A Sampler means a person or thing that samples.
Is it possible to actually record a sound sample into H5 in the way it was done in the old Akai samplers (i.e. record a sound and then map it across one or more keys), or does H5 actually only play and manipulate already existing sound samples?
Recording an audio signal with H5, isn’t possible. Only data input.
By ‘data input’ do you mean loading in already existing sounds?
Yes, processing a sound that isn’t recorded yet, is beyond the possibilities of Halion 5.
This would be a new feature Steinberg might want to look into offering in a future update of Halion 5.
It would be great if Halion 5 can do direct sampling in the future. (I think Reason’s sampler offers direct-sampling, also FXPansion’s Geist does this) !
I would also like to be able to have Halion 5 automate a lot of the tedious tasks of sampling an external, or VST synth by triggering a range of notes, at multiple velocities, and map them automatically into Halion 5. (Something Redmatica’s auto-sampling app offered). I guess this wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish in Halion 5 in the future, most likely would only be possible when running Halion 5 in stand-alone mode, which won’t work for auto-sampling VST instruments.
Cheers,
Muziksculp
That would be great, but for now it seems that H5 is still just a sample player, much like Halion Sonic, but with a few more bells and whistles I guess.
No !
Halion 5 is a sophisticated professional sampler, and sample player. Halion 5 imports the samples from your system files, or directly from Cubase 7.
Halion Sonic 2 is a sample player.
What I’m referring to in my post is that Halion 5 can not sample directly from a sound source, i.e. a Mic, or your Keyboard/Synth. ‘Directly’ is the keyword. The samples need to be recorded via Cubase, or any other DAW, or any digital recorder first. Halion 5, can then import these sound files, where you can start editing them, and construct your playable instrument. So it is a 2-Step process to get your samples into Halion 5. It would be very cool it that was a 1-step process.
Cheers,
Muziksculp
How is H5 a ‘sophisticated professional sampler’ when, as you say, ít can not sample directly from a sound source’? - If that is the case, it must be playing samples ‘recorded via Cubase, or any other DAW, or any digital recorder first’ as you also say.
Calling H5 a ‘sampler’ seems to be a misnomer when it can not actually sample anything. An Akai S6000 is a sampler in the correct usage of the word - plug a mic in and it will sample a sound.
I guess the word ‘sampler’ no longer means what it did a few years ago!
I’ve been saying this for years… How the hell can you call something that doesn’t sample, a sampler? Mind boggling.
When the type of input is the only difference between a sampler and sample player for you, Halion 5 isn’t a sampler indeed.
It’s not about the type of input … samplers allow you to “TAKE A SAMPLE”. The name of the device is taken from the ability to record snippets of audio to be edited. Halion and rest don’t sample audio data. They are simply editors.
I just wanted to know if recording a sound into H5 like a real sampler was now possible as this would make me more interested in upgrading from H3 to H5. (I never use H3 anymore). H4 took so long to arrive that I gave up and bought Kontakt.
It seems that there are other ‘real’ software samplers around now so the choice has widened.
I’m amazed at how excited people get at the suggestion that something that can not actually sample anything should not really be called a sampler.
I’m not really excited about it, I just find it odd. Especially if you buy it thinking you are going to run it stand alone and build samples.
But, besides that, I’d really like to have the ability to sample in H5.
You can load/save samples from H5, but you can also drag and drop one or more samples directly from within Cubase. Maybe a slightly less inaccurate term would be to call H5 an “integrated sampler”.
I think that the term sampler, is more geared towards the option to mangle (with) samples, as was possible in traditional samplers besides their ability to record. Recording really was more essential in those days too though since communication to the outside was fairly limited.
I think that most plugin samplers on the market do not “sample” on their own, or in its own environment. (Or maybe that’s old information, but that certainly used to be the “norm” for software samplers.)
It would be cool if Steinberg made a set of inputs available in H5 (via a simple side chain or whatever) that H6 
could then record to a sample. Nothing more though (if even), just a simple routing choice directly from Cubase (or other host).
I mean, how could (or should, maybe the question should be) a record feature in a sampler compare to the recording features available in a recording suite such as Cubase? I mean, why have two sets of recorders, of which one can only be used in a single application?
Quite right.
That all makes sense too.
… and what’s this about amp sims? They don’t actually amplify, then, do they? 
But they do say they SIMULATE the behavior of an amplifier. That’s far more accurate.
Maybe HALion is a “samp sim”?