I have Halion Sonic 7 (not SE). What is the difference between this and Halion?.
Thanks
HALion Sonic 7 is the free player for HALion content. Itâs the successor of HALion Sonic SE 3 â so thereâs no SE edition any longer. You can find a comparison chart of the different editions on the following page:
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I stepped up to Halion 7 and have been making my own patches but canât find them when attempting to load them into Halion Sonic. Do they not share patches?
Halion can load Halion Sonic presets but not the other way around.
You would have to export your preset as Halion Sonic layer then load it in Halion Sonic and save it as program preset.
Iâll need to figure out if thereâs any value in doing that.
It seemed like Sonic should be just a âplayerâ version of Halion.
You can export things you make in full HALion to work in the Sonic player.
There are a few rules to follow when doing so.
Sometimes you can lose the âmacro editorsâ if youâre working with some of the locked down layers that come with the HALion kit, but you can indeed still export very workable sounds for Sonic. If you lose the macro editor, the program will still function from the last state youâd saved it (including any QC mappings, learned CCs, MIDI mod matrix, or exposed VST control parameters), the macro screen will just be âblankâ (Like what you see if you load an older HALion 3 or 4 VSTpreset, fxp, or fxb).
If you start out with a Sonic program, and do NOT disengage the Sonic compatiblity mode, then there is quite a lot you can do to edit the program, save a copy, and it will retain full combability with Sonic as a complete instrument program.
If you start a brand new HALion program, or exit the Sonic compatibility mode of a program that started out as a Sonic program, then it can get a little more tricky, but you CAN still export it, one parent layer at a time, for full Sonic compatibility.
If you are exporting content to âshareâ with other Sonic usersâŚ
Realize that if you use bits and pieces from existing Sonic libraries (layer, samples, etc), that you can export the VSTpresets to share and all (even pack them into a vstsound container), but for it to work on other systems, theyâll need the original libraries installed and licensed to work.
I.E. Borrowing layers from Tales Guitar library to fashion new programs of your own. You can export the program, and share it with someone on a different system. For the program to work there, theyâll also need to have Tales installed, and theyâll need a license to use the library (Comes with Sonic Collections, Full HALion, and can be purchased individually). You can make all the programs and layers you like that âreferâ to layers or samples in the installed Tales vstsound archive, you can export the VSTpresets and share them, or even pack them into a new vstsound libraryâŚbut you wonât be able to âexportâ the actual samples or referred layers themselves (unless you go to the trouble to âresampleâ and rebuild them).
Example Screenshot of personalized HSO content. (limits explained)
Here Iâve made some customized goodies that borrows samples and layers from the HALion Symphonic Orchestra (HSO) library. I did it primarily to fix some long standing issues with Dorico when it comes to legato phrase interpretation (lua script delays the legato trigger some ms, so legato phrases no longer sound âbackwardsââŚshould be ta, la, la: not la, la, ta!); but also, to fashion myself some more key-switched articulation options, and rebalance everything more to my liking.
Where it used to interpret and sound like this (backwards sounding legato/slurs):
Hewitt Jones - DORICOverture OutOfBox.mp3 - Google Drive
It now sounds like this playing the same score (different base gain staging and velocity curves, legato system revamped, triggers for it delayed some milliseconds, and more bow-style variables on the table):
Hewitt Jones - DORICOverture MyMix4.2 - Alt HSO.mp3 - Google Drive
Because the original HSO macro editors could not be exported for Sonic with my custom presets, I made new ones of my own.
I packed a number of VSTpresets, along with my custom macro editors and lua scripts into a new vstsound library. It does NOT include the actual samples/layers from HSO; but merely pointers to the content used in the original HSO vstsound files.
Dorico_Supplement_1.vstsound - Google Drive
I can share my custom stuff here with anyone who has HSO installed, and has an HSO license (or Dorico Pro, which includes the rights to use HSO).
In Sonic:
In HALion:
If youâre using all of your own (or fully unlocked) samples, macro editors, scripts, etcâŚthen of course you can pack âeverythingâ into a fresh vstsound archiveâŚsamples, scripts, macro elements, etcâŚand share it with no restrictions. All target users will need is the free Sonic player. They can grab your vstsound file(s), double click, and the Steinberg Librarian will register it for them.
