Hey, there’s got to be bit of controversy - this is a Steinberg release remember - so, my guess is… no more ‘Sonic’ edition.!! There will be HALion 7 and HALion 7 SE only. Lots of implication/consequence to that of course; but it is time to consolidate the product line-up.
H7 SE will be an enhanced version of Sonic SE and will serve as its direct replacement, both going forward and for all existing projects. Sonic owners will get very favourable upgrade path to full H7 (possibly even better than H6 → H7 upgraders).
H7 will get a new ‘engine’ (probably FM based), more new content and announcement of partnership with 3rd party library house.
And it won’t be released today. It will be tomorrow.!
(But to be honest, Brian’s post above is much better than mine).
Very interesting. SE gets beefed up to be more like registered Sonic? So instead of buying ‘Sonic’ just to get at ‘content’, users buy the ‘content packs’ they want?
Not a bad deal. Shouldn’t be too hard to provide a similar, or even better experience than Sonic 3. Upgrade path seems fairly simple…retain the libraries you already own from Sonic 3…if want new content, simply buy it.
Sonic upgrades were pretty much just ‘adding new content’ anyway. So, give them an option to move up to full H7, or simply buy the compatible sounds that ship with H7 as an ‘upgrade’.
I think the overhead of ‘maintaining’ the three product editions has to stop - the whole HALion eco-system is all (mainly financially) about the content, as you illustrate. There could/will be complications moving libraries into the ‘Steinberg Licensing’ whilst retaining access for those who don’t want to upgrade (Sonic or Sonic SE) straight away, but, lets see…
True. I would like to see a ‘legacy’ section in Steinberg Download that makes it easier to ‘roll back’ those content libraries. I.E. If I want to build a system that uses older versions, and the dongle…it’s confusing and difficult to ‘find the old versions’ of everything!
Ditching VST2 support? That might leave a gap for me, as I use HALion quite a bit in some hosts that cannot do VST3 hosting yet (and it might be a while until they can). H6, or registered Sonic 3 works, but no go for currently available (some tricky to find places to grab it, but no way to get a free key!) HSSE releases. Am pretty miffed that the link to the ‘free SE player’ doesn’t seem to be working anymore. My students click the link but never get that ‘email’ with a ‘free key’ for the old soft eLicenser
I have workarounds for myself (bidule bridge for things like Finale/Sibelius), but I hate to ask my students to invest in software that expensive just so they can use my HALion rolled sounds with their scores. Loss of the free player stopped me in my tracks…having to redo stuff in SFZ or whatever…ouch.
It’s been 5-6 years since H6, so changes in H7 need to be significant if it’s to last that duration, too.
Interface improvements are a must, hoping that the libraries and plugin both see a boost in that area. As great as H6 is, it’s a pig to use, made worse if you happen to find yourself on a HiDPI display that makes icons and text smaller too.
I find it quite annoying having the options available in H6, but very little desire to go in and use them because of how fiddly the interface is.
HALion Sonic is my go to 99% of time, even sound design - it’s easier to tweak something that’s already there and then apply effects on top, or layer up to build your own.
If I have any samples I’d rather through them into padshop or sampler track nowadays - just so much easier.
i remember someone mentioning a re write of Halion engine, what it exactly means , a new engine synth like FM synthesis or complete re-write of the Core engine ,improving or changing the GUI also could be a bless, never liked it that much
hopefully we will see it tomorrow
I did it. Falcon is operating on M1 without a dongle, just with an iLok online license.
So, I do not have to wait every day for a Halion7 version.
When H7 is published I will check to what extent it is useful. But at least I can work on the M1 now. It would have been nice if Steinberg had set a time frame for the release, but that’s just a marketing strategy that you can find good or bad.
Tomorrow will be launch day for HALion 7. Here’s what’s new:
• FM Zone - developed with Yamaha: Freely combine up to eight operators, use them as carriers or send them to feedback loops. Including an Algorithm Finder, an Algorithm Designer and SYX file import.
• Spectral Zone: the new spectral oscillator features a new in-house developed time-stretch and resynthesis algorithm. It allows to change playback speed in real time without affecting the pitch, but it can also transform samples into completely new sounds.
• FM Lab: A full-blown eight operator FM synthesizer with hundreds of cutting-edge presets.
• Tales: A beautifully sampled guitar. Guitar strings were individually sampled as open notes and thentuned to a different pitch, giving each one a very pure and intimate sound additionally layered with acoustic and synthesized textures.
• Modulation reimagined: Shape, tweak and animate your sounds more easily than ever with HALion’s new modulation concept.
• New Shaper Envelope: The User Envelope now has brush, pen and eraser tools for intuitively drawing and customizing envelopes.
• A fresh new look and feel: Updated interface, a redesigned MediaBay and search plus tons of workflow improvements.
• Advanced wavetable synthesis for multichannel files with up to 5.1 surround and spectral filters
• Additional new features: 10 new effects, Decompose, X-LFO, Chord export from Trigger Pads, impulse response import and the new Oscilloscope
• New tools for designing instruments like SVG resources which can be animated by Lua, color options
and more…
Togeteher with the lauch of HALion 7, Steiberg will also launch Absolute 6. This includes:
• HALion 7
• Backbone
• Groove Agent 5 (including Prime Cuts,Future Past Perfect, Rock Essentials)
• Retrologue 2 (including Sounds of Soul)
• Padshop 2 (including Polarities, Zero Gravity and Granular Guitars)
• The Grand 3
well looks like big improvements and features added, probably there are more stuff, like moving to SAM and native Silicon are not mentioned in the KVR list
wish they add in future the Yamaha VL-1 synth engine with some improvements to fit 2023 , its old but gold.
Well at least Greg won’t be getting it in the ear on Friday now!
Shame Steinberg didn’t do a teaser for this today really… Looking forward to seeing what it’s like and what the update pricing is for sure.
Nothing about Apple Silicon or licensing, but I guess that’s all a given… Just makes you wonder about the validity of a list like that really, as you’d think SB would list it. Also The Grand 3 is twelve years old, seems a strange item to list as a feature for Absolute 6.
Yeah kind of hoping Absolute 6 will be more than only Halion 7 as the new item. Hopefully the library (Halion Sonic) will also have a lot of cool sounds to explore. Very curious on what the new interface will be like with Halion 7. At least we know it is VERY soon to know all this.
