Steinberg VST Workstation Halion Sonic Operation Manual
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81 HALion Sonic Mix This controls the mix between the dry and the wet signal. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At 100% you hear the wet signal only. Tremolo This effect produces amplitude modulation, i.e. cyclic modulation of the level of the sound. Rate Use this to specify the frequency of the amplitude modula- tion in Hertz (Hz). The control range is from 0.01 Hz to 10.0 Hz. Sync Sync is short for synchronization. Activate this to set the Rate in fractions of beats with the following values: 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/1T, 1/2T, 1/4T, 1/8T, 1/16T, 1/32T, 1/1D, 1/2D, 1/4D, 1/8D, 1/16D and 1/32D. Depth This sets the intensity of the amplitude modulation. The control range is from 0% to 100%. Phase This widens the sound image of the effect from mono to stereo. The control range is from 0° to 180°. Output Use this to set the output level of the Tremolo. The control range is from 0 dB to +12 dB. Rotary This emulates the sound of a vintage rotary speaker com- pletely with amplifier, horn, drum and cabinet. By emitting the sound via a rotating horn and drum the rotary speaker produces a Doppler effect that thickens the sound. The horn and drum rotate at variable speed producing different amounts of Doppler effect. The amplifier of the rotary speaker adds a warm sounding distortion and the horn, drum and cabinet color the sound uniquely. The horn and drum are recorded via (virtual) microphones that can be set to different angles to broaden the sound image. Typi - cally, rotary speakers are used with electric organs. Rotation Speed Use this to switch the rotation speed of the horn and drum between Slow, Fast and Stop. At the Fast setting the Doppler effect is stronger than at the Slow setting. At the Stop setting there is no Doppler effect because the drum and horn do not rotate. Since the horn and drum acceler - ate and decelerate at different speeds the transition from Slow to Fast and vice versa sounds the most interesting. Distance Here you set the distance of the microphones from the horn and drum. The control range is from 0% to 100%. The amplitude modulation of the sound decreases with the distance of the microphones. Set this to higher values for less amplitude modulation. Cabinet The horn and drum sound different when recorded through the louvers of the cabinet. Use this to color the horn and drum with the sound of the cabinet. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At a setting of 100% you get the full sound of the cabinet.
82 HALion Sonic Balance Here you adjust the balance between the horn and drum microphones. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At a setting of 0% you hear only the drum. At a setting of 100% you hear only the horn. The unity setting is at 50%. Slow Speed This adjusts the slow speed of the horn and drum to- gether. The control range is from -100% to +100%. At a setting of -100% the speed is two times slower than at 0%. At a setting of +100% the speed is two times faster than at 0%. Fast Speed This adjusts the fast speed of the horn and drum together. The control range is from -100% to +100%. At a setting of -100% the speed is two times slower than at 0%. At a setting of +100% the speed is two times faster than at 0%. Accel Accel is short for acceleration. Use this to adjust the ac- celeration time for raising and lowering the rotation speed of the horn and drum. The control range is from -100% to + 100%. At a setting of -100% the time is four times faster. At a setting of +100% the time is four times slower. Horn Mic Angle This adjusts the stereo spread of the horn microphones. The control range is from 0° to 180°. At a setting of 0° the sound image is monophonic. At a setting of 180° the sound image is fully stereo. Drum Mic Angle This adjusts the stereo spread of the drum microphones. The control range is from 0° to 180°. At a setting of 0° the sound image is monophonic. At a setting of 180° the sound image is fully stereo. Treble Use this to adjust the tone color of the high frequencies. The control range is from -12 dB to +12 dB. Drive Here you can adjust the distortion of the amplifier. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At a setting of 100% you get maximum distortion. Bass Use this to adjust the tone color of the low frequencies. The control range is from -12 dB to +12 dB. Gain Use this to set the output level of the Rotary Speaker. The control range is from -12 dB to +12 dB. Vibrato This effect emulates the chorus and vibrato effects of vin- tage organs. The Vibrato thickens the sound by means of pitch modulation. The effect gives direct access to the classic chorus and vibrato settings C1, C2 and C3 and V1, V2 and V3. In addition, there is a Custom mode that allows you to adjust the amount of chorus or vibrato freely. Type Here you can select the classic chorus and vibrato set- tings C1, C2 and C3 and V1, V2 and V3. The control is only available when Custom mode is switched off. Custom Mode Activate this to adjust the chorus and vibrato settings freely with the Rate, Depth and Mix controls. Rate Use this to specify the frequency of the pitch modulation in Hertz (Hz). The control range is from 0.01 Hz to 10.0 Hz.
