I’ve searched in all the usual places, looked through forums and faqs, and done a repair install of HS3 as a test, but I can’t find VST 2 versions of Halion 6 or HS3. On Win10 Pro x64 stable. Upgrade from H5. Standalone and VST 3 are fine.
The manuals say you can run them in a VST 2 compatible host (except for HS3SE which oddly refers to Retrologue in the system requirements). There is no other search result for VST 2 in the manuals. Common sense says there is a VST 2 version. As the Key Features suggest on the product pages. But not only can’t I find them, neither can the C9Pro plugin manager.
My sense is I’m missing the obvious or doing something dumb as no one else has mentioned it.
I must say the new license regime has left my computer in a bit of a mess, despite using defaults for the Halion installs over time.
Would appreciate a kind soul confirming VST 2 versions exist and if so where they hide. I have a use for them.
In my case the VST2.4 versions (dll) are installed in my VST2 folder. Cubase picks up the VST3 version because it shares the same unique identifier with the VST2.4 version. Hosts only supporting VST2 will pick up the dll from the VST2 folder.
Thanks Niles for confirming they do exist. The VST folder was one of the usual places I checked … saw the Halion 5 dll but no Halion 6 or HS3. Looks like I might have to do a complete reinstall next. Might ask for one of those Halion 5 licenses as well.
I may be wrong, but I think it’s the same binary for VST2 or VST3, but just has a different extension name. I haven’t tried it personally since H6, but I think I remember doing this once back with H5 and it worked.
So, if you can’t find VST2 .dll variants in places like:
“%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\VSTPlugins”
“%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Common Files\VST2”
“%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins”
It shouldn’t hurt to copy the VST3 ones and rename the extentions from .vst3 to .dll and see if that works. If not, just delete your dll copies and reinstall (just the players and library manager, you don’t have to reinstall all the content).
VST3 protocol is a little more strict in where one is supposed to keep the plugins.
“%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Common Files\VST3”
Thanks Brian … I ended up finding them in C:\Program Files\vstplugins … not on my list of usual places for Steinberg VST2 plugins. I also found Retrologue 2 there as a bonus. The local Steinberg person didn’t find them in his PC either.
Interesting advice on the renaming … from a sample of one I see the two VST versions of Halion 6 are the same size … so your memory might be good there.