Violin sound only goes up C6

Dorico
1

The violin sound in the Symphonic Orchestra sound cannot play notes above a C5. Am I wrong?

2

I make it E7. Possibly not high enough for some people, but certainly higher than C6.

3

Do you mean the sound sample doesn’t go above C5? Or is this question about players range?

Robby

4

On a related note, I can’t get the cello sample to play above A5. Is there a way to increase the upper range? I couldn’t find anything about it in the Halion documentation.

5

I ran into a similar issue with a horn part one time, and if I understand it correctly, the Halion samples are rather limited (they are over 10 years old). Someone mentioned somewhere about using the General MIDI for extended ranges, but I never 100% figured out exactly how to do that. If you figure it out, please share on here.

Robby

6

If in doubt of the range of a particular sound (be it HSO or other), just open up the HALion Sonic editor, select the corresponding sound slot, and at the bottom, on the virtual on-screen keyboard you can see the key range that the instrument will reproduce.

Regarding General MIDI, there are 127 GM sounds that come with the HALion Sonic SE sound library. These sounds, no matter what instrument, can be played over the whole keyboard range.
Well, they might not sound as good as you expect, but they work. In the HALion Sonic editor window, simply open the preset browser for the corresponding sound slot and search for sounds that start with “[GM” in the name, e.g. “[GM 041] Violin” or “[GM 043] Cello”. GM covers many instruments most commonly used.

7

Thanks Ulf,

I wasn’t sure how to do that.

Robby

8

Thanks Ulf, this is very helpful - I didn’t know that GM covers the whole keyboard range.