Steinberg HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST SISet Operation Manual

							Michael Ruf, Heiko Bischoff
Revision and quality control: Cristina Bachmann, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer, Heike Schilling
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part 
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement 
and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica-
tion may be copied, reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission 
by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product described herein may print one copy of 
this document for their personal use.
Steinberg, HALion, VST, and ASIO are registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Windows 7, 
Windows Vista and DirectX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. 
Macintosh, Mac, and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Pentium and Intel 
Core are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and 
company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective holders.
Release Date: December 16, 2010
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2010.
All rights reserved. 
						

							Table of Contents 
						

							4
Table of Contents
5Installation and setup
6Welcome
6How you can purchase the full version
6Key command conventions
7Installation
9Overview
10Window overview
11Editing
12Introduction
12The Main page
14The Options Page
16Default key switches
17Key switch assignments 
						

							1
Installation and setup 
						

							6
Installation and setup
Welcome
Thank you for using the HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set by Steinberg.
This VST Sound Instrument Set expands Steinberg´s pre-
mier VST Workstation HALion Sonic 1.5 or HALion Sonic 
SE with an outstanding virtual orchestra, providing a cost-
effective and easy-to-use solution to create stunning or
-
chestral masterpieces and ultra-expressive solo lines as 
well as beautiful smaller arrangements for any musical 
genre.
Capturing the pure emotive power, expressiveness, and 
sheer sonic range of an entire orchestra, this VST Sound 
Instrument Set offers an enormous wealth of outstanding 
sound content including solo and ensemble double 
basses, cellos, violas and violins, brass, woodwind and 
percussion instruments inside HALion Sonic 1.5 or 
HALion Sonic SE. Each of these instruments in turn offers 
a wealth of expressive playing styles and articulations. 
The huge library of the HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST 
Sound Instrument Set is as flexible as it is accessible, ide
-
ally suited not only to classical music but also pop, rock, 
hip hop, R’n’B, and any other contemporary style.
The HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound Instrument 
Set has been crafted to offer both exquisite playability and 
stunning realism. With the advanced feature of a custom 
Edit page inside HALion Sonic 1.5 or HALion Sonic SE 
providing easy access to the most important playing tech
-
niques and articulations on a single page, this VST Sound 
Instrument Set is so much more than just another sample 
library, providing an exceptional expansion for HALion 
Sonic 1.5 and HALion Sonic SE with the quality, variety, 
and usability needed to create arrangements on a truly or
-
chestral scale.
Enjoy playing with your HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set!
Your Steinberg Team
How you can purchase the full 
version
You can try out the HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST 
Sound Instrument Set in extensive detail for a full 60 days, 
starting on the day you activate the trial license on your 
USB-eLicenser. If you are as excited about this extraordi
-
nary instrument set as we are, please purchase the full 
version. Cubase 6 customers will receive an exclusive 
special offer on this VST Sound Instrument Set in the 
Steinberg Online Shop at: www.steinberg.net/shop.
For users of HALion Symphonic Orchestra and 
HALion Symphonic Orchestra 16-bit edition
If you own the 16-bit edition or the boxed version of the 
HALion Symphonic Orchestra retail product, the activated 
license of one of these products enables you to use the 
HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound Instrument Set 
free of charge.
Key command conventions
Many of the default key commands in this product use 
modifier keys, some of which are different depending on 
the operating system. For example, the default key com
-
mand for Undo is [Ctrl]-[Z] under Windows and [Com-
mand]-[Z] under Mac OS X.
When key commands with modifier keys are described in 
this manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier 
key first, in the following way:
[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key]
For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-[Z] means “press [Ctrl] 
under Windows or [Command] under Mac OS X, then 
press [Z]”.
Similarly, [Alt]/[Option]-[X] means “press [Alt] under Win-
dows or [Option] under Mac OS X, then press [X]”.
Please note that this manual often refers to right-clicking, 
for example, to open context menus. If you are using a Mac 
with a single-button mouse, hold down [Ctrl] and click. 
						

