Hosting HSO in VEPro?

Virtual instruments HALion
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#1

Hi,

I have a template of 64 Midi and about a dozen audio tracks. It’s slow to load and a bit slow to move around in, even almost empty.

I want to host my Halion Symphonic Orchestra in VEPro. I only have the trial of VEPro for now. It seems it may not be a useful solution for me as I only use a couple of small VSL libraries, Halion Symphonic Orchestra, and Garriton Personal Orchestra.

Aria Player (for GPO) is normally a 16 output multi but only offers 1 stereo output per instance in VEPro, so I would need 30-40 instances of Aria in VEPro.

I have been trying (all day) to download the trial of Halion Sonic 3, to host HSO in Halion Sonic in VEPro, but I have now read that Halion Sonic, like Halion Sonic SE, cannot be used outside of Cubase. So this would not work?

Any advice appreciated, thanks.
Katie


Write/produce small orchestral/acoustic/vocal music for own enjoyment
Cubase Elements 8
Garriton Personal Orchestra/Aria Player, Halion Symphonic Orchestra/Halion Sonic SE, Vienna Symphonic SE Strings & Woodwinds
MacMini late 2012 2.3GHz 16GB RAM 500GB SSD 1TB HD SATA 5400rpm
iMac late 2009 2.6GHz 8GB RAM SSD on the way (HD just died)
Octacapture 8 in 10 out (co-axial pair)
Roland RD500 81key piano/midi controller
TECcontrol BCC Breath controller

#2

The GPO/Aria question probably should not have been included in this thread, I realize now. It is,however, part of the HS purchase issue for me, as there is no point in me buying Halion Sonic if I don’t buy VEPro, and there is no point in me buying VEPro if it will be impractical to use it for GPO/Aria instruments.

#3

Please read more carefully. That’s obviously not true, you can use Halion Sonic 3 with any DAW or host that supports VST, AU or AAX.

If you didn’t receive the trial, try another email address. You could use a temporary email provider.

#4

I am encouraged by your answer but am not sure what I am to read more carefully, could you explain? Much of what I did read used the term Halion. There seems to be much confusion about the distinction between Halion, Halion Sonic and Halion SE. eg I just bought a Marimba instrument from bigfish on the understanding it would work in Halion SE - which it seems it will not. (although if in fact it will, help with that would be appreciated)

There was no problem with the receipt of the trial, activation code and licensing. It was downloading continuously all day, but as the package includes Halion 6 and a lot of content [EDIT not true, I see the actual download was just HS3, update and content], the size (27GB) and the rate of transmission in effect that day meant it took about 20hrs, and I considered aborting the download, hence my question here.

Anyway, I have just installed it, so may be able to ascertain the answer for myself. Any further advice is still welcome.

#5

Halion is a sampler and synthesizer that has been around since the early 2000s. Many sample libraries have been made for it, and only Halion can load these old libraries, including the marimba one you bought.

Halion Sonic and Halion Sonic SE are romplers and synthesizers, and until recently, they could only load libraries made by Steinberg.

Recently, Steinberg added the ability for Halion users to build libraries that work with Halion Sonic and Halion Sonic SE. They can’t load old Halion libraries, you have to build a library selecting the option to make it Halion Sonic (or SE) or higher compatible.

If only Halion is mentioned, assume that it wont work with any version of Halion Sonic.

I missed the fact that you’re using a Mac. Cubase 9.5 greatly improves the graphics performance on MacOS. I recommend upgrading at some point.

#6

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation romantique.

I would like to have full Cubase for a couple of reasons, but graphics is not one of them, as it looks fine, and graphics errors rarely occur for me in Elements 8. [EDIT- Maybe “graphics performance” means the heavy feel of the interface would improve - if so, that is helpful information]. Unfortunately I can’t afford full Cubase.

So I have installed Halion sonic 3, and can see some instruments in it both as a standalone and in Cubase, including at least a few I recognise as HSO, so presumably the correct folders have been recognised.

However, when I tried to insert Halion Sonic as a plug in in VEPro, it did not show up in my very short list of plugins. When I try to “Add folder” in Vienna Directory Manager, Halion Sonic (Applications/Halion Sonic) is greyed out.

Thanks again for any help.

Katie

#7

I did some searching and found a library folder Halion Sonic/VST sounds I was able to scan in Vienna Directory Manager, which now shows them.

However I still don’t see the Halion Sonic as a plug in option in VEPro.

Can anyone confirm this should be possible?

Is there a more appropriate thread in which to post this question?

Thanks.

#8

I don’t use Vienna Ensemble Pro but I know that other people have been able to use Halion and Halion Sonic with it. No idea why it’s not working.

#9

Thank you romantique. I eventually saw that Halion Sonic au units were visible in the Preferences/Plug ins pane of VEPro.

Then in VEPro I selected au plugin dropdown menu, instead of vst dropdown menu, and saw not only HS but also HSO as options. I was able to open both GUIs in VEPro.

Unfortunately both are stereo only, but this is great progress.

Since I do not use synth sounds, HS is probably of little benefit to me. But I am pleased to have now found HSO vstsoundsets available for download, and also an updater for HSO aus on Mac. It will be interesting to see if I find any differences or additions. (I bought HSO in November 2014).

Maybe I never had, or never installed, vstsounds for HSO.

#10

(I recognize this was 3 yrs ago)
It appears VE Pro does not recognize HALion 6 without its library installed. Here, it recognizes Sonic SE3, which has its content installed along with some 3rd party. Sonic is not limited to being a synth BTW, HALion 6 full is also a synthesizer as well as a sort of ROMpler.