However, if you want to start a sound from scratch, HALion 7’s Home page lets you pick the required synth/sampling engines - including the FM engine - to get started. Your modified sound can then be saved as a new preset within the MediaBay’s user folder system. If you start with one of the presets, your tweaking needs might easily be satisfied via the UI of FM Lab’s Macro window (shown in the main screenshot) with its various tabs for Osc, Pitch, Filter, Amp, Effects and various modulation options. It ships with a healthy crop of presets and these include some fantastic bass, piano, pad, lead and chromatic percussion sounds. With Yamaha as Steinberg’s parent company, and also creators of some of the most popular FM hardware synths ever made (from the DX7 in 1983 through to the Montage series launched in 2016), FM synthesis is an obvious candidate for integration into HALion. The FM Zone includes a huge range of algorithm presets and also lets you design your own. All of the existing sampling/synthesis options have been given new features, but perhaps the highlight of this release are two additional synthesis engines the FM Zone and Spectral Zone. HALion instruments can be built from a single layer using just one of these engines, or from multiple layers, either of the same engine or a mixture of engines. Each of these has its own ‘zone’ (sub‑window) of dedicated controls. Whether for creating your own sounds from scratch, or playing back sounds created by others, HALion already offered comprehensive sample‑based instrument construction options as well as individual engines for virtual analogue, wavetable and granular synthesis. Yes, if you just want to load a preset or three, make some modest tweaks and get playing, then you can, but with a PDF Operation Manual running to nearly 700 pages, don’t expect to master all that HALion7’s interface has to offer without putting some time in. well, there are plenty of them! There is no hiding that HALion 7 is a deep application and virtually every sub‑window/panel offers a multitude of controls to explore. Optimisation of the UI is important because, as shown in the screenshots, when it comes to the collection of available sub‑windows or panels required to house all of HALion 7’s extensive functionality. The MediaBay has also been overhauled to provide an improved browsing and searching process, making it easier to fine‑tune your selections, whether for presets, multis or sound layers. On this front, there are detailed changes in virtually every area of the software improved menu layouts, greater control over the layout, size and arrangements of sub‑windows, and workspace presets that can be configured for different workflows/tasks. However, more obvious to existing HALion users will be a refresh of many parts of the UI. So, what’s new in the full version? Well, in the background, Steinberg have added support for Apple Silicon and dongle‑free licensing. As we will see in a moment, that’s an impressive collection so, if your level of sound design only goes as far as tweaking existing presets (which HALion Sonic most certainly lets you do), and you don’t want to dig deeper into the sound‑design process, this might be an attractive option. Second, the new HALion Sonic 7 Collection (priced at £214 $249.99) bundles the free player with all of the current instruments supplied with the full version of HALion 7. First, HALion Sonic 7 itself is available as a free‑to‑download product. Additionally, alongside the full, flagship product, they have introduced two new HALion Sonic options. The core purpose remains the same but there are plenty of new and revised features within the latest release. Steinberg have now launched HALion 7, some six years after its predecessor. With a good selection of sound expansion packs available, either HALion or HALion Sonic can provide a front‑end to an expansive sonic palette that crosses a wide range of musical genres. These tools are suitable for the keen DIY sound designer to build their own unique sounds but, via the Macro and Library Creator options, also allow developers to produce unique front‑end designs and commercial library expansion packs for the HALion or HALion Sonic platforms (HALion’s more compact offspring that provides ‘player only’ functions but with plenty of options for editing preset sounds). As well as playback and performance features, HALion also provides a substantial set of tools for creating your own instruments using samples, synthesis or a combination of both. It can run as a stand‑alone instrument, or in any DAW as a plug‑in (VST3, AAX and AU formats are supported). HALion is the flagship item on this list. While Steinberg are perhaps best known for their DAW software, their product catalogue also includes some excellent virtual instruments. HALion is back, and it’s bigger, better and FMier than ever!
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