I am learning and trying to build a sequenced sound program in HALion 7.
When I stack the program to the extend that contains 1 wavetable osc [(1*8.0 unison + 1*3.0 unison*2 unison, with fil env and amp env on] Layer with MIDI Player + 1 sample osc Layer + 1 synth osc (only one osc on, no unison) Layer with MIDI Player, and then press down on keyboard trying to listen to preview, I come across a problem:
Seconds after the sequence began playing, HALion 7 suddenly kills every voice, and then refuses to produce any sound thereafter (you can see polyphony being counted and HALion eating CPU just as the norm but just no sound). Neither CPU use limit nor voice limit is achieved. No overload.
Rarely it may just kill one layer. Deactivating and reactivating HALion 7 may recover partial layers playable. Iâve tried with Nuendo 12, Logic Pro X 10.8, Reaper 7, Live 11 and all the same. On both macOS and Windows. The worst cases I met were that on my Mac machine Core Audio might crash (maybe) after the sudden silence. Even Quicktime player cannot play audio until a reset of driver.
Well, now I have tested HALion 7 on different platform and in different versions. These are what I have encountered so far:
Regarding unexpected glitches and missing voices, both macOS and Windows versions of HALion 7.0.20 behave the same.
Missing voices seemingly only appear when there are a lot of zones playing simultaneously in one single program, in HALion 7.0.20.
A voice missing might be exactly a failure to output audio by an entire zone. The whole zone will not output sound after a certain moment. Sometimes all zones in a program defy to produce sounds. In this case, peak meters inside HALion reports nothing, as well as in the DAW. However, performance meter reports that the buffer/CPU is still being used as if zones are working properly.
HALion 7.0.20 can sometimes cause Core Audio failing (âŚmaybe) to deliver sound systemwide when using integrated speakers. In this case, HALion might be outputting audio signal by the remaining zones and the DAW receives it, which all could be observed via peak meters or tools like SuperVision in Cubase. However, no sound could be heard. Meanwhile, other media player (e.g. QuickTime) could not output sound to the speaker, either. This state remains until the DAW quits or the driver is reinitialised in the DAW.
I rolled back to HALion 7.0.0 on my PC and tested it again. It no longer kill voices before actual overloads.
Have not tested on my Mac as I have no older installer backup and I donât know where to download the older version for HALion 7.
Loading 4 or more (in my case) Iconica Sketch string legato programs, each playing one note would lead to audio glitches without any overload detected, if Performance Option â Multi-Core is set to on. âTurning this option on may lead to drop outâ is warned by Steinberg. However, in other cases, for example, 16 Sample Fuel Wave programs, turning off Multi-Core causes overload and turning it on will just give you far more performance.
I am not clear about what is going on inside HALion 7 but it seems strange to see such behaviour. I am wondering if anyone gets to the same problem. Thanks!
Yikes. Well you and I can suffer together a little it appears. There are a LOT of issues with Halion. Like major issues. Especially on the Mac Platform. The windowing system doesnât work unless you use Rosetta. Like it literally wonât hold its shape!
The surround sound plugin causes instant crashing no matter what you do. The graphical elements are super hard to select. Try clicking and sliding on the octave field on a Mac in Logic. It works maybe 20% of the time.
My personal presets are all missing as sources to add as a new layer. Like there is nothing there. Plus itâs missing a lot of the Steinberg Content.
Iâve been talking to a level 2 Steinberg support agent for a little bit, and heâs been very helpful. Some of the issues you have having parallel my own and they are either known bugs, or bugs possibly being worked on.
Regarding the multiple layers muting-if I understand you correctly-the sounds just kinda stop playing as you play them. Try this: Go into the Sound Tab/Voice Manager/ON/OF/Groups
So essentially after you go to the sound tab, highlight everything in your program tree so it selects it all in one go. You will need to toggle the Voice Manager either ON/OFF. That usually fixes it. Sometimes you have to uncheck âvoice groupsâ to as it will be partially selected but greyed out.
Hi Tweswend,
Iâm able to reproduce at least the âdyingâ voices or layers here. But no crashes so far. If you could reproduce the crashes in Nuendo and send me the Crashlog, it would help us a lot.
Anyway, its now in our Defect-Tracking-System and listed as Bug-ID âHALLY-10854â.
I hope we can provide a fix for it soon.
Thanks for your report and please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Gerrit Junge
Regarding the âcrashâ I describedâSorry for my misleading word. This is the procedure to show what I mean by saying âcrashes audio driverâ on macOS using built-in audio:
Open and play an audio file using quicklook or fb2k or other apps to prove that system audio works properly initially.
Launch HALion 7 Standalone,
Load that program and press keys until all voices are killed.
Open and play an audio file using quicklook or other apps. Result: Other apps or system quicklook plays the audio file but no sound can be heard.
Quit HALion7 Standalone and do Step 3. Result: Other apps or system quicklook outputs sound as normal.
-Or test with Nuendo (my: 12.0.52) it is similar, but it is not stably reproduced:
Open and play an audio file using quicklook or fb2k or other apps to prove that system audio works properly initially.
Load HALion7. Load another one VSTi. In my case Iâve tested with Retrologue 2.3 and Spire VST3. Ensure VSTis are making sound correctly.
Load the problematic program in HALion. Press keys until all voices are killed.
Trigger a note in retrologue 2.3 or Spire. Result: No sound output, but the track meter, Master output meter and Monitor meter in ControlRoom shows normal level as if there is sound. There are chances it wonât happen. Sometimes only HALion7 failed.
Open and play an audio file using quicklook or other apps. Result: Other apps or system quicklook plays the audio file but no sound can be heard. There are chances it wonât happen. Sometimes the abnormality is only inside the DAW. In one specific test, If result in Step 3 is not triggered, this is sure not to happen.
Quit Nuendo and do Step 4. Result: Other apps or system quicklook outputs sound as normal. OR: Open and close Audio driver control panel in Studio â Studio Setup to trigger a driver reset(?) Result: All things come back to the state before Step 2.