I think the best argument for Halion 6 is the mighty sample engine you can create you own instruments quickly with.
I have read the manual and tried a few little things - I understand that chromatically sampling VST instruments which would be very resource hungry in their sound generating engine is very easy and quickly done.
But what if I need to sample several velocity layers per note? Do I have to define separate layers for this which I auto-record then one after another? I think normally in chromatical mode you can configure that Halion moves on to next note with every note-on; what if I wish to sample all velocity layers first for one note? Is that possible in an auto-recording mode?
The Halion 6 Sample Recorder is simply my favorite new feature.
The information below which is in addition to the Help instructions, relates to recording a plug-in track.
Include “velocity” in the file naming scheme. Separate the velocity value with an underscore. (1st attachment)
I have a MIDI file of chromatic notes of the desired duration for the type of instrument to be auto sampled. Notes are spaced 1 second apart. The transition between velocity ranges is indicated by a marker. (2nd attachment)
If you create named layers first, once you click on Record in H6, what ever layer is selected can be “Set” to the Destination Layer. (3rd attachment).
If the layer 0-60 is selected, the velocities in that range will be placed on that layer. (4th attachment)
4. It’s important to stop Cubase or your DAW before it enters the next velocity range. That’s why the transition between velocity ranges is marked. Select the next layer (61-95), then hit play in Cubase. Repeat, select the next layer, etc.
Another option is to skip steps 3 and 4, go have a coffee, and just let the MIDI file with various velocity ranges play from start to finish. You can add named layers after the fact, then select-drag the samples to their respective layers. (5th attachment)
This is just so cool!!!
Million thanks for the detailed instructions !! Much appreciated !!
That was the way which I imagined - one question though:
Since you can configure Layers quite conveniently in when / at which playing parameters they should be active, you are limited with this approach to the maximum layer number per program (which is 4 or 8), right? So your velocity granularity may not exceed the number of possible layers (assuming you don’t want to touch zones in the sample map editor)?
Another question: plucked sounds (“one shot”) or leads without attack nor release (“normal”) can be created quite conveniently - do you see a possibility of let’s say leads with attack or pad sounds? As far as I understand the start and end point per sample will be at beginning / end. So in this case you need to touch every sample there to move start/end in order to create a realistic loop?
There probably is, but I’m not aware of a maximum number of layers. H6 accommodates as many as I need.
Another question: plucked sounds (“one shot”) or leads without attack nor release (“normal”) can be created quite conveniently - do you see a possibility of let’s say leads with attack or pad sounds? As far as I understand the start and end point per sample will be at beginning / end. So in this case you need to touch every sample there to move start/end in order to create a realistic loop?
There is no autolooping. This really begs a separate question for looping experts to weigh in on.
RockIngenieur wrote:
Since you can configure Layers quite conveniently in when / at which playing parameters they should be active, you are limited with this approach to the maximum layer number per program (which is 4 or 8), right? So your velocity granularity may not exceed the number of possible layers (assuming you don’t want to touch zones in the sample map editor)?
That’s a good question.
But once you export your program as HSSE layer, it becomes a single layer with several sub layers which you can’t access or edit in HSSE.
