halion 4 and halion sonic what's the difference

Virtual instruments
1

Hi:
and thank you ahead of time.
The title speaks for itself.
halion 4 and halion sonic what’s the difference.
Does 4 have more than sonic, etc. :question:


Thank you
halharold

2

Halion 4 is Halion Sonic and then a whole lot more. Content wise, Halion 4 has every single preset that Halion Sonic has, plus a few hundred more of its own, that Halion Sonic does not contain. Halion 4 has all of the capabilities of Halion Sonic, playback/rompler wise, but also has the built in synth engine and full control on sample import and editing, which Halion Sonic does not have. There is no reason to go the Halion Sonic route over that of Halion 4, unless you are certain you don’t want the built in synth engine and will never desire importing, or editing your own samples.

3

hi:
Thank you, that’s the info that I was looking for :smiley:

halharold

4

A huge thanks Cantankerous from me too as I was confused about this difference also! :wink:

EDIT (ADDED):
Just wondering - based upon this, does this mean that if for example you have ‘Neo Soul Keys’ (which I’m currently demoing) that in Halion 4 you can edit aspects of this particular VSTi’s sound qualities (i.e. instrument decay etc) or are these features deliberately locked/hidden (i.e. to maintain the instruments authenticity for example)?

I’m sorry in advance - as its possible that this is really more of a Neo Soul Keys question than a Halion 4 question, but as they rely on each other its confusing as hell as seemingly when you install this library it appears that what you can do with it depends entirely upon which version of Halion you are using (i.e. Halion, Halion Sonic, Halion Sonic SE etc)… ouch my head stings! :unamused:

The reason why I ask is that if there is one thing that totally does my head in about this VSTi so far is that there only seems to be the option to either have full sustain (i.e. using the standard MIDI sustain on/off) or have no sustain at all - and there is no in-between seemingly! :open_mouth:

NOTE: Please bare in mind that I’m a total Noob to Halion and have just started using Halion Sonic SE via purchasing C7 - so my apologies if this question sounds totally dumb! :blush:

As such, this seems bizarre really, as with sustain on, everything just seems to turn to mud and overwhelm anything else in the mix! I’m sure on a real acoustic piano from memory there is levels of sustain according to how much you press on the sustain damper pedal - but I could be wrong (as for as how the original Rhodes sustain implementation goes - I wouldn’t have a clue however)! But variable sustain seems to be the only way to get any amount of real time expression into either of these instruments (for my needs at least)!

For this reason when I load up a multi-sampled Piano on my my Akai Z4 sampler I use a standard MIDI CC so that I have variable control over the decay (set to a suitable range) so it sounds natural and I can get lots of expression etc!

Anyway, sorry for the tangents - just me rambling as usual :blush: MAIN POINT: As such your post made me wonder if in Halion 4 you have access to things like general ADSR (Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release etc) for all sample library’s? I only have access to Halion Sonic SE currently and that just seems to be a ROM player basically. I guess I’m trying to ascertain if there is more to this Neo Soul Keys sonically if you are lucky enough to own Halion 4…

Sorry for the big post, was going to stick this in a new thread but this seemed like a good place to ask! :bulb: Any help on the above is much appreciated :slight_smile: many thanks - Kat

5

This ^

HALion 4 opens up the entire engine for editing, whereas HALion Sonic gives you the performance parts (and some editing, e.g. the VA synthesizer) of the HALion engine. I do have to say though that now that I am familiar with H4’s editing environment, it is actually easier and more “logical” than that of HS (i.e. the parts that you can edit).

That might be just me and the way I see things, but I do think that it’s important to look at that because if others feel it too, then one can always get H4 instead and disregard what you don’t want/need to edit. The GUI in H4 is very flexible and customizable, whereas HS is rather traditional.

My writing here is not to convince anyone, but to point out how I look at it. Though I am sure that my words are a tad bit biased, that cannot be helped because H4 is simply excellent. AND, the entire HALion suite (that includes HS and HSSE) are VST3.5 plugins, which means VST Expression (including Note Expression) is part to them. :smiley:

6

Hi Elektrobolt,

Thanks for your post, when I first replied to this thread - I only added the following single statement:

However - as is typical with me…

I then when back and edited it and went on a total tangent, during which time you had posted a response that largely answers some of the questions I asked anyway :smiley:

7

No worries, mate. Cantankerous had already written pretty much what I wrote, but I just thought I’d stick my nose in it, for extra added confusion, with sugar on top. :wink:

Unfortunately I know nothing about Neo Soul Keys or any other added libraries (make my own sounds), but I would venture to guess that these libraries are “closed” or “locked”.

8

Many thanks for your reply Elektrobolt,

I had a feeling this would be likely be the case too, and tweaking/making your own sounds is definitely where its at! :sunglasses: I think its this factor that is responsible for my initial frustration with HSSE (I can’t help but want to sculpt), but I realise its exists in C7 as a compliment to audition sounds and wet your appetite etc, so I’ll just have to get my paws on Halion 4 when I have the means for some serious playtime! :smiley: