Halion outside of Dorico?

Dorico
1

Now that Dorico has given me the wonderful Halion player and library, can I also use these instruments in Logic and Mainstage or are they only available within Dorico?
Thank you!

2

I believe you can’t use them in Logic because Logic doesn’t load VST instruments: it only loads Audio Units. They will work in any VST3-compatible host, however (which includes Studio One, Bitwig, and probably some others).

3

Thanks Daniel. I searched for Halion in spotlight and it’s not finding anything, although my spotlight doesn’t always work like a charm… Where are the files located?

4

Halion SE only works in Dorico (and other Steinberg apps that include it).

You can use Halion Symphonic Orchestra (HSO) library in other hosts with a stand alone single instance VST2 dll. In my case the HSO dll got installed to:
C:/Program Files/Steingerg/VSTPlugins/Symphonic Orchestra

I also found a 32bit version installed at:
C:/Program Files (x86)/VSTPlugins/Symphonic Orchestra

I found a VST3 version in:
C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/Symphonic Orchestra

The plugins are named “Symphonic Orchestra”

I think there is probably an AU version of the HSO player as well, but I’ve no idea where that might be installed (I’m on a Windows PC). I’m assuming that it should get automatically installed on Macs to where ever AU plugins go? If not…definitely check out your HSO installer disk (or download archives) for the stand alone HSO player!

To use the VST plugins in another host you’ll need to point it to this location, or copy the dll into one that the host scans for VST2 plugins.

If you find that HSO did not install the stand alone plugin, I think you can find it in the Extras folder of the HSO distribution disk (or archive if you’ve downloaded it from the Steinberg website).

If you want a full blown Halion Engine that is compatible with other hosts, have a look at the Halion 5 and Sonic 2 versions. Since you have a dongle for Dorico, you should be able to get a demo of Halion 5 (which will include the Sonic UI as well, so you can check out both). Also…I think there might still be a %30 off sale on the Absolute 2 collection (pretty much every Steinberg VSTi in one bundle). Lots of sales are going on…so dig around to see if you can find a good deal! I remember jumping on the full version of Halion 5 and Groove Agent 4 at %50 off around this season.