							7
Installation and setup
Installation
System requirements
To use this VST Sound Instrument Set, your computer 
must meet the following requirements:
Windows
• Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Intel or AMD dual-core processor
•2 GB RAM
•6.5 GB of free hard-disk space
• HALion Sonic 1.5 or HALion Sonic SE must be installed to 
play back the content of the HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set 
• Windows-compatible audio hardware (ASIO-compatible au-
dio hardware recommended for low-latency performance)
• Display resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels recommended
• USB-eLicenser required (not included)
• USB port for USB-eLicenser (license management)
• DVD ROM dual-layer drive required for installation
• Internet connection required for license activation and regis-
tration
Mac OS X
• Mac OS X 10.6 (32-bit or 64-bit)
•Intel dual-core processor
•2 GB RAM
•6.5 GB of free hard-disk space
• HALion Sonic 1.5 or HALion Sonic SE must be installed to 
play back the content of the HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set
• CoreAudio compatible audio hardware
• Display resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels recommended
• USB-eLicenser required (not included)
• USB port for USB-eLicenser (license management)
• DVD ROM dual-layer drive required for installation
• Internet connection required for license activation and regis-
tration
The USB-eLicenser
Many Steinberg products use the USB-eLicenser, a hard-
ware copy protection device. The HALion Symphonic Or-
chestra VST Sound Instrument Set will not run without an 
eLicenser containing an activated license.
The USB-eLicenser
The USB-eLicenser is a USB device on which your Stein-
berg software licenses are stored. All hardware-protected 
Steinberg products use the same type of device, and you 
can store more than one license on one device. Also, li
-
censes can (within certain limits) be transferred between 
USB-eLicensers – which is helpful, for example, if you 
want to sell a piece of software.
The product package of Cubase 6 contains a trial activa-
tion code for the HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST 
Sound Instrument Set, which is found on the Essential 
Product License Information card within the product pack
-
age. With this activation code, you can download a trial li-
cense that allows you to use the HALion Symphonic 
Orchestra VST Sound Instrument Set for 60 days.
To make unlimited use of your version of the HALion Sym-
phonic Orchestra VST Sound Instrument Set, you must 
purchase a permanent license in the Steinberg online 
shop. You will receive an activation code that you can use 
to manually download the license to a USB-eLicenser 
connected to your computer.
The eLicenser Control Center (which can be found on the 
Start menu on Windows systems or in the Applications 
folder on a Mac) is the
 place where you can check the li-
censes installed on your USB-eLicenser and activate new 
licenses.
•To download a license using an activation code, click 
the “Enter Activation Code” button in the eLicenser Con
-
trol Center and follow the instructions.
!Please read the following section before installing 
the HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound In
-
strument Set. 
						

							8
Installation and setup
ÖIf you are using other copy-protected Steinberg prod-
ucts, you may want to transfer all licenses for your applica-
tions to one USB-eLicenser, thus using up only one USB 
port of your computer. Please refer to the eLicenser Con
-
trol Center Help for information on how to transfer licenses 
between USB-eLicensers.
Installing the VST Sound Instrument Set
The HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound Instrument 
Set
 provides a large amount of content contained on a 
double-layer DVD
.
Proceed as follows:
1.Insert the DVD into your DVD drive.
An interactive Start Center appears. If it is not opened automatically or if 
you have a Macintosh computer, you can manually open it by double-
clicking the file “Start_Center.exe” under Windows or “Start Center.app” 
on a Macintosh computer.
2.Follow the instructions on screen to start the installa-
tion of the HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound In-
strument Set and browse through the additional options 
and information presented.
If you do not want to install the HALion Symphonic Or-
chestra VST Sound Instrument Set via the interactive Start 
Center, follow the instructions below:
Windows
1.Double-click the file called “Setup.exe”.
2.Follow the instructions on screen.
Macintosh
1.Double-click the file called “HALion Symphonic 
Orchestra.mpkg”.
2.Follow the instructions on screen.
!The installer of the HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set allows you to save the 
content files and the program files to different hard 
drives. 
						

							2
Overview 
						

							10
Overview
Window overview
The HALion Symphonic Orchestra VST Sound Instrument 
Set is a virtual instrument sound set that can be used by 
several plug-ins based on the HALion engine. As of this 
writing, these are HALion Sonic 1.5 and HALion Sonic 
SE. More plug-ins able to use this sound set will be re
-
leased in the near future.
Loading programs
To load a program from the HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set into HALion Sonic or HALion 
Sonic SE, use one of the methods provided by the re
-
spective plug-in (Load page, Load Programs dialog, or 
Cubase MediaBay).
ÖWhen loading a program by double-clicking it in the 
Cubase MediaBay, Cubase creates an instrument track 
associated with HALion Sonic SE. If you want to use a 
program within HALion Sonic, create an instrument track 
first and then load the program.
Opening the manual
Click the “?” button to the right of the Main and Options 
page buttons to open the HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
VST Sound Instrument Set manual PDF (this file).
Expression section
Expression optionsPage buttons
Voice & Pitch 
section
Library display
Amplifier section
Open Manual