Thanks for unleashing multiple perspectives of the abilities of assigning instruments and routing multiple outlets, as well as potential limitations and workarounds. Well done and thanks.
Wonderful tutorial is saving my life, Cubase has so many functions that Habeses has a hard time understanding everything in a few days, thank you very much for these well detailed explanations!!
Hi I have a problem, I Have activated 5 out put channels assigned 5 midi etc, I have recorded 4 bars of midi on 1 of the midi channels every thing looks ok, but the I render in place that 1 midi event, I get the 5 midi channels all rendered my 1 with the audio, and the 4 others how can I stop the empty midi tracks rendering when not selected? Hope you can help, Cubase 11
Hi I have a problem, I Have activated 5 out put channels assigned 5 midi etc, I have recorded 4 bars of midi on 1 of the midi channels every thing looks ok, but the I render in place that 1 midi event, I get the 5 midi channels all rendered my 1 with the audio, and the 4 others how can I stop the empty midi tracks rendering when not selected? Hope you can help, Cubase 11
Hi I have pound that choosing render in place, render settings choosing complete signal path with or without master FX renders just the chosen midi event that appears to be the way of rendering each midi track individually
Darren, I just stumbled on this. I’m now ready to learn a bit more of what Halion can do, now I’m venturing deeper into the Cubase rabbit hole. This explains everything anyone needs but it’s going to take some time before it all becomes second nature. Your tutorial starts off with pretty easy stuff and I thought, ‘this isn’t too bad’ and then next thing it’s ‘whooooaah!!’ Brilliant.
A very helpful video, thank you very much! As always, well explained. I have been using Halion Sonic in my projects for a number of years, but so far I have done the PC resource-saving configuration and output assignment 95% wrong. Now I finally know. Greetings from 🇩🇪
This was a perfect tutorial and helped me out a lot! I smashed that like button and subscribed immediately at about 3mins in. Thank you MusiceTechTuituon, and btw that Electric Banana shirt is awesome
Cheers for this, this isn't well explained by Steinberg and there should be some type of tutorial inside cubase/halion. This has been very helpful for myself, very grateful. 👍
In 2014 I had an Intel Q8400 with 8GB RAM. I was using Cubase Artist and maxed out the 32 instrument slots with 32 instances of HSSE. I never had problems with it. CPU monitor was at about 50%. Then I bought a new system with an Intel i7 2600 and 8GB RAM too and the CPU monitor was at about 14%. But I am sure that this is a useful tip when using an old or cheap laptop.
Thank you for the explanations! I wonder why it is so complicated :-) I've found one thing very confusing in such Instrument Track + MIDI tracks setup. When you rename the Instrument track, say, to Piano, then this name is used as Instrument Name for the MIDI tracks.
Darren, once again you have produced an excellent yet concise tutorial on a very relevant subject matter for Cubase users. Hats off to you sir. Any chance you could do something similar with Vienna Ensemble Pro 7 in the future as the Dorico team suggest this also aids RAM optimisation? Keep up the great work, it’s always a most welcome distraction when I receive a notification to say you’ve released a new video (Best wishes for the festive season btw).
There will be some VEP7 stuff coming up, as it allows total offload of high-load plugins to a separate instrument. But I've found that VEP can be a little bit of a leap in terms of understanding, so I'll probably do it as part of a series on it at some point... Best wishes to you too Ian!
The tricky part arises due to the fact that the Halion Sonic lives in the Instrument track which is a combination of audio track and Midi track. Why then not to use HS in the rack, this way we would have only Midi tracks and there would be no confusion.
HI. Yes, that's all true, but often I've found that use grows from an instrument track with settings already made, and then you want to add a track to an already existing instrument track, plus not everyone knows that Instrument Tracks can be multi-timbral. I actually prefer using IT vs Rack as in a big project the rack instruments can be all over the place, plus if I'm only using a single output, I'd prefer to have it in the same place in the project as the instrument track (in my workflow I prefer to leave Rack Instruments in their default locations in a folder, rather than moving them). It's horses for courses, as with many things it comes down to personal preference.
