yes - a good deduction 
doesnāt make sense to upgrade The Grand for any other reason
For the same reason they released a SAM version of Groove Agent, Cubase, Backbone and various other products: To move a supported product to the upgraded licensing system.
That may or may not be the case, but it has nothing to do with them moving The Grand 3 to SAM.
I doubt HALion is setting the charts ablaze with its sales numbers. Steinbergās products have been held back by the eLCC and Hardware Dongle, so even when they were new many people were avoiding them due to the inconvenience of using them - especially as more people moved to dual machine workflows and started working on-the-go more than before.
Cubase itself suffered from being anchored by the Steinberg licensing mechanics. People would avoid it specifically to avoid Dongles and Per-Machine (and not very easy to move around) eLCC activation.
Itās a Piano. It doesnāt need cutting edge technology to be good. In the grand scheme of things, itās a pretty good library at a fair price.
Sure, but we can say the same about HALion, or Cubase, or Groove Agent, or Backbone, etc.
Of course - ultimately Steinberg had to migrate The Grand or discontinue it. However, it is still a question of priorities. There are other products that have yet to move to Steinberg Licensing and gain Apple Silicon support that are arguably more important than a 13-year-old piano VSTi. None of the paid content packs have migrated yet, other than the Retrologue ones. The DNxHD codec plugin is supposed to be imminent. Unless I have missed something, there is still no news about VST Connect Pro.
I do not know how Steinberg arranges their development teams, other than the Dorico team seems to be largely self-contained (albeit dabbling in other projects), PG is largely responsible for WaveLab and Robin is largely responsible for SpectraLayers. I would guess that those working on instruments spend most of their time working on instruments and perhaps also on effects, whilst those working on the Cubendo core and the audio engine (the audio engine is also used by Dorico) are dedicated largely to those areas. Even if those working on instruments and effects stay largely in those areas, any time spent working on a new release of The Grand cannot be spent working on HALion 7 (hopefully the remaining work there now is mostly testing, bug-fixing and documentation), updates to the effects set for Cubendo 13 or future updates of the other instruments.
Again, it is priorities. Steinberg had three options with The Grand - drop it, update it for Steinberg Licensing and Apple Silicon, or rebuild it as a HALion instrument. They needed to select one of these options before the next Absolute release.
Whilst I would have preferred to have The Grand rebuilt as a HALion instrument, this would have been a nightmare for backwards compatibility and probably also much more work than updating the existing code. It works as it is and there is little point rewriting more code than is necessary.
Undoubtedly licensing has held all Steinbergās products back. I am fortunate enough to have bought Absolute after it became soft eLicenser eligible, though I had to suffer Nuendo, WaveLab Pro, the DNxHD plugin and VST Connect Pro being tied to the dongle.
I can see that an eventual migration to Steinberg Licensing will help Absolute sales and sales of the more modern instruments. I doubt there is much interest now in standalone purchase of The Grand 3. If you wanted a piano VSTi, youād perhaps get better value buying Pianoteq Stage for playability (modelling - not samples like The Grand). If you have one of the major instrument bundles from Steinbergās competitors, you probably already have a usable piano - Komplete (samples) and the V Collection (modelling) both contain several pianos. There are, of course, many high-end piano VSTis with high-end price tags!
Again, that is true - but I am still not sure that The Grand is a good standalone purchase today. I suspect many musicians interested in virtual instruments will have at least one of Komplete, V Collection or Absolute. If you are looking for a specialist piano VSTi based on samples, I suspect you might be more likely to look at the offerings from Vienna Symphonic Library, Garritan, Synthogy or even Spectrasonicās Keyscape than to spend money on a standalone copy of The Grand - though the Grand is much cheaper than the other products I mentioned.
The Grand 3 was designed around the limitations of the computers we were using 13 years ago, not the computers of today. The technology of sample-based pianos has hardly changed, but it is viable to use a much larger sample library today than it was when The Grand 3 was designed and recorded.
The Grand has its place and Iām glad I have my copy as part of Absolute. It is just that I doubt I would have gone out of my way to buy it standalone, rather than acquiring it as part of a bundle.
One big advantage of HALion and Groove Agent is the integration with Cubendo. Groove Agent 5 does all I need it to, even though drum aficionados might prefer some of the competitor products. HALion is powerful and I look forward to the updates in HALion 7.
Backbone seems genuinely innovative to me. Itās quite fun to play around with DrumGAN.
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I canāt image they sell many !
Iāve still got lots of licences tied to dongles
I would imagine that moving VST Sound Instrument Sets will be trivial to move across (opus / simon philips etc)
I supsect VST connect - VST transit etc are almost ready to go and the DNxHD plug has been promised soon.
I was thinking it may be what happened back at the start of the year where videos with H7 icon was displaying. But too long a period now, so agree itās not going to happen.
As you say Absolute 5 was a bit of a āOh we need a new collection to releaseā, and itās perceived value is made worse as Amped Elektra has been offered out for free since.
So, Unless H7 is a new scaleable/hidpi interface redesign and/or the FM engine is significant, Iām not sure they will be releasing Absolute 6 until at least after August 2022. Unless of course, they do go early and offer an early bird discount or something.
