Halion 6 compatibility with Halion 3 files

[EDIT: Halion 6 is compatible with Halion 3 files. See the second post.]

Spent a couple of days getting Halion 6.1 installed on my new system to try it out vs. my Halion 3. I’m not really impressed at all.
To not be able to import my years of detailed work on my .fxb and .hsb files that I so meticulously worked on is completely unacceptable.
To pay for and get this upgrade isn’t worth it anymore. Updating and completely losing functionality of H3 isn’t acceptable either. I paid A LOT of money for ALL of Steinberg’s products over the years. I refuse to do it anymore. I’m just going to un-install this and look for other alternatives.
In the future Steinberg, please make the trial downloads a little smaller. GB’s and GB’s of download isn’t really necessary to try something out though I’m glad it at least helped me make an important decision on wether or not to pay for an upgrade.

Sincerely
:frowning:

When you buy Halion 6, you have to request an additional Halion 5 license to be able to import your Halion 3 files. Please contact Steinberg Support through your MySteinberg. This is required because Halion 6 uses a licensing method that’s not compatible with Halion 3/4/5.

No functionality has been lost from Halion 3, and in fact there’s even a special Halion 3 mode to ensure that your old instruments sound exactly like they did in Halion 3. All of the old Halion 3 effects are also included.

Check these manual pages:

-Loading Files from HALion 3

-Loading HALion 3 Programs
Registering HSB/VST Sound Files
Importing FXP/FXB Files
Loading FXP/FXB Files

Forgive me for being such a noob. In that case, sold. I really like the new features. Now just have to look around and figure out how to get the upgrade and 5 liscense. Thanks for the info.

Well guess what Romantique Tp,
Based on YOUR advice on what to do, I bought the cross grade from Halion 3 to Halion 6.1.
I requested the Halion 5 license.
Steinberg sent me the regular 6.1 license and FLAT OUT REFUSED to send 5 license.
Steinberg says because of licensing issues between 3 and 6 versions and they’re “SORRY for the inconvienence”?
Now my Halion 3 plugin is DEAD!. Won’t load anything.
I just completely wasted $250 on your advice.

SERIOUSLY!!!

Maybe the particular person who replied to your ticket misunderstood the situation? People have been requesting this Halion 5 license to be able to run Hypersonic 2 (even though Halion 6 has almost everything from this plugin in higher quality…) for months, and as far as I know not a single person got their request rejected. And Hypersonic 2 wasn’t even developed by Steinberg, unlike Halion 3. :confused:

Please contact support again and tell them to take a look at these links, and specially pay attention to Matthias Quellmann’s and Gerrit Junge’s posts.

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=262&t=136189

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=262&t=112749#p616895

https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/115000114850#previous-versions

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=114040

If that doesn’t help, I’ll try contacting the marketing guys and see if they can help you with this.

My Hypersonic 2 still works fine.
Halion 6.1 works.
Halion 3 loads blanks.
I asked for someone to call me about this and they told me you weren’t from sales and didn’t know what you were talking about. ???
They told me to put in ANOTHER request at [email] and gave me a phone number of [phone number].
What do you suggest I do. I believe it might be asknet that’s the problem. What’s the best way to go about this without waiting for weeks?
Another update…
Just spoke to US support AGAIN. They said they spoke to FABIO in Germany and he said a Halion 5 license doesn’t qualify when you purchase a cross grade from Halion 3 to halon 6. I’m gonna need some help here.

Did you contact asknet support or Steinberg support? You were supposed to contact Steinberg directly through your MySteinberg. I guess I should have mentioned it.

I’ll send them a message.

Hi Roger F,

I am not sure what has been communicated via the US support but first, there is no crossgrade from HALion 3 as there is no official upgrade or crossgrade path available in the shop anymore. Then, Asknet cannot do anything as they are just our online shop and not responsible for requests on compatibility and licensing.
I have checked your account and you still have the HALion 3 license on your USB-eLicenser for working with HALion 3. I am not sure why you want to have another license in this case?

Ed, it’s simple. I don’t really care about Halion 3 anymore.
I just want to load my old .FXP’s into Halion 6. It says “FILES ARE UNSUPPORTED”
.HSB are also unsupported.

Hi Roger,

Did you manage to get your issue sorted out?

As you can see from my screenshot I have Halion 3 and Halion 6 working fine together and you can see I have 828 Halion 3 presets in the mediabay of Halion 6.


I have imported my old Cubase 5 projects (which obviously used Halion 3) into Cubase Pro 10 and Halion 3 works perfectly!


Hope this helps?


Kind regards


James Colah

I saw your screenshot and it made me cry LOL. I’m going to try to reinstall both again and see if that fixes it. Everything turns red when I try to drag or import. I’ll let you know. Thanks for giving me a glimmer of hope. I’ll keep trying.

Hey James,
Can I ask you a question? I was told a while back by romantique that I need to request a Halion 5 license to get H6 To load H3.
Do you or did you have a H5 license? I’ve requested it multiple times without a response for a long time now.

Hi Roger,

Yes, I had Halion 5 but you need to request a free Halion 5 Add-on licence which is a USB-eLicenser license and will also cover previous licenses like HALion 4 and HALion 3.

I’m sorry to hear you requested it multiple times as it was sent to me immediately. Please keep trying or the best thing to do is give them a call!


Best of luck!

Kind regards


James Colah

In April 2018, we declined the request because according to your account, you still own a separate HALion 3 license next to the HALion 6 license. This allows you to use both HALion 3 and HALion 6 on your system without the need for any other license.

Ed, seriously,

The purpose for the 5 license is so Halion 6 can load .fxb files. It’s that simple. Without it, Halion 6 doesn’t load it.
This shouldn’t even be a issue but Steinberg set it up that way. Everyone else that received it had other versions of Halion installed also.

You gotta be kidding after all this time.

Hi,
the purpose of the 5 license is to load and to use HALion 5!!! As an upgrade from e.g. HALion 3 to HALion 5 REMOVES the HALion 3 license the HALion 5 license has got the ability to use older versions like HALion 4 and HALion 3 due to it’s “hard” license nature.

HALion 6 is a “soft” license product and can’t be used with “hard” license products like HALion 5,HALion 4 or HALion 3.
It is for this reason that you still got your HALion 3 license (after you bought the upgrade from Halion 3 to Halion 6.1) on your Steinberg eLicenser so that you still are able to use HALion 3 and/or to load your HALion 3 content into HALion 6. As Ed pointed out already, there is no need for an additional HALion 5 license.

best regards
Gerrit Junge

NONE OF YOU READ OR COMPREHEND.

HALION 3 ONLY LOADS BLANKS WITH MY HALION 6 INSTALLED. HALION 3 OPENS AND HAS NO FUNCTIONALITY.

UN-INSTALL HALION 6 - AND MY HALION 3 LOADS FINE!!!

Thank God For ESC AND KONTAKT. I just converted all my old fxp’s to nki and use them there now.

Reporting or asking about a problem here is useless.

Roger F, please stop this shouting!

I have read, I have checked it again with the latest HALion 6.2.10 and I can import/register .hsb files just fine - with just a HALion 6 license. There is even no need for a HALion 3 license here as the content itself is not protected. See screenshot with the HALion 3 listed.

And frankly, if you have HALion 3 and HALion 6 running on the same system, then this is not supported anyway as HALion 3 does not run on any current and HALion 6 supported operating systems.
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