Hi Darren..Great explanation of the key aspects. But, just one more step which I have been struggling to find an explanation for. How can I use midi change info to actually change programs on any given midi channel in Halion (3)? Will using the list editor allow me to insert program changes for NON GM sounds? Surely, there must be some (electronic) way of selecting / changing existing programs on a Halion channel, apart from only having to manually select a different sound from the media bay menus?
This is a very helpful midi video. I still don't know how to do program change from piano to guitar (let's say at bar 50) in the same channel. HOW DO YOU CHANGE PROGRAM AT BAR 50 FROM PIANO TO GUITAR? I also understand I can just add another channel. Thanks.
Thanks Ryan. It's a bit tricky to explain... so I'll do a short video on it as your comment has made me realise I've not got one! I'll post here when it's released.
Hi Darren, I have Halion Sonic 7 Setup the same as your description, when I render in place any one of the 3 channels I get all 3 channels rendered, 2 empty and the one I chose is OK with the expected data, Why all 3, I have channel 1 O/P to main, 2-2 3-3, in the inspector the O/P's are assigned to their respective outputs, in Halion, the outputs are assigned the 2 midi ins are assigned to their correct I/P's its no big deal I just delete the empty rendered tracks, should I have Dissolved the part first,
Great vid, I’ve been using HALion for years and really like the flexibility it offers. When Cubase introduced Instrument tracks I tried using HALion with an Instrument track as you did but I found the management of the MIDI and Output tracks a bit bothersome. I assume that since I was use to using HALion as a Rack instrument made the Instrument track management odd. What are your thoughts on using HALion as a Rack instrument vs. an Instrument track? Thanks!
Hi Bill. Thanks! TBH the distinctions have blurred over the years - initially if you wanted to use multiple outputs, then a Rack instrument was the only option, but that's no longer the case. The downside of using an Instrument track with multiple outputs is that you have two different track types in operation - one for as an instrument track (containing the instrument and typically the midi data for channel 1), and then the others as MIDI tracks, with outputs via the instrument track's alternate outputs. The upside is that these tend to end up 'in the arrangement', rather than hidden down in a rack instrument folder track, and managing multiple rack instruments can get a bit messy depending on how you approach it.
I've just wasted a day trying to get Cubase 5 to run on my new workstation after my old W7 PC died. If I'd watched this first I wouldn't have bothered and just bought CB11 E
Very useful Video thank you for that. But I have a question: when I have a few instruments in my halion, to stick with your example lets say a piano, strings and a bass, is it possible to hear all at the same time when I play a note on my keyboard and further to record all at the same time? Lets say I play 'happy birthday', but then with the sound of all 3 instruments togehter recorded at the same time... you know what I mean?
I'm struggling to just play a midi file in the standalone version of Halion, the documentation is useless. Is that something this program is capable of?
Yes, you should be able to load it and play it back... but a quick test just now shows that it doesn't appear to do all the usual translation of program changes into GM MIDI ones (which would load the right sounds for most MIDI files), so it's less friendly than it could be. It's easier in Halion Sonic SE than 7, but still wouldn't be my go-to option!
Thank you for your clearly explained excellent tutorial videos! I use Cubase Pro 12 that has "Halion Sonic7". I don't see the "Load" page as shown in "Halion SonicSE3". Is that not included in "Halion Sonic7"? I am trying to load "Init Flux".
Halion Sonic 7 has moved things around a bit... and not in a positive way in many respects as far as I can tell! Video upcoming on how to navigate it a bit better.
@@musictechtuitionWanted to share this with you. I just found "Init Flux" in Halion Sonic7. I clicked on "Program", located at the left of the star ratings icon. In that drop-down menu I chose "Layers", at which point "Init Flux" and "Init Verve" appear in the listing below. Steinberg buries certain basic functions in Halion Sonic so deep. Seems they should be a bit more obvious. Anyway, thanks again for your excellent video tutorials. They are some of the best on CZcams!
