Halion 4 is claimed to come with a big library of sounds. However the demos on Steinberg’s website do not give a clue about how this library sounds at all.
And to be clear: I am a Halionsonic user and I do not care about the existing Halionsonic library. What I care the most is the new sounds that come with Halion 4. How do they sound? Does it have any remarkable acoustic instruments?
To be honest I was not exactly astounded by the Halionsonic Library of sounds so I am hoping for something better in Halion 4 before I upgrade.
There are 270 new sounds on Halion 4. Sincerely, I wouldn’t update for the new sounds, they are a nice addition but of the same quality and type. Get if for the possibilities it has to create new sounds for you.
I’m not very impressed by the library so far, but the sampler is great. I haven’t found yet anything I can’t do with it. Very good work, and the new interface is a big plus. I’d like it to be faster, though. The UI render is not very fast, specially when editing the waveforms.
Windows 7 64 bit with 64g of RAM and a fully Crysis 2 capable videocard. But I usually don’t run it at full power, unless it’s needed. Saves heat and money
I guess I was expecting that the library wouldn’t be something extraordinary, but for 100 euros from HalionSonic, I think I will be getting that just for the sampler capabilities anyway. I am just not in a rush. New exciting sounds may have made me get it faster though.
Generally I disappointed about this halion4 upgrade, but I must say that against others above that the library is quite useable, this is one of the best part of this. (with the filters of course)
I have never used factory shipped samples, but this time I will sure to browse these sounds when new song arrive.
The way i looked at it was i already had HS and so for a few quid i could add a massively spec’d sampler and get another couple of hundred sounds into the bargain… how useful the sounds are kinda depends on what you are after and what you have already really. There is a lot of ‘dance’ orientated stuff on there but that seems to be the way with just about everything these days…
It’s my first version of halion so i couldn’t comment on whether or not it’s worth upgrading from H3 or not. I was a massively keen ‘samplist’ during the 90’s when i had my Casio FZ1, which at the time was a STUNNING machine, using it mainly for sound creation as i’m kinda picky about my sounds and i like to use as many ‘original’ sounds as possible. Compared to the FZ this is highly intuitive lol.
Sounds wise there are 18 new ‘ethinc’ instruments, some of which are pretty cool! i quite like the ‘mandolin trem’ patch… to me it sounds more like a ‘marxophone’ as used by people like Lallo Schifrin etc which is kinda handy as i’ve been after one for a while!
2 new accordion patches… personally i rate accordions with bagpipes… they burn well!
19 bass sounds of varying types, 20 brass sounds, 6 chromatic perc, 6 drums/perc, 36 guitar/plucked, 8 keyboard with 5 new FM EP sounds if clangy DX7 type sounds are your thang, 17 musical fx, 5 organs… jazz organ is pretty cool with the key switches! 6 pianos of varying quality… all good in the right place though, 7 sound fx, 21 strings… some of which are pretty juicy! 10 synth comp, 16 lead synths, 43 synth pads… this is where H4 seems to excel for me! 5 choir sounds… lots of which have a really nice ‘fairlight’ sound to them and lastly 25 new brass sounds… which i’m loving as we use loads of real brass anyway so some of these are great to tuck in behind the live brass to fill it out a bit more… i’m pretty happy over all with what i got for my money
