I didn’t see any announcements, emails or notifications in the Hub, but Steinberg is celebrating major anniversaries with a sale on instruments.
HALion Sonic has been updated to 7.5.
Also “full” HALion (the “Pro” version, to Sonic’s “Elements”) is on special offer of 60% off. (It may even be possible to get a further discount as an upgrade from Sonic, though I’m not sure.) As well as various sampling capabilities, and the ability to make your own instruments, you get a whole load of instruments with it.
You can also just buy the instruments and use them with Sonic.
My criticism of many of the Steinberg instruments is that they often come with an enormous range of presets, with names that could apply to paint or soap, like Scarlet Underwear, Honey Badger, Forest Mushroom**, etc – the vast majority of which are unlikely to ever be used, but only serve to show off the capabilities of the player.
This often makes it difficult to find “the wood for the trees”, IMO. It would be far better to make the interface better, making it easier for the user to construct their own.
It has to be said that HALion is not … “intuitive”, and if you do plan to do any sampling or creating your own instruments, then you’ll need to do your homework.
** Not actual names, but that kind of thing.