I was looking for a way to load an entire 16 midi channel linked to Sonic with GM instruments already populated without having to add 1 channel at a time, you know, like it does with a GM file ? I could do it with a template, but looking for quick way, Anyone ?
I'm using Halion and the instrument I've chosen is drums. I'd like to be able to pan the snare and toms independently. Do I need to create separate midi tracks for each drum sound? There's no way to pan individual keys on one instrument?
If I'm understanding you correctly, and you've got a drum kit selected in Halion Sonic, then the panning of those drum instruments is part of the sound itself; you can't change that. What you could do is set up multiple identical drum kits on different parts of Halion Sonic and play the snare on part 1 and pan that in the mixer, and the toms in part 2 and pan that as well.
@@musictechtuitionYou understood correctly! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking a simpler solution before trying that exact configuration. But that is exactly what I was going to try! I only had the intuition to try that because of how simply you explained all the functions. Once I had even the slightest grasp of what most of the controls do I was able to formulate a solution on my own. No hate to other CZcamsrs covering this topic (there are many!) but your channel is the first I've found that makes any sense. All the others may as well be in Japanese to me. That probably says more about me, though! I often feel like they're making a lot of assumptions in their explanations, about what I already know. And since I know practically nothing it's really nice to have you explain it at my level and my pace. Perhaps when I'm more proficient I'll know what questions to ask to really get the most out of those more 'advanced' tutorials. But I was able to make an entire EDM song in one sitting after watching just this video. I really feel like I leveled up after just one video, so thank you!!
"any" means that it will not alter the MIDI data that is passed through, so if the data is on channel 2, it will stay on channel 2, etc. if you set a channel number, all messages passing through will be changed to that channel.
Great video. Thank you. Just a quick question to anyone out there. I recently got HALion Sonic 3 and installed it. I just tried loading the free Sonic SE 3 version and it does not load. The "instrument" field in the inspector which normally shows the name of the instrument is blank and the "edit instrument" icon is greyed out. Is this because Sonic 3 is an upgraded version of Sonic SE 3, meaning I don't need the latter?
I'd say something is wrong - I have Halion Sonic and Halion Sonic SE loads without issue (in fact, the mac I screencap on has that, and as you can see, it loads SE OK). However, as you say, you don't _need_ to use SE (as the full version has no real downsides), so I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you are concerned, I'd try getting the latest SE installed (from the Steinberg Download Assistant) and see if that fixes it - I'd imagine that it's probably best if both are at the same version.
@@musictechtuition Thanks for the response. I'll try DLing the latest version of SE. I'm pedantic like that...LOL! FYI: Your videos on Halion are priceless. I'll be checking out your other vids soon. I also want to master Groove Agent and it has a very similar configuration to Halion Sonic.
Thanks for your video; I'm trying to put all this together in my head. Do you remember the old Roland SD-35 floppy disk midi player? I'd like to be able to play my MIDI file backing tracks from a laptop in a live gig performance situation and of course have the files sound good. First I looked at soundfonts, then someone told me to stay away from soundfonts and find a VST plugin that is general midi compatible. Is that what you're doing in this video? I can't seem to put all the pieces together in my head of what I need to do.
Hi. Years ago I had a client with an SD35, so I had a bit of experience of one. If you import a MIDI file into Cubase using the default settings, then it would set HSSE into multi-timbral mode, and send the (up to) 16 tracks to that HSSE, one on each channel. HSSE has a mode to enable General MIDI-compatible program changes - under the options tab, click Global, and set Program Changes from Off to GM Mode. Then if you send it the data from a MIDI track then you should be good. Cubase sets this by default, so if you're using it to import the MIDI file (File > Import > MIDI File) then creating a new arrangement, the default should see you up and running; you can then choose to "upgrade" any of the sounds you want from the MIDI-set GM programs to any of the HSSE-specific ones (which often sound better than the GM ones). HTH.