The other factor of course, is already owning Groove Agent and Backbone - yet both tied to the dongle due to H6 holding Absolute users back. It does make me wonder if this is a large part of H7 being delayed.
Outside of releasing HALion 7, there are no other priorities when it comes to their discrete virtual instruments. The only thing beyond the plugins themselves left are the Expansion Packs and Libraries.
They basically saved The Grand 3 for last, notwithstanding the HALion 7 release.
Iāve already stated that most people who buy The Grand - or anything like it - are likely to acquire it via bundling.
Most piano instruments in that tier of the market arenāt great standalone purchases, and are better acquired via bundling. If you have HALion, you have very decent pianos in the Factory Content.
Ironically, the pianos are among of the best parts of the H6 Factory Content.
But the price is still fair given the quality of the libraries on offer. They did reduce the price, IIRC. It used to cost more, so they have recalibrated its value proposition to account for its age and comparative quality vs. other boutique instruments on the market.
I find it strange they give no info and set the grace period start for H7, given we are in the high sales volume season when many companies make a big chunk of they annual sales.
I am reluctant to buy any Steinberg/Cubase add ons until I know what will happen, So I guess my wallet will not be looking at Steinberg this season, but others. I have other cool things to buy, so no loss for me, just a loss for them.
But admittedly it is annoying to live in this info vacuum they created. Only 5 weeks until Christmas shopping ends tooā¦
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Was thinking about getting Absolute on sale
but now I realize, it is a bit trickyā¦ because itās considered a different product all togetherā¦ ie, Halion, GA, etcā¦ are bound to your Absolute license, and Absolute and the individual products are on a different release schedule.
Absolute doesnāt give grace period for individual Halion.
hmmmmmmmm, tricky tricky.
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Is halion on sale during this cyber event? On the webpage for halion, the Cyber Week discount ad pops up, but Halion isnāt discounted when I try to purchase it?
Also, Halion 7 is arriving soon or is it still a long way? Itās been arriving soon for a few years now, so I donāt know where to get reliable info on anymore.
Itās because itās included in the Absolute sale, which is imo a good deal if you want Halion and say, also donāt have backbone.
I think I will likely get the Absolute sale but not activate it until the next iteration of Absolute. Sort of hoping some of the newer sample libraries and instruments get added to the next Absolute anyways.
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I want to buy Halion 6, but if 7 is coming out in the next 6 months, then Iām just going to wait for 7. Iāve several times wanted to buy Halion 6 but I keep thinking 7 is probably out soon.
I dont want to rush Steinberg to release something they arenāt ready to release, but I also donāt like when they deliberately tease it in a video and continue to stay silent about it. If they donāt want to give out any pinch of info, then donāt tease it in a video and get peopleās hopes up.
Itās like if I get peopleās attention to listen to me and then I just silently smirk because I now have peopleās attention.
Itās not about how Halion compares to similar products, itās about
I suggested you get it on sale now and not activate, but then remembered you may not want to be stuck in Absolute land.
Not sure if you are aware, but Best Service has it for $204 right now.
Itās quite incredible.
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good to know!
I think Iām going to get Absolute myself because I want Backbone and a couple other things, and Iāll just be patient. I dont need Halion right this instant.
I feel like the manner in which the licenses are packaged has screwed a lot of people.
All this has told me is that i should avoid bundles that tie everything to one license, instead of simply depositing all discrete licenses into your account.
That is something iLok has always gotten right, as well as soft licensing mechanisms from the likes of Arturia and Native Instruments.
Absolute doesnāt work this way, so everyone who has Absolute 5 but isnāt interested in HALion 7 has their licenses held hostage to the dongle - waiting on HALion 7.
Really quite a RAW deal, cause these people will be forced to pay while those who owned separate licenses could just voucher out.
I upgraded to A5 for Backbone, but i wish i had stayed on A4 and bought Backbone on its own. Effectively, Iāve likely wasted money doing it the way that I have.
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Talking about this over here
Absolute Crossgrade from Halion AND Groove Agent? - Steinberg Lounge - Steinberg Forums
perhaps copy your post to there
indeed, a very appealing offer, but the licensing issue definitely diminishes its worth.
If youāre someone who uses the included content a lot and is patient with purchasing upgrades, itās an amazing offer even if you have to occasionally pay for upgrading things you donāt use.
Personally, I just want Halion, so the collection isnāt really a smart choice.
Yeah Im waiting it out too. Ended up getting some other bits and pieces of things instead (Arturia FX Collection for $50 woohoo!). Iāve got an MPC, E6400 Ultra, TAL sampler, and the sampler tracks to hold me over until Halion 7 drops.
The whole package thing is what killed it for me too, donāt want to be tied to waiting for the whole bundle to get updated for anything. (Too bad itās not like the Arturia Collection eh?). Iād rather just buy what I need, even if it costs a little more, to save the headaches down the line.
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$50? Wow thatās an insane price! Such a great collection of creative FX.
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Whereād you get it for $50? that must be discount based on what you own? I see it for $200 down from 400
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