Steinberg HALion 6 & HALion Sonic 3

[aMUSEd]

Well so far their downloader app keeps failing to download it - got the whole 28GB but then it gave me an endless flashing blue indicator but did nothing for well over an hour so I tried restarting it and now it's going so slow.

[aMUSEd]

@aMUSed, you do have the latest e-licenser software right?
thanks
rsp

Actually I see they have just updated it - fingers crossed

Nope didn't work

[PAK]

To my knowledge, the Pro version of Windows 10, which ED talked about, indeed gives you the option to control updates.

Again, it doesn't. It simply gives some additional rights to delay the update. Still causes a known issue after that? Too bad, you're taking it. The Enterprise versions aren't a work around either, since they require running your own update server.

There's SKU's that have more rights - some of their LTSB (long term servicing branch) options provide the ability to take only security updates between "major" release versions etc. IE This stuff does exist - Microsoft just don't want to give these abilities to regular end users any longer. They're too busy trying to make sure they give them all these great new features, Microsoft services, and wonderful telemetry data collection, before the ARM CPU train finally smashes into them on the consumer laptop / desktop side of things..

High end pro apps have tended to migrate to Linux already. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Apple finally switches to ARM only, and whether any of the DAW host software companies consider Linux an avenue worth going down for those who require more processing power (I hope so.. )

But, hey, going deeply offtopic here, are we?

Yes and no. Windows 7 is likely to continue to hold a very large percentage of audio users, and it makes no sense to drop support for it when there's likely to be more Steinberg users using Windows 7 than either Windows 8 or Windows 10.

Audio companies, like Steinberg, who think they can "push" users into certain directions, like they once did, are ignoring an important factor. Most people change OS with a new machine. But a new CPU is not buying you much performance in recent years, so upgrading is much less of a factor for people than it once was. If your hardware is fast enough now, there's not likely to be that much different in 5 years time.

So if the hardware isn't going to be the reason, then what about that "support" which ends in 2020? Do you really care about "new features" like a freaking Candy Crush game? Or do you only care about security updates, for the most part? Windows XP still gets security updates with a simple registry hack, and likewise "actual" support for Windows 7 will continue long after 2020, thanks to the business contracts Microsoft have.

It just depends how much trouble you want to go to, to keep something going, and how much companies like Steinberg try to end support prematurely because they want to cut costs. How about you cut them by removing platforms with the least users Steinberg? You can start with Windows 8, and work your way down to Windows 10, before you reach Windows 7..

[chk071]

To my knowledge, the Pro version of Windows 10, which ED talked about, indeed gives you the option to control updates.

Again, it doesn't. It simply gives some additional rights to delay the update.

Did you visit the article i linked in my post? It shows how you can configure notification, download and automatic updates in the Pro version.

High end pro apps have tended to migrate to Linux already.

Lol... o...k... then... I think the "high end" audio app market is a prefect example for that, innit?

[zvenx]

@aMUSed, you do have the latest e-licenser software right?
thanks
rsp

Actually I see they have just updated it - fingers crossed

Nope didn't work

rsp

[BBFG#]

As we're already guessing, and assuming, i guess that the least of Halion 6 buyers really took knowingly advantage of the grace period thing. Also, i guess you missed it, but a user already reported that Halion 6 is working under Windows 7.

Thanks for reiterating. I did indeed missed that someone has it working under W7. Actually looking forward to updating so I bought into it before I saw any of the usual KVR panics. I feel more comfortable now. I still have to wait for the 2 am hour to download a file that large though. (Luckily, I'm close to the end of my billing period with 48 GB to go!) I know where my weekend is planned.

[chk071]

Don't take my word for it though. I have no idea how Halion 6 is working for the person using it on Windows 7. If Steinberg doesn't support the OS, and you will run into problems, they most likely will resort to a "we won't give support for a unsupported OS" position (although they might, anyway). TBH, i wouldn't risk it. I'd rather risk upgrading my OS.

Edit: Here's the post: viewtopic.php?p=6700738#p6700738

[BassMasterK]

Don't take my word for it though. I have no idea how Halion 6 is working for the person using it on Windows 7. If Steinberg doesn't support the OS, and you will run into problems, they most likely will resort to a "we won't give support for a unsupported OS" position (although they might, anyway). TBH, i wouldn't risk it. I'd rather risk upgrading my OS.

Edit: Here's the post: viewtopic.php?p=6700738#p6700738

Don't take your word for it? But you're using that as the basis to bash me for not being happy about not being notified of this major omission in advance. And "in case you missed it" there are people reporting that they got it to install on Win7 but that it isn't functioning right. That is why I'm not d/l'ing it until I hear they are going to support it. "In case you missed it" it overwrites Halion 5 so if it doesn't work then you don't have either. I'm not sure why you find it so hard to understand.

