the serum and massive x wavetables in halion 7. Anyone know how this would be possible?

HALion only supports its own native format, one can't import/export wavetables.

[bundoo]

That's a shame - although you can turn any audio into a wave table.

[enCiphered]

Import yes, export no.

From the manual:

HALion can import wavetables that were saved as .wav files. You can import .wav files consisting
of one wave or of multiple single-cycle waves.
If the file header of the .wav file contains information about the size of the single-cycle waves
of the wavetable, HALion imports the wavetable automatically when the wave file is loaded. The
waves of the wavetable and the corresponding wavetable envelope will be set up to fit a duration
of 2 seconds.
If the file header does not contain this information, you can specify it manually.

[BoogerSnot]

Nicely done, brief walkthroughs of the wavetable and spectral zones:





Along with the granular zone and regular sample zone, HALion is a sampling powerhouse, especially since yes the wavetable zone is essentially a sampler.

Full HALion 7 playlist, touches on a few other things, FM zone, etc:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkih ... mDoDD5YMqM

Can't emphasize enough the importance of setting up the interface to your liking, if you're new to HALion like me. I recommend the Program Tree and Slot Rack 1st things on the left, then add your workflow left to right as needed. Everything fell into place for me after that, and HALion became a really nice piece of software rather than a convoluted mess.

[Ex Machina]

I never understood why he would model the first DX7 and not the DX7 II bit accurate. For may taste Dexed was good enough already, and the enhanced FM8, DX7 V and f‘em are for going beyond and ease of programming… A bit accurate FS1R would have been also much more interesting. But I know nothing about the technical differences of those hardwares. It might have been too complex compared to the DX7 I

Many people automatically think the DX7 II must sound better than the original DX7 because the DX7 II has "higher quality" converters. While the new converters do clean up the sound a bit (and remove most of the hiss from the signal,) the original DX7 sounds punchier and harder. The DX7 II sounds really glossy by comparison. I greatly prefer the sound of the original DX7.

[zerocrossing]

I greatly prefer the sound of the original DX7.

This is a common opinion, but not necessarily universal. The only DX-7 I’ve ever owned was a DX200, which has the mkII “improved” engine, and I thought it sounded great. Would I prefer the mk1? Maybe. My experience with one is limited to trying (and mostly failing) to program one in a shop that I worked in. It wasn’t a great experience.

Anyway, I wasn’t impressed with the demos of Halion’s DX engine. It sounded pretty lame to me in the a/b test between it and an actual DX7, but I think it was just comparing presets. I’m sure it is capable of making cool sounds, but frankly I expected more from Steinberg. I don’t need it to sound exactly like any DX-7, but it’s got to sound good, and I didn’t think it sounded that good. To be fair, I gave up fairly quickly on the demo when it was clear that it wasn’t capable of reacting to polyphonic aftertouch (I know, irrelevant to most, but very important to me), so maybe I’d have a different opinion if I spent more time with it. The spectral stuff was really impressive, but it would have limited use to me.

[felis]

....To be fair, I gave up fairly quickly on the demo when it was clear that it wasn’t capable of reacting to polyphonic aftertouch (I know, irrelevant to most, but very important to me),....

Part of why I like Halion so much is that you can program all the engines to respond to release velocity.
The lack of that capability is why I gave up on hardware Yamaha keyboards.

[SamDi]

One question to the Halion pros:
is it normal, that under MIDI Player-Phrase there are just World Percusion phrases and nothing else?

And the same in Drum Player-->Pattern. Can it be, that there is nothing? No stock content?

[zerocrossing]

....To be fair, I gave up fairly quickly on the demo when it was clear that it wasn’t capable of reacting to polyphonic aftertouch (I know, irrelevant to most, but very important to me),....

Part of why I like Halion so much is that you can program all the engines to respond to release velocity.
The lack of that capability is why I gave up on hardware Yamaha keyboards.

Yeah, it seems odd with the pedigree of vintage Yamaha in your past that you'd not support the full MIDI spec. I mean, I get that polyphonic aftertouch fell out of fashion for a long time, but now there are at least 3 synths out there now with it and all the MPE controllers that can do double duty as regular MIDI controllers

[Ex Machina]

Yeah, it seems odd with the pedigree of vintage Yamaha in your past that you'd not support the full MIDI spec. I mean, I get that polyphonic aftertouch fell out of fashion for a long time, but now there are at least 3 synths out there now with it and all the MPE controllers that can do double duty as regular MIDI controllers

It's a bit strange how some keyboardists make heavy use of aftertouch and others (the minority) don't use it at all. I'm in the latter camp. I actually have aftertouch turned off on my Virus TI2 keyboard controller. The TI has a really great synth action keybed, both for velocity and for aftertouch. But I just never use aftertouch because I don't want my MIDI parts filled with the occasional errant aftertouch data.

And it's not that I can't play. I'm no "grandmaster" but I took piano lessons for years and years and can still sit down with a sheet of music and play most simple to moderately complex piano pieces. So even on my synths, I often play with both hands. That seems like the perfect use case for aftertouch. But I would rather just overdub my mod wheel.

Maybe if I had a keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch I would use it more. But a piano doesn't have aftertouch and I consider that my main instrument.