83 HALion Sonic Depth This sets the intensity of the pitch modulation. The control range is from 0% to 100%. Vibr/Chor This controls the mix between the vibrato and the chorus signal. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At 100% you hear the chorus effect only. Compressor Compressors reduce the dynamic range of a sound. This way, the sound gains headroom. You can use this extra headroom to make the overall sound louder again. The graphical control to the left indicates the compression curve. You can edit the Threshold and Ratio graphically with the handles of this control. The input and output VU meters indicate the level before and after the compres - sion. The Gain Reduction meter indicates the current at- tenuation of the level. To edit the Compressor graphically: •In the graphical control, drag the handles up and down to edit the Threshold and Ratio respectively. •Drag the Threshold handle up to raise it. Drag the han- dle down to lower the Threshold. •Drag the Ratio handle up to decrease it. Drag the han- dle down to increase the Ratio. Threshold Use this to set the Threshold in dB. The control range is from -60.0 dB to 0.0 dB. Sounds that are louder than the Threshold will be reduced in gain. Sounds below the Threshold stay untreated. Ratio This adjusts the amount of gain reduction for sounds that are louder than the Threshold. The control range is from 1.0 to 8.0, always to 1. The higher the ratio the more the output will be lowered. For example, if the ratio is set to 2:1 and the amplitude of the sound is 4 dB above the Threshold, the output will be lowered by 2 dB. If the ampli - tude is 8 dB above the Threshold, the output will be low- ered by 4 dB. The same example with a ratio of 4:1 would lower the output by 3 dB and 6 dB respectively. Soft Knee Activate this to change the characteristic of the compres- sion curve from Hard to Soft Knee. Hard and Soft Knee describes if the angle around the Threshold has a hard edge or soft curvature. With Soft Knee activated, the compression kicks in less suddenly. Make-Up Depending on the set Threshold and Ratio, the sound loses gain (indicated by the Gain Reduction meter).You can use the Make-up Gain to make the overall sound louder again. The control range is from 0.0 dB to 24.0 dB. Auto Make-Up Gain This calculates the gain loss from the Threshold and Ratio settings and sets the Make-up Gain automatically. The Make-up potentiometer becomes dark while Auto Make- up Gain is active. Attack This determines how fast the Compressor reacts to sounds that exceed the set Threshold. The control range is from 0.1 ms to 100.0 ms. The longer the time, the lon - ger the period will be for reducing the gain to the set Ra- tio. In other words, with longer times the onset of sounds exceeding the Threshold pass through unprocessed. Hold This sets a guaranteed time over which the compression will be applied after the sound exceeded the set Thresh - old. The control range is from 0 ms to 2000 ms.
