halion one symphonic orchestra trial

Cubase
1

hey

so I’m a total noob with cubase 5; I was using garage band before, so I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the options in cubase…

anyways, my question here is about the symphonic orchestra trial discs that are included with Cubase 5. they come with a 90 day trial, and I just installed them yesterday, so I know I have time…but I am having issues actually finding what it is that I’ve installed.

When I go into the MediaBay, or when I go into the sound browser, I am able to see a few instruments that have the title of HalSymphOrch for plugin name, so I know that it was installed…but there are only a handful (maybe 10) instruments that I can find, and no loops I can find.

this is obviously just a problem of me not knowing what I’m doing, so if anyone has the time and the know how can you tell me how to use the Halion symphonic orchestra instrument…

I go to create new instrument, I select the HalionSymphOrch, and then what? I click on the presets button on the left and it gives me the exact same list of instruments that was available to me before I installed it, with the odd one here or there from the orchestra. there must be a way to get just a list of the orchestra sounds right?

and then when I’m in the mediabay trying to preview any of the VSTpresetInstruments, it won’t play any sound. sometimes in the preview bar I get it to replay what I just played…but have no idea how I got it to record myself, nor do I know how to record something new.

I’ve done a ton of random button clicking trying to figure this out on my own, but for those of you familiar with Cubase, I’m sure you can understand how user unfriendly it is…my usual strategy of clicking stuff to see what happens is yielding nothing but dead ends and frustration.

summary: how do I use the HalionSymphOrch?

Thanks in advance
Blake

2

Halion is to be treated like a normal vst instrument. Once you get the UI up, you select which instrument you want, make sure it is routed to your output, make sure the volume is up and use your midi keyboard to play away.
When you enable the track for recording, it will record like any other vst instrument.
If you are having problems with vst instruments in general, I suggest you read your manual as it will be best explained in that. Sometimes button pressing trial and error is not the way.

3

Slighty different approach than Suprawill’s… he’s suggesting an instrument track…

Open the Orch in the VST Instrument Rack (F11 I believe)… then Display the VST’s GUI, then on the right hand side of each slot in the GUI there is an arrow, pop that up and choose an instrument (use velocity ones first, you’ll figure out articulations and keyswitches later). Then set your midi channel for each slot, outputs, etc… , now create a MIDI track in the project window, assign it to the HSO vst, assign it the appropriate MIDI channel, and there you go!

Really good idea to read the manual on that instrument, it is not so user friendly at first.

Random button pressing generally leads to madness and baldness.