Sampling with Halion 4

I think that maybe an argument can be made, that these are purely software samplers, i.e. they do not have the hardware built-in, and therefore do not necessarily need the recording factor. I actually do not think they really should be compared with traditional hardware samplers as the difference is really that, hardware. Basically a VSTi sampler is the software that was inside those HW equivalents, however, with the “traditional” part not really staying so traditional within the concept of DAWs, often better solitions arise. Yes, one could argue that the audio interface is the hardware, but the purpose of the two in comination is not to simulate a traditional HW sampler.

Have only ever used HALion for a VSTi sampler, for a considerable time granted, but do other big name software samplers also skip the built-in sampling? I mean generally, of course. And I understand there are some that do have sampling built-in, but that’s not what I am asking.

It is so easy to drag and drop, edit and slice any audio in Cubase and the integration with HALion is so good I do not need a dedicated sampling option. I hope HALion developers will focus more on creative developments instead of filling HALion with legacy-like functions and bloat the software code. However HALion is a feature monster, it is still easy to use after studying, so they should keep it somewhat simple yet powerful.

Sure, hw samplers have a vibe that we may miss (personally I worked a lot on the hw E-MU Ultra serie, it was great at that time). On the software side, e.g. there is a built-in sampling into Reason but I am sure only a few know the real technical limitations of that kind of sampling in practice.

Today I would not swap the “sample-player-only” HALion 4.x for any current hw or sw with built-in sampling capabilities.