Steinberg HALion Sonic 3 - Electronic Delivery

Steinberg HALion Sonic brings the concept of all-in-one workstations to the virtual world. With a massive sample content library in combination with powerful synthesizer engines, HALion Sonic is a versatile sound production instrument comprising everything from deep-sampled acoustic instruments to cutting-edge synthetic sounds. Equipped with an easy-to-use interface, intuitive workflows and an extremely stable audio engine, HALion Sonic lets you focus on being creative. Developed for the studio as well as the stage, its pristine audio quality, the excellent content library and the wide range of high-end effects make HALion Sonic the ultimate creative tool for musicians, producers and composers worldwide.

Ultimate virtual workstation

A powerful multi-timbral audio engine with disk-streaming sample playback, a tone-wheel organ simulator and high-end virtual analog and granular synthesis — HALion Sonic offers a staggering level of sonic variety, with everything you need to bring your musical ideas to fruition. From ultra-realistic sample-based instruments to out-of-this-world granular textures and razor-sharp wavetable synthesis the HALion Sonic audio engine delivers at the highest level.

With its ease-of-use, absolute stability and pristine audio quality HALion Sonic has been designed to excel in the studio as well as on stage. HALion Sonic is a true virtual workstation with 16 instrument slots, each loaded with presets that can be routed to the 16 stereo outs and saved as Multi presets for your next performance. Create keyboard splits and switch to the dedicated player view for live performances. The included standalone version lets you launch HALion Sonic outside your DAW and use it as a quick access scratch pad; the metronome and record functions certainly will have you ready when inspiration strikes.

With its reliability and dazzling audio quality, HALion Sonic not only meets the requirements of professionals today, but also provides the best-sounding audio engine that was ever developed by Steinberg. Featuring multi-core support, the efficiency provided by sample compression technology and the RAM Save Mode, HALion Sonic is the new creative powerhouse at the heart of your production.

Outstanding library

HALion Sonic features a remarkably extensive library including thousands of patches comprising both synthesized sounds and breathtakingly authentic acoustic instruments. Created by Steinberg and Yamaha sound designers, the world-class library combines simple, immediately playable expressiveness with superb sounding instruments and exclusive sounds. HALion Sonic covers an enormous range of styles, all the way from finest acoustic instruments to legendary synthesizers, club sounds and soundscapes, from ultra-realistic drum kits to the latest electronic beats.

HALion Sonic 3 introduces more than 700 new sounds in 6 brand-new instruments with quick access macro pages such as the Anima wavetable synthesizer, Hot Brass brass section and two new grand pianos.

Based on Yamaha’s legendary Motif Technology, the FlexPhraser in HALion Sonic adds stunning phrases and complex patterns to your sounds. Beyond dozens of different arpeggio types, FlexPhraser is the perfect tool for playing complete instrument patterns in sync to the host with a touch of a single key!

With the new user phrase editor, you can create your own patterns and phrases, letting you set velocity and pitch for sounds in up to 32 steps, while harnessing the additional power of two controller lanes driving even more parameters like filters and effects.

The highly intuitive design of the integrated MediaBay sound management system makes it a breeze to organize and find the desired samples, layers and presets. HALion Sonic minimizes search times and grants instant access to any sound within the huge content library.

Each instrument from the massive HALion Sonic library comes with eight predefined Quick Controls, offering lightning fast access to the most important settings for that sound. The eight SoftPads not only allow you to trigger specific notes or fire a phrase sequence from the FlexPhraser module, but also to take snapshots of chords which can then be triggered in a different order to create new chord progressions. All SoftPads and Quick Controls inside HALion Sonic feature MIDI Learn support and can be assigned to a MIDI controller within nanoseconds.

In the mix

The Mix Page offers full access to the instrument slot settings, comprising level and pan as well as the aux effect sends and the output selector. Each of the 16 individual outputs can be freely assigned to any of the 16 instrument slots, making routing and mixing smooth and convenient.

With its complete suite of 61 audio effect processors, including gems like the REVerence convolution reverb from Cubase, the unique Morph Filters or the acclaimed VST Amp simulation, HALion Sonic delivers that professional extra-touch in the mix or on stage — right out of the box. All effects can be directly added to each program or layer, implemented as an aux effect send or routed to the master output.

Cubase integration

HALion Sonic perfectly integrates with Cubase: insert your VST workstation as VST Instrument or Instrument Track. The MediaBay integration also makes the process of finding and working with presets much faster and simpler.

HALion Sonic supports VST Expression 2 for full articulation and controller editing inside Cubase! VST Expression 2 makes working with instrument articulations as easy as it should be. Instead of handling all those MIDI controllers for switching articulations, it allows seamlessly integrated editing and full control over multiple articulations within the Key and Score Editors of Steinberg’s award-winning advanced music production system Cubase.

Features:

• Easy-to-use yet powerful premier music production workstation for synthesized sounds and breathtaking recreation of acoustic instruments
• Outstanding library, including over 3,200 instrument sounds created by top sound experts at Steinberg and Yamaha
• Powerful multi-timbral audio engine with disk-streaming sample playback and high-end virtual analog, granular and wavetable synthesis
• Wide range of high-end audio effects, including REVerence convolution reverb, VST Amp simulation and many more
• FlexPhraser for dynamically driving beats, arpeggios and complex tonal phrases
• Unique morphing filters, seamlessly blend between up to 4 out of 24 filter types
• MediaBay sound management system for immediate access to the libraries
• Stage-optimized workflows with dedicated player view, rapid building of keyboard splits or layers, and switching of entire multi-setups with a single command
• Full VST Expression 2 support for smart articulation editing in Cubase
• Cross-platform: Windows (VST 3, VST 2, AAX) and macOS (VST 3, AU, AAX) plug-in and standalone support