84 HALion Sonic Release This determines how fast the Compressor reacts to sounds that fall below the set Threshold. The control range is from 10 ms to 1000 ms. The longer the time, the longer the period will be for returning back to the original level. Auto Release Activate this to set the Release time automatically. The Compressor analyzes the input sound continuously to find the optimal Release time for you. The Release potentiom - eter becomes dark while Auto Release is active. Peak – RMS Here you can adjust the loudness sensing of the Com- pressor freely between Peak and RMS. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At a setting of 0% the Compressor uses Peak sensing only and at 100% RMS sensing only. Peak means that the Compressor senses directly the peak level of the sound. RMS is short for root mean square, a statistical measure for the amplitude of sounds. RMS means that the Compressor senses the average power of the sound. Peak sensing responds faster than RMS sens - ing. Typically, Peak sensing is used for transient and RMS sensing for sustained sounds. Limiter The Limiter prevents the sound from exceeding the set output level, for example, to avoid clipping in following ef - fects. The input and output VU meters indicate the level before and after the Limiter. The Gain Reduction meter in the middle indicates the current attenuation of the level. Input This adjusts the input level of the sound. The control range is from -24 dB to + 24 dB. By increasing the input level you can drive the sound more and more into limiting. Output This sets the maximum output level of the sound. The con- trol range is from -24 dB to +6 dB. Release This sets the time the gain needs for returning to its origi- nal level. The control range is from 0.1 ms to 1000.0 ms. The longer the time, the longer the period will be for re - turning back to the original level. Auto Release Activate this to set the Release time automatically. The Li- miter analyzes the input sound continuously to find the op- timal Release time for you. The Release potentiometer becomes dark while Auto Release is active. Expander Expanders reduce the output level in relation to the input level for signals below the set Threshold. This is useful, when you want to enhance the dynamic range or reduce the noise in quiet passages. The graphical control to the left indicates the expansion curve. You can edit the Threshold and Ratio graphically with the handles of this control. The input and output VU meters indicate the level before and after the expansion. The Gain Reduction meter indicates the current attenuation of the level. To edit the Expander graphically: •In the graphical control, drag the handles up and down or left and right to edit the Threshold and Ratio respec - tively. •Drag the Threshold handle up to raise it. Drag the han- dle down to lower the Threshold. •Drag the Ratio handle left to decrease it. Drag the han- dle right to increase the Ratio.
85 HALion Sonic Threshold Use this to set the Threshold in dB. The control range is from -60.0 dB to 0.0 dB. Sounds that are softer than the Threshold will be reduced in gain. Sounds above the Threshold stay untreated. Ratio This adjusts the amount of gain reduction for sounds that are softer than the Threshold. The control range is from 1.0 to 8.0. The higher the ratio the more the output will be lowered. For example, if the ratio is set to 2:1 and the am - plitude of the sound is 4 dB below the Threshold, the out- put will be lowered by 2 dB. If the amplitude is 8 dB below the Threshold, the output will be lowered by 4 dB. The same example with a ratio of 4:1 would lower the output by 3 dB and 6 dB respectively. Soft Knee Activate this to change the characteristic of the expansion curve from Hard to Soft Knee. Hard and Soft Knee de - scribes if the angle around the Threshold has a hard edge or soft curvature. With Soft Knee activated, the expansion kicks in less suddenly. Attack This determines how fast the Expander reduces the gain when the sound falls below the set Threshold. The control range is from 0.1 ms to 500.0 ms. The longer the time, the longer the period will be for reducing the gain. Hold This sets a guaranteed time over which the expansion will be applied after the sound falls below the set Threshold. The control range is from 0 ms to 2000 ms. Release This determines how fast the Expander raises the gain af- ter the sound exceeds the set Threshold. The control range is from 0.1 ms to 1000 ms. The longer the time, the longer the period will be for raising the gain again. Auto Release Activate this to set the Release time automatically. The Ex- pander analyzes the input sound continuously to find the optimal Release time for you. The Release potentiometer becomes dark while Auto Release is active. Peak – RMS Here you can adjust the loudness sensing of the Expander freely between Peak and RMS. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At a setting of 0% the Expander uses Peak sensing only and at 100% RMS sensing only. Peak means that the Expander senses directly the peak level of the sound. RMS is short for root mean square, a statistical measure for the amplitude of sounds. RMS means that the Expander senses the average power of the sound. Peak sensing responds faster than RMS sensing. Typically, Peak sensing is used for transient and RMS sensing for sustained sounds. Gate The Gate passes sound only to its output if the input sound exceeds the set Threshold. Sounds below the Threshold will be silenced. An internal side chain filter al - lows you to analyze a filtered version of the input sound in- stead. This way, the Gate senses only certain frequencies of the input sound. Threshold Use this to set the Threshold in dB. The control range is from -60.0 dB to 0.0 dB. Sounds that are louder than the Threshold will be reduced in gain. Sounds below the Threshold stay untreated. Side Chain This activates the internal side chain filter. When acti- vated, the input sound is filtered before it is analyzed. The Gate opens only if the filtered sound exceeds the set Threshold. The filter controls turn dark when it is inactive. Filter Type Here you select the filter type for the side chain filter. Se- lect high-pass (HP) to sense high, band-pass (BP) to sense mid, and low-pass (LP) to sense low frequencies only.
