Is it just me or does anyone else feel there is a HUGE lack of a orchestral module with collaboration with Yamaha?? 
As far as I know, most of the orchestral samples from the Motif series are included in Halion, and they donāt have many.
Stenberg sells a separate product named Halion Symphonic Orchestra (which is not easy to find in their web page anymore) focused on orchestral sounds:
Hopefully Steinberg will release Halion Symphonic Orchestra 2 some day this year .
I think it would only be fair to also offer a nice upgrade path for everyone who bought into the HSO mess, not the SE and āliteā guys but those of us who bought full package and have nothing to show for it.
At the least, we should be able to browse the soundfonts. They were paid for.
I agree. I actually like the waves in HSO a lot. But the UI of āHalion Playerā is so frickinā clunky, itās a shame. Not at all as nice as Hal3. So I rarely use it any more.
I have never upgraded from H3 as the name libs I have for H3 donāt properly import into H4.
But if H5 could make full use of the HSO samples (with the NoteExpression and VSTExpression) that would be enough to get me to go for it.
āJC
Hi there,
HALion 4 and HALion 5 have a full HALion 3 Lib Import function.
If you are the owner of the full HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA License, you are allowed to use the HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound instrument Set 16-bit in the HALion 4 or HALion 5.
Best regards,
Marcus
Thanks Marcus. 2 things.
- As Iāve ranted a bunch of timesā¦ H4 does -not- properly import several libs I paid a fair amount of money for, including but not limited to:
a) SampleTekk Black Grand
b) Scarbee Imperial Drums
There are others but Iāve forgotten at the moment. I canāt keep writing the same detailed complaint over and over again. Perhaps no one else cares about backward compatibility. There are several problems including libs that use multiple outputs across a single programāthey get mapped to a single stereo out. There are other MegaTrigg issues.
- If I open HSO 16 bit in H4, it did not seem to have any NoteExpression or VSTExpression capabilitiesābut I didnāt expect it either. My assumption is that the lib would need to be updated to include these features. Thatās what I would like to see in āHSO version 2ā.
Thanks,
āJC
If you have the 16bit license I believe you are entitled to the VSTSound version ā¦ which does have NoteExpression and VSTExpression capabilities.
Interesting. Still, I think Iāll wait for the demoā¦ assuming that is forthcomingā¦ I was pretty angry when H4 came out. 
@SB: I think the biggest sea change for me re. SB is that I no longer ājust do itā re. updates. H4 was -so- late and -so- disappointing. WL7 was -so- different from WL6. And C7ās MixConsole is such a big change. For almost 10 years I pretty much couldāve been on āauto-billā with any SB productā¦ I upgraded automatically. I pretty much trusted that SB products would improve over time in a way that I could trust.
Now? Not so much. Itās not that the products are āunreliableāā¦ not at all. In fact, the quality of each .0 release has only gotten better and better over the yearsāwhich is a -great- turnaround. Rather itās that the -design- changes are no longer predictable or consistent. So nowā¦ I gotta try before I buy. Didnāt feel that way before.
āJC
We had a similar discussion a while ago: HSO Status. I explain over there the details of using the updated content (on the C6 DVD) in H4; also applies to H5.
Do you have H4? Or just H3?
The older H3- libs can be imported, but due to the massive improvements in HALion 4, you need to edit some things after importing.
Concerning the HALion Symphonic Orchestra:
you are definitely opening/ using the wrong version.
Please use/install the Trial version coming with Cubase 6/6.5/7.
Best regards,
Marcus
Just bought H5, I own HSO full.
So this is all confusing.
I gather that I have lost my original HSO 16/24 bit, multi articulated samples. Trash. Right? or wrong?
To compensate, I get a mere 16 bit static non VSTExpression sound set (a sampling of what HSO included) that I can load into H5.
Is this all the compensation? Thereās no way to load my entire HSO into H5 or is it? Iām fine if I have to rebuild expression into H5, if it takes months, thatās ok.
Maybe an official should clarify and sticky for once and all so everyone can understand it?
You can download HSO expression maps here:
(scroll down to āSteinbergā)
By the way, you should still be able to use the original HSO VST plugins ā¦ at least I can still use the 64-bit VST2 on Win 7 x64. I donāt have the āfullā 24-bit sample HSO ā¦ I availed of the offer for the 16-bit sample version a couple of Cubase versions ago ā¦ so at least for my purposes I find the HSO VST soundset fine to use within HALion.
[EDIT] This might be the information youāre looking for ā see my post on HSO Status.
Yes thanks, I did see that.
Unfort. HSO is not really capable anymore, it was barely working in C5. Have you seen the HSO forum?
Itās fine until you load in your entire set and one day zap itās all gone sounds cannot be found. Never again. I spend a lot of time setting up, it is very important to me.
Iāll stop whining now though. Iāll find a way to make it work.
Are you saying you have a problem with the HSO Sound Instrument Set, or with the HSO VSTi?
Well, both.
The VSTi does not always recognize the sounds that I load into it. And the VSTi runs bridge 32, and I think Steinberg is moving away from that.
They (soundfonts) are in the same directory, everything. I just go into prefs and re-find the sounds, but likely next time I use that session, I will have to reload.
If youāre using 64-bit Windows, use the 64-bit HSO VSTi. Works fine here, still.
Ah, I am on Mac of course.
Havenāt updated HSO since whenever the last time theyāve updated, was not aware it was 64 bit. Well I will give it a shot, but I doubt it. Most of that stuff, Grand 2, HalionOne, that stuff does not work properly anymore over here. I was doing things like using old LCC installers to force those things to work.