I am using HALion 4.5 as my workhorse instrument in Cubase 6 and it all I can say it rocks! I think it was worth to wait some years for the new HALion, as we are facing a very mature and future-proof concept that delivers a whole new level in sound design. So, well done Steinberg, after some “hopeless” years your products are getting better and better again…
I hope HALion 5 will arrive soon, so here is my feature wish list list to to include in the next generation.
Feel free to add yours in this thread to inspire the developers (but I assume they have a roadmap for some years ahead…)
HALion 5 wish list:
please add the Quick Control assignments to modulation destinations
Quick Control changes should provide a visual feedback in the assigned knobs
automation may display the original HALion parameter values
An “automatic preview load” mode for MediaBay that allows to A / B listen to programs / layers (even soloed when the “Show Program Structure” is turned on) before adding it eg. to a new layer of a program already existing in a slot. This is a invisible temporary slot, that essentially allows A/B comparison. This would completely eliminate the guessing “How it sounds?” and would save us lots of unnecessary “load-delete program” cycles.
the ability to browse and load patches just by moving the up/down arrow (without pressing Enter)
please add the ability to load external impulse files into Reverence
Loop modulation: current Sample Start modulation based on note-on trigger is ok, but kind of old-fashioned. Real-time modulation of sample start, sample end, and start-end loop linked by an asssignable MIDI controller (like in Ableton’s Sampler) would be awesome.
FlexPhraser
export : drag-and-drop a FlexPhraser sequence to a Cubase track / Merge MIDI In Loops / just record to a MIDI track, whichever
import: any MIDI sequence
Several functions are still not assignable to keycommands, eg. please add the “Solo Follow Selection” and “Auto Visibility” to the keycommand editor
Crossfade editor in the MIDI Editor: Keyrange and velocity crossfades over the keyboard range should be included in the MIDI Editor as well (like in Omnisphere) as crossfading at slot-level is not possible yet.
MIDI Module: Monophonic Step Modulator
New synthesis models to even expand the current superb sound design abilities of HALion, eg. granular synthesis of Padshop, additive, wavetable, FM > see your NEW competition for inspiraton
The slice integration with Cubase 6 is awesome, so maybe you should NOT focus resource to create a built-in slicing engine… yeah I know… what about the other DAW users, they are a very small minority I suppose.
It’d be nice to group-edit samples with the Sample Editor (such things as adjusting the sample-start and -end).
But I don’t know if it is already possible and I haven’t found the function yet.
I’d also like to see the root key of the current selected sample on the piano roll and adjust it with drag&drop like in Kontakt.
But again: maybe it already exists and I was just too busy too find out.
Edit: Found it. Press the alt-key and click on a key of the Mapping Editor Keyboard to assign the Root Key.
I’m reading through the whole manual right now and damn… I didn’t know a thing!
Impulse responses processors are fantastic sound design tools that are more than just Cathedral emulators. Galaxy X and Speakerphone are great examples. It would expand Halion into a sound designers dream.
Make it more open sounding… Compared to Mach Five 3, H4 sounds really plain and low fi compared to the nice open sound of mach five 3, or even Kontakt for the matter, but in this case Mach Five trumps even Kontakt… Halion is last place… This is while monitoring on hi end converters, it clearly tells the difference between each sampler…
True. But isn’t that also a matter of the content?
I only know Kontakt and most of the NI Multisamples
sound a lot better. But I guess that depends on stuff
like Noise-Samples that are triggered with the note off
message, roundrobin and that there are more samples for each key- and
velocity-zone. Plus the saturator in Kontakt makes almost every
sample sound great.
I do not have the Mach5, so can not comment that, but I think the H4 is better than Kontakt in terms of sound quality of presets. Not mentioning the GUI, the synth engine, etc. But it is also a matter of personal taste…
But I do not think that H4 sounds “lo-fi” at all…
Did you try exact tests, like loading and playing the very same sample set without filters, envelopes, etc. both in HALion and M5, then rendering to a wav file and phase invert and null them?
A special thing, it is implemented and called as “Legato Clip Launching” in Ableton Live 8.
This is from Live manual: “Suppose you have gathered, in one track, a number of looping clips, and you now want to toggle among them without losing the sync. When a clip in Legato Mode is launched, it takes over the play position from whatever clip was played in that track before. Hence, you can toggle clips at any moment and rate without ever losing the sync.”
Would be an awesome addition to HALion 5, using MIDI keyboard to trigger notes in this legato fashion.
haha, ain’t that the truth! To be honest, I am expecting something soon, perhaps later this month or next. It will probably drop unexpected. Things have been quite quiet at Steinberg and as great as Halion 4.5 is, it is still coming up short in a few key areas that I hope to see addressed.
An input-bus-section to route signals from the DAW directly through
the same filters and other components of a certain program. Could be realized like the external
keying of the cubase dynamics (cubase-side; f.e. sending the signal of a track with the sends to
“Halion 4 Input Bus 1”) and with a module in the program tree (halion-side; rightclick > New > Input Bus 1).
Oh now that does sound sick! Imagine creating a layer in this input bus where you could layer a sample, create a synth patch etc and have it all adjustable by envelopes, modulation, pitch, filters, FX etc. Brilliant!
It’s way faster too make a good sounding sustain loop
with ping pong loop than searching for a fitting start and end
for a usual sustain loop. So I also hope that they’ll implement this
feature.
A bit more intelligent MIDI Channel assignment of the Slots:
Current behaviour:
Load 3 programs.
All set to Ch 1 to layer them.
When I load the 4th program it is set to Ch4 default.
Should work like this:
Load 3 programs.
All set to Ch 1 to layer them.
When I load the 4th program it should set the next lowest empty / not used MIDI Channel, which is actually Ch 2 now.
It is not a big problem at a 3 layers Program, I set them manually, but may be more convenient at Programs building more layers, and maybe in any situation, as all MIDI slots would be used for sure.