86 HALion Sonic Monitor Activate this to listen to the sound of the side chain filter. The Gate will be inactive while the Monitor is activated. Frequency (LP, BP, HP) Here you can activate one of three cutoff frequencies of the side chain filter. Q-Factor Activate this to adjust the bandwidth of the band-pass fil- ter from wide to narrow. The control range is from 0.001 to 10.0. Attack This determines how fast the Gate opens when the sound exceeded the set Threshold. The control range is from 0.1 ms to 1000.0 ms. The longer the time, the longer the pe - riod will be for the sound to fade in. Hold This sets a guaranteed time over which the Gate stays open after the sound exceeded the set Threshold. The control range is from 0 ms to 2000 ms. Release This determines how fast the Gate closes after the sound falls below the set Threshold. The control range is from 10 ms to 1000 ms. The longer the time, the longer the period will be for the sound to fade out. Peak – RMS Here you can adjust the loudness sensing of the Gate freely between Peak and RMS. The control range is from 0% to 100%. At a setting of 0% the Gate uses Peak sensing only and at 100% RMS sensing only. Peak means the Gate senses directly the peak level of the sound. RMS is short for root mean square, a statistical measure for the amplitude of sounds. RMS means the Gate senses the av - erage power of the sound. Peak sensing responds faster than RMS sensing. Typically, Peak sensing is used for transient and RMS sensing for sustained sounds. Auto Release Activate this to set the Release time automatically. The Gate analyzes the input sound continuously to find the op - timal Release time for you. The Release potentiometer be- comes dark while Auto Release is active. Pan This effect allows you to set the stereo position and width of the signal. Input Swap Activate the Input Swap option if you want to swap the stereo channels. Pan Here you can set the pan position of the signal. The pan- ning works for mono and stereo input signals. Width This parameter allows you to adjust the stereo width of the signal from stereo down to mono.
87 HALion Sonic MediaBay Load page – MediaBay The integrated MediaBay browser view gives you a quick and comfortable access to all HALion Sonic presets such as multis, program and the various layer presets. It is di - vided into two sections. In the upper section you can de- fine which kind of sounds you want to look for. The lower section presents the corresponding result list. You can drag the upper limit of the result list to adjust the size rela - tion between the two sections. Loading programs To load a program into one of the 16 slots, you have three possibilities: •Select the slot into which you want to load the program. Then double-click the program in the result list to load it. •Drag the desired program from the result list and drop it onto the slot in which you want to have it loaded. •Right-click the presets and select “Load Preset into se- lected slot” from the menu. Loading multis There are three ways to load multi presets: •Double-click the multi in the result list to load it. •Drag the multi from the result list and drop it onto the multi slot above the Multi Program Rack. •Load the multi from the Cubase/Nuendo (or other se- quencer host) plug-in header using the integrated preset loading methods. ÖWhen working with other host applications, you can use their preset mechanisms to save and load plug-in pre - sets. However, there are no factory presets for the various plug-in formats. Use the built-in MediaBay browser to get access to all the factory multi presets. Loading layers HALion Sonic allows you to load layers directly into a pro- gram slot. This is done exactly the way you load programs. By doing so, HALion Sonic creates a new program and loads the layer to the first layer of the new program. To load a layer as a part of a program, you need to go to the Program page of the Edit section where you can see the four layer slots. 1.Click on the triangle button in the layer slot to directly open MediaBay dialog. 2.Double-click the layer to load it. 3.By default, the dialog closes and the layer is loaded. If you want to keep the dialog open to try several layer pre - sets, check the corresponding option in the bottom of the dialog. Deleting presets To delete a preset: 1.Select the desired preset. 2.Right-click it to open a context menu. 3.Select “Delete”. Importing presets You can import existing program presets from any file lo- cation using the Explorer (Win) or Finder (Mac). To import presets: 1.Select the desired preset in the Explorer/Finder. 2.Drag it to the Load page and drop it. 3.The imported presets will be copied to your user folder.