As for building programs in HALion that will work in SonicâŚ
There are some built in tools to help check that youâve done it properlyâŚbut a basic concept is to export one layer at a time from HALionâŚimport into a instance of Sonic into a fresh initialized Sonic program, and then write a new and proper Sonic âprogramâ from there.
I.E. Notice that if you open a Sonic program in HALion, youâll always find 4 parent layers in the program tree, even if 3 of them are basically empty. Notice the minimal modules and layering structure therein.
HALion can have unlimited parent layers at this level, while Sonic is limited to 4.
To make a Sonic programâŚexport each parent layer individually.
Steps to export a layer from program tree
(right click layer in parent mode, export as VSTpresetâŚ
Name the layer as you like, and enable the âAs HS Layerâ option (outlined in gold)âŚ
Open Sonic, initialize a program slot, import the individual layer(s), tweak your default settings/arrangements for the Sonic program, and then save a fresh new Sonic program.
Steps to build and save a Sonic program from exported HALion layers
Right click a program slot and initialize itâŚ
Import your layer(s) in the program tabâŚ
Drag and Drop from Media Bay, browser, or your OS file explorer.
Tweak and arrange things in Sonic as youâd like it to open by default when used in Sonic. Right click your program slot, name/tag/save it as you like.
In some cases you might find that macro screen editors canât be exported.
If this happens, it just means the macros and scripts for it are copy protected in a way that you cannot reuse them outside the protected contexts the original content designer intended/approved. You can still add scripts, learn CC controls, register VST parameters, and set up whatever QC controls you like and still have a very viable/useful program. You can also make your own replacement Macro editors if you really want/need them.
Full HALion does come with a number of unlocked base macro editor templates that are not locked, so you can use them as is, or make minor tweaks/changes to give a fresh look of your own. Have a look at the Raven and Eagle pianos, Studio Strings, Studio Brass, Skyfall, etc. I forget exactly which synths have unlocked macro pagesâŚbut I do remember it was all of the content that came out âfreshâ with HALion 6. There is also some content in full HALion 6 and 7 (Basic Controls Library) that is essentially just empty program and macro templates to start a program from scratch, and have the beginnings of a usable macro editor in place (youâd still need to bind the controls and such as you want them). Much of that was on purposely âunlockedâ to serve as examples users can dig into to see the basics in how to make and use Macro editors of our own.
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The real difference is ÂŁ290.
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Halion is a sound design monster one of the most powerful VST instrumentsâŚIMO
Halion sonic isnât.
is it relevant to have both installed?
If youâre still using HALion 6, then installing HALion Sonic 7 will enable you to use the newer libraries that require a newer HALion.
I have Halion 7 (Absolute 6) and I downloaded the ârecommendedâ
Personally, I have both installed and use both. If Iâm working with instrument tracks, I just load Halion Sonic and shoot away. 1 track (and Sonic instance) for a Voltage synth, 1 Electric Bass, 1 Model-C etc etc. I find itâs quicker.
Now, if I want to make an instrument from scratch, or quickly load a patch that I have made myself, I load Halion 7 on the track.
But for ordinary âload a preset and tweak a bitâ situations I use Halion Sonic.
If you intend to create content that is compatible with the free Sonic player, youâll want both. Typically when finalizing Sonic programs/presets that you first created in H7, youâll do the last steps in Sonic to insure everything works as intended, and the final programs (VSTpresets) are tagged properly for the Sonic player.
If you collaborate with other Cubase users swapping projects and such, youâll most likely want both since Sonic ships with all Steinberg hosts, and is the default HALion player out of the box. Itâs nice to have Sonic there and ready should a project expect to open that plugin id.
It takes very little space to keep Sonic around. Sonic and HALion share the same content/library files (multiple copies arenât installed or anything). The plugin and HaLion engine itself is pretty compact.
thanks
Thank you for taking the time to post this well-organized and detailed explanation of how to optimize preset creation for Halion sonic!