HALion is a

software instrument A software synthesizer or softsynth is a computer program that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the sam ...

application, created by German music software company

Steinberg Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH (trading as Steinberg) is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops music writing, recording, arranging, and editing software, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It als ...

for

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

. It uses a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

-based approach to emulate the acoustic sounds of a full

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, such as the strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion sections, with multiple configurations for each instrument, allowing for variations in timbre. It can also use multiple forms of

sound synthesis A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

to produce other software synthesizer audio. HALion can be used either as a standalone application, or as a VST, AU, or AAX (Avid Audio eXtension for

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-produ ...

) plug-in within

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrat ...

software.

History

The first version of HALion was released by

in 2001. By the year 2004, it had reached version 3. At

Musikmesse Musikmesse Frankfurt was an international fair regarding the music industry that took place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1980 until 2019. In 2012, 68,587 visitors and 1,512 exhibitors from 51 countries were counted. Despite an exhibitor drop ...

2006, Steinberg announced a specific version of the software, known as the ''HALion Symphonic Orchestra'', which included the samples to represent a full

. On 1 April 2009,

released the version 3.5 update to HALion, which introduced

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A compu ...

support. In July 2009, Michael Fakesch (former member of the band Funkstörung) produced a score for the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

commercial '' Carousel'' (which won the ''Film Grand Prix'' award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival) using the HALion Symphonic Orchestra and

Cubase Cubase is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Steinberg for music and MIDI recording, arranging and editing. The first version, which was originally only a MIDI sequencer and ran on the Atari ST computer, was released in 1989. Cut-dow ...

. In June 2010,

announced the ''HALion Sonic'' edition of the software, positioned as the successor to their previous ''Hypersonic 2''

, including both sampling and

functionality. Version 4 of the main edition of HALion was announced at

2011, introducing

features to expand beyond purely

-based audio. Version 5 (and version 2 of ''HALion Sonic'') followed in July 2013 with new instruments and effects. Version 6 of HALion, announced at Winter NAMM Show on 19 January 2017 (alongside version 3 of ''HALion Sonic''), introduced new features such as customization macros and user scripting (using a

LUA Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

-based

scripting language A scripting language or script language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. Scripting languages are usually interpreted at runtime rather than compiled. A scripting ...

Editions

There are 3 different editions of HALion available: * HALion Sonic SE: A free version of HALion Sonic (also included with all versions of

), with a smaller sample library and reduced

functionality. * HALion Sonic: A version of HALion with reduced functionality. For example, it does not include custom macro and sampling features. * HALion: The full version of HALion, including sampling and scripting functionality.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/vst/halion_und_halion_sonic/halion.html Software samplers Software synthesizers Music software Computer music software 2001 software

History

Editions

See also

References

External links