88 HALion Sonic Category search You can comfortably search for presets that match up to four search criteria by using the configurable search col - umns. The easiest way is to begin by using the standard columns Category, Sub Cat egory, Style and Character. By clicking on specific tag values in the tag columns, you define the search filter. Only the files that match the selected tag val - ues will be displayed in the result list. Select more tag val - ues from other columns to further refine your search. Ö By default, the first two tag columns are set to “Cate - gory” and “Sub Category”. These tags are directly linked to each other: for each Category value, there are a number of Sub Category values. Changing to a different Category value in the first tag column allows for different values in the Sub Category column. You will find the same depen - dency for Style and Sub Style attributes. If you want to search for different criteria, click on the col - umn header to select the desired tag first. Then select the search values. Result list Columns The columns of the result list show all the meta data infor- mation for the presets that matches the query, specified in the Category search section above. You can define which columns to show and adapt the col - umn order inside the result list by dragging the table he ader to the desired position. Furthermore, you can use the column headers to change the sorting order of the list entries. The triangle icon inside the column header shows which column is currently controlling the sorting and in which direction. You can sort the entries either in ascend - ing or in descending order. Setup result columns Click on the “Setup Result Columns” button in the toolbar of the result list to open a menu. Here you can select which meta data columns shall be displayed. Selecting a column adds to the end of the list. You can then position the new column by dragging it to the desired position. Preset types There are three types of presets: TypeDescription Multi All settings of the complete plug-in. Program All settings of a program consis ting of up to four layers. Layer One single layer (synth, sample, instrument, drum or loop laye r). To distinguish between the di fferent preset types, each type comes with its specific icon. View filters The toolbar of the result list features three filter buttons that allow you to define which type of presets shall be dis - played. There is a filter button for each type of multi, pro - gram and layer. Depending on what type of preset you want to load, you can activate one of them. By default the filter is set to program. Rating filter You can limit the search result to presets that have a cer - tain rating level. The rating filter slider allows you to define the mini mum rating level. Text search filter The text search field in the result list toolbar allows you to quickly enter a name fragment to find all presets that con - tain that specific fragment. The result list updates immedi - ately, and the Category search section above shows all categories that contain p resets with what matches the text search. Multi Program Layer
89 HALion Sonic Reset the search filter If you want to remove the text from the search field simply click the Reset button on the left side of the text field. Factory / User filter These two filter buttons allow you to define whether you want to see all presets, only the Factory, or only your user presets. The result counter The number of presets that matches the specified search criteria is displayed in the text field in the right corner of the result list toolbar. Tagging presets Each preset can be described by using a predefined set of attributes (also called “tags” ). These tags can be set in the tagging section of the save dialog or can directly be set in the result list. 1. Click on the value field you want to set to open a menu (dialog). 