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 DXi 
SoftSynths are loaded.
7.Double-click on the “HALion” entry or click the “Synth Properties” but-
ton in the tool bar of the Synth Rack to open the HALion window. 
The Synth Properties button in the Synth Rack window.
By default, the “Macro” page view (“page views” are user interface 
panels containing parameters) is shown. In this page view, the para-
meters affect all the samples in a Program. In addition to this, there are 
six other page views. See the chapter “HALion overview” for a brief 
description of all the page views. 
						

							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 
HALion! In the next chapter you will learn how to load programs.
Displaying sample names in the Piano Roll view
The DXi2 version of HALion lets you display the usual keys or sample 
names in the Piano Roll view. You can select which Program (1-127) 
should display sample names by opening the DXi pop-up menu in the 
HAlion window and checking the desired Program(s). You can also 
select all or no Programs to display sample names. The setting is 
stored globally and independent of your project.
Using HALion in an AU compatible application
You can use HALion in an AU host application.
The HALion AU version is installed in your AU plugins folder and lets 
HALion work in an AU environment – without any performance loss or 
incompatibilities.
For instructions on installing and using the AU plug-in, please refer to 
the documentation of your AU host application.
• Please note that the number of available outputs for every instance of 
HALion depends on your AU host application. 
						

							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 every project comes in two flavors: 
an XXL version (good sound quality, but more CPU load) and an ECO 
version (less quality, less CPU strain). 
Copy the contents of the folder containing projects for your host ap-
plication to your hard disk and follow the instructions in this manual to 
load and manipulate the samples used in the projects using HALion.
❐When you open HALion to work with the demo songs, you may find that 
a message is displayed informing you about “missing” samples. See 
page 94 for details about this message.
How HALion plays samples
HALion can play back samples of virtually any length, regardless of the 
amount of RAM installed in your computer. This is because HALion 
can play back audio directly from the hard disk, similar to hard disk re-
cording systems. Since samples can’t be triggered instantly from disk 
(there would be a delay between pressing a key and the sound playing 
back), the initial portion of the samples (i.e. the start of the sample) is 
preloaded into the computer’s RAM. 
This way only a small fraction of a longer sample will reside in RAM, 
while the rest is streamed directly from disk. However you can, should 
you so wish, assign a specific sample or Program to always be loaded 
into RAM. 
						

							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 will be empty. 
Only one Program Bank can be loaded at a time.
•A Program references any number of samples and contains all para-
meter settings associated with the samples.
Within a Program folder, samples can be arranged in any number of subfolders, which 
makes it easy to organize and handle multiple samples.
❐Samples are not stored in the Program file, but are “referenced” to a loca-
tion on disk. When you change the location of samples, so that the refer-
ence of the Program file to these samples is no longer correct, a warning 
message is displayed, and you must re-establish the link between the 
Program and its samples. This is explained in detail on page 94.
•You can load or save Program Banks containing up to 128 Programs 
but also single Programs from the File pop-up menu (the disk icon at 
the top of the HALion window).
The corresponding functions are called “Load/Save Bank” and “Load/Save Instrument”. 
It is also possible to load Banks, Programs or individual samples via drag and drop (see 
page 79).
When you save your Cubase SX project file, the following information 
is stored:
• The number of HALion units used in the project.
• The Bank and/or Programs used.
• The changed settings of edited Programs.
❐However, if you wish to use the edited version of a Program in another 
project, you must save it using one of the Save functions in the File pop-
up menu on the VST Instrument rack. 
						

							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 
of the samples will be preloaded into RAM. When you load a Bank, all 
the samples belonging to the Programs assigned to HALion’s 16 MIDI 
channels will be preloaded into RAM. If you don’t intend to use some 
of the channels, you should load an empty program (see page 57).
Working with Programs
For now, we assume that you have the “Macro” page view open. This 
page view contains parameter controls that are global, i.e. they affect 
all samples in the currently selected Program. 
The Macro page view.  
						

							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 first 16 Programs in the selected Bank are shown. 
Clicking into the Program field for a slot allows you to select a Program.
If you select the Global page view there are additional columns that are not shown on 
the Global view on the Macro page.
•If you select the Keyzone view from the Macro page, an overview of 
the Keyzone page view in the current Program will be shown.
Settings in this view cannot be changed, it is simply an overview.
•The other two views contain the program and send effects, respectively. 
How to use the built-in effects is described on page 147.
•Programs cannot be selected using the Program buttons in the VST 
Instruments rack. 
Please use the Program selector in the HALion window.  
						

							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 Banks, Pro-
grams and samples into HALion, which are described later in the manual.
Playing a Program
•Check out the currently selected Program by playing notes and 
chords on your MIDI keyboard. 
As an alternative, you can create a part on a Cubase SX track and fill that with notes 
and MIDI controller data by using the mouse.
•If you notice considerable latency times (delay) when you play HALion 
via MIDI keyboard, the sound card that you use and/or its driver are 
the source of the problem. 
If the problem occurs within your system and you want to record by playing in real time, 
you should replace your sound card and its driver with a fast audio card and an ASIO 
driver, that have been optimized for the smallest possible latency time. When playing 
back HALion data from a Cubase track, this problem does not occur.  
						

							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 used.
•Record a few tracks and watch the channel level meters in the Mixer. 
Play with the volume or EQ settings of the channels that receive a 
signal.
Using the Mixer, you can thus mix the sounds created by HALion and process them in 
the same way as other audio tracks by using plug-ins, effects or external studio equip-
ment.
•If needed, you can transform any or all HALion tracks into an audio file 
using the “Export Audio Mixdown” function of Cubase/Nuendo.  
						

							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 pop-up menu on the VST Instruments rack.
• You can save it together with its Bank, using the “Save Bank” function in the 
File pop-up menu on the VST Instruments rack.
• You can save the Cubase SX project. If you do this, the changed Program is 
only available within this particular project. If this is not what you want, use one 
of the two options above.
About MIDI channels and Programs
HALion is 16 channel multi-timbral. This means that each MIDI channel 
(1-16) can be assigned a separate Program. 
•The panel settings shown reflect the selected Program. 
When you select another Program, the panel settings will change accordingly.
•Each of these 16 Programs separately gets its notes via one of the 16 
MIDI channels.
•Remember: The MIDI data that your MIDI master keyboard sends to 
Cubase SX (and thus to HALion), is always routed via the MIDI channel 
of the track that is currently selected in Cubase SX.
You should therefore always make sure that the currently visible HALion page view is 
set to the same channel number as the track currently active in Cubase’s track list. Ad-
ditionally, the Output setting for this track must be set to “HALion”. By keeping these 
rules in mind, you ensure that it is the correct channel (of the available 16 channels) 
that you edit and hear when playing your master keyboard.