And for one last "in case you missed it" I decided to look up your stats. Win7 has over 47% over the total market, almost double Win 10 and almost more than all other PC and Mac OS's combined. From Netmarketshare (your supposed source), January 2017:
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operatin ... pcustomd=0

Please tell me more about what I missed.

[PAK]

Did you visit the article i linked in my post? It shows how you can configure notification, download and automatic updates in the Pro version.

Ok, I just did. The metered connection setting, to prevent updates, is a well known kludge. It assumes Windows 10 will always respect the setting. It's a "better than nothing, but don't count on it" sort of thing. Can you guess what you might find if you search for people complaining it ignored the metered setting to fetch updates?

There was a group policy setting which once worked, but the article contains an update to inform you Microsoft killed this (of course!). The other "reboot prevention" is simply setting a schedule for those important telemetry updates. So you're still taking the updates, and liking them. That isn't full control. The other settings mentioned are also subject to the same caveats about Windows 10 deciding, at some point between now and never, that you clearly meant to accept the thing you told it not to do.

That's pretty much Windows 10 in a nutshell. Oh, and I hope you like adverts in your file explorer!

Mac OS isn't anywhere near as bad. It still comes with a proper command line, which pretty well gives you actual control, and it's infinitely more consistent in doing what its told. Plus, for those inclined to attempt it, you may find Steinberg products now run better on the same PC hardware under Mac OS than either Windows 10 or Windows 7, for that matter.

I think the "high end" audio app market is a prefect example for that, innit?

Well, that's the problem - Audio users are stuck in a middle ground. More needs than your average browser user, or even a Photoshop user for that matter, but not the processor needs of some giant render farm running on a unix variant

ARM will likely play some part in forcing the issue though, since Apple are likely to move their laptops and iMac over at some point in the next 3-5 years. That move will give them control over their own custom ARM CPU's and means they'll only have one platform (iOS), with its desktop variant (DiOS )

Microsoft are already pinning their hopes on hardware x86 emulation on ARM. If that's not viable for good low latency audio performance then there may be trouble ahead. Either way, big changes are coming and some of us plan to avoid the steaming Windows 10 pile until such times..

[EvilDragon]

I'm not running a stock W10Pro install. I did tweak group policies, and I never had it restart at random on me during my work. Any updates I allowed ended up working just fine.

Ads in file manager? Don't have them (thanks to a huge hosts file). Besides, I'm not using Explorer that much, as I'm a big fan of Total Commander

New drivers are definitely NOT being installed with Windows updates, I control all that and install them manually. No problems so far, at all.

[fmr]

HALion 6 license HAS to be messed. Precisely because HALion 6 isn't supporting older OS versions, that's another reason for the license to allow to run older versions. I already filled a ticket to Steinberg about this.

Regarding HALion not loading some libraries, I am going to test it in Windows 10.

BTW: During the installation and uninstallation in Windows 7, I apparently lost two files from the HALion content I had installed. They are the FCP_SMT_108_HAL_VST3_Presets_Trial.vstsound and the FCP_SMP_107_HAL_Trial.vstsound (HALion is complaining about these two missing upon launch). I think these are old library files, probably from HALion 4 even, and are connected to each other.

I am looking in backups trying to find them, but if someone has these two files and can provide them to me that would be deeply appreciated.

[Rommelaar]

I upgraded to Halion 6 last night and both libraries from Patchpool migrated with the rest of the Halion libraries.

[PAK]

I'm not running a stock W10Pro install. I did tweak group policies, and I never had it restart at random on me during my work.

Beep. Until you jinxed it by saying that

Ads in file manager? Don't have them (thanks to a huge hosts file).

It knows to bypass the hosts file when it wants to. Router level blocking would be more effective. But, in the end, you'd probably end up blocking half the caching service IP's in the world and still lose the battle at some point. Much easier if Microsoft would just stop being such a-holes about this stuff.

Anyway, hopefully Steinberg know plenty of users aren't happy about Win10 and that the Windows 7 user base might be around for longer, and in bigger numbers, than it thinks.

With that said, back to HALion..

[Gucky]

I own Halionsonic 2 and Hypersonic 2. I like both.
I want to upgrade to Halionsonic 3. But I want to keep Hypersonic 2.
I am a little bit unsure about the comments in this thread to that theme.
So my question: Can anybody confirm that I still have the license of Hypersonic 2 after the upgrade to Halionsonic 3?
Or does Hypersonic 2 not work after the upgrade?
Many thanks for your help!

[coldmachine]

Can someone confirm whether Halion 6 purchase includes HS3 license?

Thanks