I haven’t used Halion much as I always have trouble when I return to a song where it is present. Here I have a midi part derived from a chord track. If I wanted to drag it to the Halion track below or play/record it, the sound is a strong piano sound. So if I wanted to change this, how do I find where that is set. I open Halion and it show a bass in channel 1. this is on track 8. How do I find where that is set up? I wanted to have a screen shot of the Halion Window open showing bass in channel one, but when I click for screen shot that window closes, so I would have to take a picture with a phone and copy to the computer. But isn’t there a window somewhere that show Halion set to channel 8?
HALion (Sonic) is a multitimbral instrument, meaning that multiple sounds can be played simultaneously. To trigger a specific sound, the same specific MIDI channel must be set in HALion as well as the Track Inspector.
In this example, the Studio Finger Bass is to be triggered from Track 1. In HALion, this sound is set to MIDI Channel 2. Therefore, the output MIDI channel of Track 1 must also be set to Channel 2.
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Halion confusion
Good band name!
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Wow, in an earlier post about confusion, I was told that I needed a new Halion window for each sound, that I couldn’t have more than one channel in one window! I thought that didn’t make sense. I think I subsequently had 3 Halions, each with a different channel. In the present case, I now went to the Halion window where I see a bass is actually also assigned to that and is showing activity while playing. I then go to channel 8 and select a piano sound as that is what I am already hearing, but I see no activity. I switch there to string and hear no change in the sound. I go to the inspector window, and click to choose a sound there. There are only 3 choices, which I apparently rated some time ago. One has 1 star and sounds awful. A piano sound has 3 stars and sounds OK. Purest Pad I had 5 stars and like. so it plays that sound but the open Halion window doesn’t reflect that, still has string sound selected and no activity. So extreme confusion still.
More confusing is that if I look at the Halion bass track and click on its program selector, a string sound is highlighted, while it is actually playing the sound selected in the Halion window, which is Electric bass (fingered), which I don’t even find in the inspector list. If I start scrolling there, I will lose that sound and maybe not be able to refind. Why don’t the inspector and Halion’s choices agree?
I assume you’re referring to the Instrument Track chords.
The instrument there is a HALion Sonic, and the MIDI output channel set is Channel 8. This means that the sound set to Channel 8 in the HALion Sonic is played back from this track.
Hi,
I think you need to understand how Halion and Cubase communicate. Here’s a really nice YouTube tutorial by Anthony (One Man And His Songs):
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Thanks that is very good. I watched once through and will need to spend more time, going along with my one system.
I didn’t get anywhere, as I am wondering why my screen is so different from ASM and in the tutorial. I only have Halion as a floating screen and have to use a phone to get a monitor shot. I don’t see the row of channels across the top as ASM has nor all the extra windows of the tutorial.
They’re different because you both have a different set of patches/programs loaded.
Adding to the confusion is referring to HALion Sonic as HALion. The former is a freebie, the latter is not.
I don’t think the screens are that different; in fact, they’re very similar.
My HALion Sonic 7 is also in a floating window.
Ok, there might be a difference in the screenshot function; I use the one from Windows.
I don’t see it either. Where is it supposed to be?
OK, the pictures show that we are both talking about HALion Sonic 7.
My Halion 7 I think is part of Cubase Pro 14. I’m not talking about just different patches but whole sections in the tutorial and ASM’s window that I don’t see, after trying different views. Unless I can see the same screens, I can’t follow the suggestions nor video.
I am sorry @robirdman1 , I thought you were referring to Halion as in Halion full version and not the Sonic version when I posted the link.
The full Halion version uses both MIDI Channels and Ports to communicate with Cubase (organized in the slot rack, something that doesn’t exist in Halion Sonic). Hence, you have to properly set up both MIDI channels and ports in the full Halion version in order to hear a program. That’s why I posted the tutorial.
That’s not needed if you use Halion Sonic. In other words, my link added more confusion than it was helpful…
@ASM already pointed out where to look at:
Sorry again!
As a tiny addition to what @ASM and @Buer have said:
If you right-click on the MIDI Icon in Halion Sonic you can assign each individual program to a specific MIDI channel.
This way you can play up to 16 programs simultaneously in a single Halion 7 instance if they are all set to the same channel.
In your case, set the channel of your piano in Halion Sonic (see picture above) to the channel that you have picked in the track inspector (screenshot by Buer). Delete the other programs in Halion Sonic if you don’t want to hear them or simply assign a different channel in Halion Sonic.