2. Select the desired value. Ö The tag valu es are directly written into the correspond - ing preset files. However, this is not possible for write pro - tected factory content. In this case, the meta data will be saved w ith HALion Sonic’s MediaBay database. Tags The following attributes can be set directly in the result list or save dialog: Tag: Editing method: Media Name Display only. Rating Drag to set the rating. CommentClick to select, double-click to edit. Content Summary Click to select, double-click to edit. Write Protection Display only, use context menu to set p rotection. Library Name Click to select, double-click to edit. Library Manufacturer Click to select, double-click to edit. Author Click to select, double-click to edit. Musical Category Click to select. Sub Category Click to select. Style Click to select. Sub Style Click to select. Character Click to open an editor dialog. Tempo Click to select, double-click to edit. Bars & Beats Click to select, double-click to edit. Signature Click to select, double-click to edit. Key Click to select. GM Sound Click to select. Setting the character tags Unlike the other tags which can be set by using a menu or by typing in the desired word, the character tags can be set through a dedicated editor. This editor provides a list of opposites which allows you to describe the character of a sound. To set a character turn on the desired attributes: The pre - view line in the lower section of the dialog shows you how the characters appear later on in the result list. Tagging with the save dialog When you save a preset, the save dialog opens and shows the tagging editor section on the right side. Here you can easily edit your tags before saving the preset. To make it even simpler, you can first click an existing preset file in the file list on the left to copy its name and all its tags, then make the changes the new preset requires, modify the preset name and save it.
90 HALion Sonic Options page The settings on the Options page Disk Streaming Some of the programs come with up to 1 GB of samples, such as the acoustic piano. That is a large amount of data and your computer cannot load all samples completely into the RAM, especially if you are using all of the 16 slots. Instead, HALion Sonic loads only the first milliseconds of each sample into the RAM and constantly loads more manageable portions from hard disk while you play. Be - cause the hard disk has to work harder for every additional note you play, it is a good idea to load as much material as possible into the RAM beforehand. This, of course, leaves less RAM for other applications. For an optimum perfor - mance of your system, you can balance the RAM versus the hard disk usage of HALion Sonic. Balancing Disk vs. RAM With this slider, you can balance the hard disk versus the RAM usage. •If you need more RAM for other applications, drag the slider to the left towards the Disk setting. •If your hard disk is not supplying data fast enough, drag the slider to the right towards the RAM setting. The memory display will be updated accordingly. ÖIf you experience no problems with the system perfor- mance, leave this setting as it is. ÖThe Disk vs. RAM always applies to all plug-in in- stances. It will not be saved with the project. You need to set this up only once for your computer system. Performance Here you find settings to optimize the overall CPU perfor- mance of HALion Sonic. Max Voices This allows you to specify a total number of voices that a plug-in instance of HALion Sonic can playback. As soon as this limit is reached, HALion Sonic starts stealing voices. The control range is from 1 to 512 voices. Max CPU To avoid clicks from CPU overloads, you can specify a maximum limit for the CPU load of the plug-in instance. HALion Sonic steals voices automatically when this limit is exceeded. The control range is from 10% to 100%. A set - ting of 100% means that the Max CPU is switched off. ÖBecause HALion Sonic needs some time to react, you can get CPU peaks that exceed the limit you set, which can lead to artifacts such as audio drop-outs. If you set the Max CPU a bit lower than actually needed, you are safe again. Voice Fade Out Here you adjust the time to fade out voices that need to be stolen because the Max Voices setting or the Max CPU of the plug-in instance has been reached. The control range is from 5 ms to 100 ms. Osc ECO mode Activate this to run the oscillators of synth layers in ECO mode. The oscillators use less CPU at the cost of produc - ing more aliasing at higher pitches. When activated, you are able to play more voices with synth layers. Global Here you find common settings of HALion Sonic. Show Tooltips When you move the mouse over a control, a small help text will be shown. Deactivate Show Tooltips to avoid this.