Don’t get me wrong. I think HALion is the best all-around sampling workstation available, over Falcon and Kontakt. But HALion could use even better FX as well as a few more choices among different types. The good news is that all of these FX are already available in Cubase. Unless these algorithms were created by outside developers whose contract specifies they can be used in Cubase only, I don’t understand why Steinberg doesn’t include them all in HALion, especially when this is one area where perhaps HALion is behind the competition.
So in terms of reverb, include REVelation, Roomworks, and Shimmer in addition to the stock reverb and REVerance algorithm, and so forth.
I realize that some of Cubase’s FX plugins include a fair number of parameters and feature custom GUIs to accommodate this number of controls. So it might take some effort to make these work within the confines of HALion. But who isn’t up for a good challenge when the results would be clearly worth it?
I agree that this could be a major area of improvement for halion and is probably also a missed business opportunity. If they were to do something like the reasonably priced closed api kilohearts snapin effects, they could sell them separately and patches where specific effects are used would motivate customers to buy them.
Yes, that would be quite nice. But also more modulators and modulating options for the fx.
Better timestretch algos as well.
Such a missed opportunity.
You know, I hadn’t even thought about that. Can you select ANY of the FX parameters as destinations in the mod matrix? I’m embarrassed to say I have never tried. But for certain FX, that would be definitely be cool. I know a lot of people (especially in the EDM community) modulate the heck out of their FX plugins.
Just out of curiosity, what do you feel is missing FX-wise in HALion 7?
The default algorithmic reverb is just okay-sounding, IMO. It could definitely be better. And which came first, REVerence or REVelation? Or which one is better? I suppose we don’t need two convolution reverbs in HALion. Just the best (which we might already have in REVelation).
Also, the default chorus is sort of bland whereas the vintage chorus seems too “swishy” to me. Maybe I just need to mess around with it more.
The Multi Delay also seems surprisingly light on features. I was expecting something where I could specify delays taps, their pan position, apply filters, etc. The Multi Delay has none of that. We need a “Delay Designer,” IMO.
See, the thing is that I’m using NI Kontakt a lot and thats when I started to compare pros and cons of both platforms. Things I would use almost everyday, and modulating fx is really good in Kontakt and pretty much non existent in Halion.
In Kontakt I can modulate lets say the gain, freq, q of an Eq if necessary, or distortion, vowel filters. (not every fx in kontakt but most)
In Halion I can not.
Also, the limitation in Halion of having only 3 fixed lfos, 1 Stepmodulator and so on, whereas in Kontakt I can create much more lfos, Stepmodulators and so on.
Halion has a lot going for it, has lots of cool features I adore where Kontakt is lacking, but the previously mentioned deficiencies regarding fx, modulation and timestretching (even the old timestretch algo in Kontakt sounds better/more natural) need to be improved upon. The sooner the better.
The new Delay and Reverb included in Cubase14/Nuendo14 could be a good start and also more filter types like vowel filters.