Steinberg VST Sampler HALion 3 Operation Manual

HALionPreparations 3 – 21
5.By default the “Insert DXi Options” dialog appears. To create one 
MIDI track and connect an audio track to HALion’s 1+2 outputs, acti-
vate the options “Midi Source Track” and “First Synth Output”. To cre-
ate all available HALion outputs activate “All Synth Outputs”. Refer to 
your host application’s documentation for further details.
6.Clicking the “Connection State” button in the Synth Rack will activate/
deactivate HALion. By default this is automatically activated when...

HALion3 – 22 Preparations
8.In SONAR, select the previously created MIDI track “HALion”. HALion 
will now receive MIDI data from the selected track.
HALion receives MIDI data in 16 channel multi-mode. It is therefore not necessary to 
assign a specific MIDI receive channel in HALion. However, you should make sure that 
the MIDI channel of the currently selected SONAR track is set to the channel on which 
HALion is to receive MIDI data. 
When set, you are ready to load some samples and start using...

4
HALion overview 

HALion4 – 24 HALion overview
Introduction
This chapter contains an overview of the basic concepts and opera-
tional procedures, including brief descriptions of the different HALion 
page views.
The Demo Songs
On the HALion installation CD you will find a folder called Demo 
Songs. This folder contains three subfolders with demo projects for 
three common host applications: Cubase VST 5, Cubase SX and 
Cakewalk Sonar. There are two projects for both versions of Cubase 
and one for Cakewalk Sonar, and...

HALionHALion overview 4 – 25
About Program Banks and Programs
For HALion to produce sound, you first have to load either one or more 
audio files (i.e. samples), a Program (a collection of samples) or a Pro-
gram Bank (a collection of up to 128 Programs):
•HALion always contains a “Program Bank” which in turn contains 128 
Program “slots”. 
Even if only one Program containing samples and parameter settings is currently loaded, 
there are still 128 Program slots, although in this case, 127 of these slots...

HALion4 – 26 HALion overview
About Program Banks
A Bank is a collection of up to 128 Programs.
Use the “Load Bank” option on the File menu in the VST Instruments 
rack to load a Program Bank. Program Banks have the extension “.fxb”. 
Loading a new bank unloads all previously loaded banks.
If you wish you can create your own default sound bank by saving your 
preferred bank as “haliondef.fxb” in the HALion folder.
Loading a Program Bank
As explained on page 24, when samples are loaded the initial portion...

HALionHALion overview 4 – 27
Selecting a Program
There are several ways to select Programs in the Macro view:
•Click the down arrow to the right in the Program selector (located in 
the top left corner of the HALion window). This brings up a pop-up 
menu with all Program names of the current Bank. 
Select the desired Program by clicking on it.
•The window display in the middle of the Macro view can display one of 
four views. If you select “Global” using the button at the top of the win-
dow display, the...

HALion4 – 28 HALion overview
Loading individual Programs
•You can use “Load Instrument” in the File pop-up menu to load a single 
Program from disk. Programs have the extension “.fxp”. The program is 
loaded into the currently selected HALion channel and overwrites any 
previously loaded Program.
❐Please note that the previous sections about loading Banks and Programs 
describe just one possibility of loading by using the VST Instrument “File” 
pop-up menu. There are several alternative ways of loading...

HALionHALion overview 4 – 29
•The audio signals that are created by a VST Instrument are automati-
cally routed to the Mixer. In the Mixer, four stereo channels, four mono 
channels, and a surround bus are assigned to each open HALion unit 
(by default – this can be changed on the Options page view). 
Using the Output controls in the HALion window, you can route the Program (or any 
sample within the Program) to any audio channels or to a surround bus – see page 113. 
Here, two HALion stereo outputs are...

HALion4 – 30 HALion overview
Saving a Program
Proceed as follows:
1.Select the desired Program.
2.Change the Program settings as desired.
Read the corresponding chapters of this manual to find out what you can do with the 
various controls.
3.When you have finished editing, click the name in the Program display 
and enter a new one via your computer keyboard.
You have three options to save an edited Program:
• You can save it as a single Program file, using the “Save Instrument” function 
in the File...