HALion6 and H7 engines Analog Synth Zones Sounds Big Difference (same for HS/SE3&HS7, Rtrlg 2.x&2.4)

Virtual instruments HALion
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Just want to remind everybody here that the Analogue Synth Zone in HALion 7 engine produces notably different sound compared to HALion 6, if Multi-Oscillator is used. Therefore, your old presets, projects, or even library content from Steinberg may sound different greatly.

More specifically, HALion 6 engine produces a exaggerated transient at the beginning of a note as if it is already ADSR enveloped, while HALion 7 engine outputs static level of sound. In HALion 6 and its related products (HS3, HSSE3, Retrologue v.<=2.3), the higher Multi-Oscillator number, the more bloated transients are, in Analogue Synth Zone.

Clearly, HALion 7 engine gets what a proper unison sound should originally be. However, as HALion 6 engine has been there for so many years, creators may have utilized this characteristic as one ‘feature’ to make sounds, for example, percussive or plucked sound, or to add attacks to textures.

Steinberg seemingly did not make a compatibility switch for Old / New behaviours like some other VSTis do e.g. The Legend from Synapse Audio. So these raise the concern that with HALion 7 engine (H7, HS7, Rtrlg 2.4) some presets from the HALion 6 times may sounds not as the creator initially intended. This should be noticed.

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I do not recall any such update in the change log of version 7. I think what you are hearing is the phase settings for the oscillators. There is an audible difference between free-running and fixed oscillators.

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Yes it is not written in the version history, but the change exists. It’s not something related to something like fixed phase laser sound. It’s just about amplitude.
You can compare HALion 7 with HALion 6 or Retrologue 2.4 with Retrologue 2.3 by yourself to see the difference.

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Yeah a lot of synths like PPG have clicks that can be used for plucks & percussion but like Chris said this can often be controlled with the phase of the oscillator or by setting it to free running or a higher phase value so the oscillator doesn’t always start at a a zero crossing there by creating the click - if they switched oscillator behavior then this is likely it

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To demonstrate the difference here are two screen recs using Retrologue:
In Retrologue 2.3:

In Retrologue 2.4 :

These two are using the exact same parameters settings.

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