Dear all,
the HALion 7.1 and HALion Sonic 7.1 updates are now available in the Steinberg Download Assistant. This update includes a lot of new features for HALion in the Spectral Zone. You can get an overview in this video or find all the details in the version history:
Version_History_HALion_HALion_Sonic_7_1.pdf (282.7 KB)
Have fun with the new HALion version!
Florian
Cool addition tnx
Hi Florian,
I just purchased the upgrade from Halion Sonic 7 to Halion 7.
Message: “You entered a Download Access Code for a product upgrade but you do not own a license to which this upgrade can be applied.”
I have Cubase Pro 13 w hich comes with Halion Sonic 7 and I’ve been using it just fine. Have I made a mistake or is the licensing system having an issue?
tnx
There is no upgrade to purchase from the free HALion Sonic 7. The product you most likely purchased requires a HALion Sonic “Collection” license. Big difference. Confusing, yes. However, there has never been an upgrade path from the free or bundled versions of Steinberg software that I am aware of.
Oops, I didn’t notice there’s a difference between Halion Sonic 7 and Halion Sonic 7 Collection. Times like this I wish Steinberg would take greater effort to inform during shopping through the download and license managers.
Now I either seek a refund or buy the full package. At least it’s 50% off too. 
Scab is right, the upgrade price applies to the paid Halion Sonic 7 Collection, which includes most of Halion 7’s content. Please ask for a refund.
Halion Sonic 7 is a free plug-in that includes no content by default. If you have a license for a current Steinberg DAW (Cubase, Nuendo, VST Live, Dorico…), you’ll have access to the “Sonic Selection” library, which includes some cut-down instruments from the Halion Sonic Collection, as well as some classic instruments from Yamaha.
If you’re big into either sampling or making your own presets, consider purchasing Halion 7. It’s going to keep you busy for many, many months.
If you just want better presets, the Halion Sonic 7 Collection is still a great choice. Not only does it come with much better quality versions of many Cubase presets, but it also includes many additional libraries, which you can see here:
I have some Issue with these updates since weeks ago, I still have N12 on my other mac, and just upgraded to N13 but haven’t install yet, everytime I updated to HS7 it will tells me that I am missing some samples … even though I already updated and reinstall again, so I have to revert back to old HS7 again … I am on catalina, kindly please check this issue.
Demonstrating the updated spectral oscillator in HALion 7.1 with a sample of male overtone singing from my sound library MetaVox. I had a great time with the updated spectral oscillator during the Beta phase making patches for X-Stream/HALion Sonic, having this osc inside HALion is of course so much better as it is polyphonic. What a great updated this is!
LOL when I moved back to Cubase a few years ago (during the end of 11), it was pretty confusing to me as well. If it’s any consolation, Im an old school hardcore EMU Ultra user (a pair of maxed out E6400 Ultras), and I haven’t bothered turning the things on in over a year now. Around the time Halion 7 came out, I finished up tracking the last project I used it on and bought the plugin finally. Haven’t bothered using the EMUs since I got it. Totally worth the price of admission if you’re a heavy sampler.
I know this falls on deaf ears, but there should be an upgrade path for Cubase Pro users. Halion is superior to Kontakt, yet Kontakt remains the default sampler, this is partly the reason.
I’ve heard Kontakt is for folks who like to have lots of prepackaged samples and just chop 'em whereas Halion is for folks who like to create unique new sounds from existing samples. Does this sound right?
I go back a few years too and have stayed with traditional instruments although I’ve always been intrigued by sampling. Nowadays, so many interesting things are happening in sound that it’s just too exciting for me to ignore sampling any longer.
I’ve stood on the brink for some time, wondering which direction to go: Kontakt or Halion. They’re both on sale right now and it’s a good time to jump in. I might like easy chops (Kontakt?) but I could be drawn into deep sampling and experimentation (Halion?) because it seems as if Halion can do what Kontakt does and quite a bit more, if I understand things correctly.
Others can chime in. If you want to play with sounds yourself, then go with Halion. If you want a huge amount of instruments and content, go with Kontakt. Halion has content, but Kontakt has wayyyyy more. To confuse you more, there is also UVI Falcon, which is fantastic, but the hardest to learn (it is both a sampler and modular synth).
The sale is a good deal as a standalone, but as I’ve mentioned, if they had a path from Cubase to Halion upgrade, you wouldn’t have to even think about it, buying would be a no-brainer!
Hi, I’m a long time Cubase user since ver 5 and currently using Cubase 13 Pro in my current version of Halion I have all of the instruments except FM lab and Tales. What’s the right upgrade path for me to get Spectral zone?? This upgrade seems a bit confusing
J.
The Spectral Zone is part of Halion 7. If you’re unsure which version you’re upgrading from, please use the following links to check which licenses you have registered to your account:
Upgrading will also give you access to the FM Lab and Tales libraries.
Thx, Tp
What’s strange is there is no reference to me having a license for any level of Halion, but I have all of the instruments. I’ve never downloaded any hacked programs. Every time I’ve upgraded to a new ver of Cubase I’d get more instruments added to my Halion library. So do I have the Halion Sonic 7 Collection??. Do I have to buy the complete program??
J
The version included with Cubase is the free Halion Sonic 7 player, which includes libraries exclusive to users of Steinberg’s DAWs. I imagine this is what you’re referring to. This content isn’t the same as the paid “Halion Sonic 7 Collection”, and it currently doesn’t qualify for upgrade pricing, unfortunately.
See this topic for a list of licenses which can be upgraded to Halion 7:
Free HALion Sonic 7 (included with Cubase, Dorico...) cannot be upgraded to HALion 7!
I’m a bit of the opposite. Played synths and whatnot for years and ultimately realized I ended up putting most everything into a sampler in the end anyways haha. The EMUs are amazing sound design machines, and Halion keeps up and then some. Last time I used Kontakt was ages ago (Kontakt 5 or 6??) and the interface alone was so confusing and it just did not inspire anything at all. A year later I haven’t even begun to play with any of the other engines in Halion as well, I’m still having plenty of fun with just the sampler engine. I’ve got my library plus all my Akai/EMU discs I converted into patches and enough material to keep me busy for decades still haha.
The upgrade path was, unfortunately not clear enough. I bought what I thought was an upgrade path from Halion Sonic 7 to Halion 7. Turned out it wasn’t and I’m in a holding pattern with Steinberg for a refund so I can buy Halion 7 but I haven’t heard from them yet. More info needs to be disseminated at purchase time to clarify upgrade dependencies. This could happen in the downloader or the licenser or in the online shop portal. I don’t really care which one but something should be there and it isn’t. Whenever I buy anything from Steinberg I always worry and wring my hands wondering whether I was informed correctly and made the right decision. I don’t like finding out after I purchased an item that I purchased the wrong one because the license can’t be applied and I didn’t know in advance.