from my experience it does not work correctly on a bit older computer processors…
i get droputs, insane load of peak and memory… other instruments work fine.
also the performance options where you can choose multiple cores does not work correctly.
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Hi, it can get heavy. This depends highly on the engine used by your sounds.
Anything spectral or wavetable can get pretty heavy, very quick. Especially if unison is involved, as it multiplies the engines.
Subtractive and sample zones should be light enough, even for older machines (one of my testboxes here has intel i5 from 2017, and can run HALion 7 just fine).
For samples, it makes sense to experiment with the Disk/RAM balance slider.
Please also keep in mind that your plug-in host might have different ideas then halion about core scheduling. In most cases, it makes sense to leave this to the host by setting multicore off (default in halion).
I hope this gives a bit of perspective, feel free to ask if you still have questions.
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For me it doesn’t work at all. Phenom2 just can’t produce sound.
some buttons works and i can switch presets, half of an hour to register those free plugins, that just cannot be downloaded easy from assistant and registered afterwards - get on site, press download, get email, put code in elicenser, check the stuff - and then bang it’s simply not working.
any midi-keynote pressing whenever - midi or just with mouse - and the app closes standalone or vst 16ms /50 /75 +boost +special mode - cpu is not reacting on that with 10% load and 6 cores free to use. i can understand that you are using some special libraries and cpu commands, but well they were using lamps to produce sound and it is still working, i mean there can be simple cpu profiles with optimizations - if you are serious about sound producing software.
there is always an option - to get a new software or hardware; Roland sh-4d works with just few batteries for few hours and usual cpu needs about 30-150 watt just to work - you just can’t get enough ?
Clearly single core usage does not work.
And…
Multicore mode:
No real difference. No even core sharing.
sry for the late reply. Please read my previous reply regarding scheduling overhead. Multicore will not help you in most cases.
It would be interesting to know how your sound is structured, or which library/preset you are using to get into these areas.
It’s my own created spectral synth sound 44.1k 16 bit. I wouldn’t have thought the multicore issue depends on which specific features or presets I am using. it seems to be a general issue regarding how Halion uses cores.
That’s what I am saying. Single voices usually do not spread across cores in order to keep realtime constraints. This is not a bug, but a reality.
Now, to maybe get a chance to help you, the information you provide is not leading anywhere. I would either need screenshots of your zones and program tree or send me preset via PM and I will try it out on one of my machines.
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Trying the same sample, or even higher sample-rate samples in UVI falcon, for example, using various advanced features to manipulate the sound and even multiple layered sounds does not cause the same problems, I’m afraid.
I’ll get screenshots when I can.
Thanks.
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Falcon is different, and I won’t go into details ( you seem to have Falcon, so you can do AB comparisons yourself). We allow a high degree of flexibility to utilize your hardware to the max.
That said, with great power comes great responsibility.
In other words, we trust the user to read the manual. We try to be very transparent in regards to CPU cost etc. Here is an example from the wavetable manual, look under the heading “Block Size (Modulation Latency)”:
Or here, under “phase lock” and “Pitchshifting”:
As you can see, it is up to the user to find a balance between sound quality and hardware resources.
When we do our own sound design, we try to make the presets run on most machines by using the same rules laid out in the manual.
For the spectral zone, we do not expect most presets to be playable polyphonically. Edit: That’s why we published X-Stream as a showcase. Decidedly non polyphonic, as it would be impractical.
What follows is some more general background.
The scientific foundations for wavetable and spectral synthesis are up to 200 years old (Fourier). The first, academic, digital software implementations date back to the first half of the last century. But only now do we have computers that allow for an engine like the spectral zone. It is relatively easy to pull of a basic resynthesizer with publicly available information. But in HALion you find cutting edge research results, integrating a multitude of algorithms, often exclusive. Only about a decade ago, no computer would have been able to pull this kind of sound quality off (Edit: Thinking about it, Kyma was close…) There have been specialized machines like Wolfgang Palms devices in the 80s, or non realtime tools like composers desktop project, but the quality of the pitch and time domain control would not have been possible.
As an example, let’s stay with our latest baby, the spectral engine. To judge the quality, compare transient rich material with other synths. Slow it down, listen how the transients fizzle out in other synths, then come back to HALion and witness how phase lock can keep it together and tight. At a price. Your compute power.
The same is true for the other HALion zone engines or effects as well. We take cutting edge research and we are not afraid of causing high cpu usage if it will lead to better results in sound quality.
On the other hand, performance is constantly monitored by the devs and optimized. But whatever we gain, is quickly spent on cool parameters, so you can max out your hardware and get your computer cooking up the great sounds. This way you do not spent on hardware for nothing.
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Very true. I utterly concur. Thanks for the links and the thorough information. You’ve been very helpful.
The new spectral options are a great new world. And the sound quality of Halion is second-to-none.
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And thanks for smacking me on the head in such a nice way to tell me to RTFM!
I’ll be experimenting with phase Lock, Block size, etc next session. I need to head down the rabbit hole.
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If there is something you won’t find in the manual, don’t hesitate to create a new forum topic. That’s why we maintain this place. While we, as Steinberg staff, are pretty busy building things, and respond slow, there is often fast and good advice from other users.
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Big thanks Philippe.
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