@@musictechtuition This is what confuses me as I get conflicting information. I had a chat with Steinberg yesterday, asking them of HSSE had a general midi set of instruments and they said "Unfortunately HALion Sonic SE 3 in General MIDI mode it will not assigned the sounds for each channel. It will only filtered the sound options for what the General MIDI use and you will have to select the sounds it will trigger." But you're saying it does have a full GM compatible instrument set? What do you mean by upgrading the sounds to HSSE specific?
@@MDC885 I'd suggest you import a MIDI file with program changes in it - Every time I've done this, with Cubase set to the default (where it imports the MIDI file, and uses a single HSSE in multi-timbral mode), HSSE runs in GM compatible mode, and assigns the channel program changes appropriately. In fact, just to prove I've not lost my mind, I just downloaded flourish.mid (which is in the Media folder of every windows installation since the year dot), and imported it into Cubase, and ended up with a single HSSE instance, 16 MIDI tracks feeding it, and all the program changes appropriately set. Once you have that set up, you can remove the program changes from the MIDI parts and use HSSE's "better" sounds rather than the GM ones to improve the quality of the sound. HSSE does indeed have a full GM sound set. Just put GM into the search bar in HSSE and you'll see [GM 001] Acoustic Grand Piano and so on - up to [GM 128] Gunshot, and then 129-135 for the drum kits (which are slightly odd the way they do this, but it's their kludge around it not dedicating channel 10 to kits only). If I get time this week, I'll do a video on it - probably a bit rough and ready as I have a lot on, but if you don't mind that, I'm sure you'd find it useful.
@@musictechtuition Yeah I'm completely lost.. So you're saying what their tech support told me is not true? Are you also saying that HSSE contains GM sound set, plus it also contains "better" sounds than the GM sounds? I subscribed to your channel to be notified if you put a video up. I just can't wrap my head around any of this for some reason. It's quite frustrating.
@@musictechtuition I was not oriented to be able to follow a quite long process, nor was the cost-benefit of doing such a setup in the first place (each time you set up a stack) reasonable. In the same amount of time of trying to scrutinize the details, I could have upgraded my memory. I think orientation to buses and a top-down explanation maybe even with a schematic would have been the better approach.
My friend, you have just done me the biggest favour in absolute years. Exporting midi files
Thanks for unleashing multiple perspectives of the abilities of assigning instruments and routing multiple outlets, as well as potential limitations and workarounds.
Well done and thanks.
Wonderful tutorial is saving my life, Cubase has so many functions that Habeses has a hard time understanding everything in a few days, thank you very much for these well detailed explanations!!
Glad it was useful, and thanks for letting me know!
Brilliantly explained! Subscribed.
wow - very useful.... you unlocked the multiple outs issue! this drove me crazy... your solution is brilliant.
the most comprehensive explanation of Halion Sonic SE out there, that I’ve found, thanks for that👌👌👍
Hi I have a problem, I Have activated 5 out put channels assigned 5 midi etc, I have recorded 4 bars of midi on 1 of the midi channels every thing looks ok, but the I render in place that 1 midi event, I get the 5 midi channels all rendered my 1 with the audio, and the 4 others how can I stop the empty midi tracks rendering when not selected? Hope you can help, Cubase 11
Hi I have a problem, I Have activated 5 out put channels assigned 5 midi etc, I have recorded 4 bars of midi on 1 of the midi channels every thing looks ok, but the I render in place that 1 midi event, I get the 5 midi channels all rendered my 1 with the audio, and the 4 others how can I stop the empty midi tracks rendering when not selected? Hope you can help, Cubase 11
Hi I have pound that choosing render in place, render settings choosing complete signal path with or without master FX renders just the chosen midi event that appears to be the way of rendering each midi track individually
Hi Darren, I have gone through this step by step, and once the penny drops, great. can't wait for the book arriving cheers for that
Darren, I just stumbled on this. I’m now ready to learn a bit more of what Halion can do, now I’m venturing deeper into the Cubase rabbit hole. This explains everything anyone needs but it’s going to take some time before it all becomes second nature.
Your tutorial starts off with pretty easy stuff and I thought, ‘this isn’t too bad’ and then next thing it’s ‘whooooaah!!’
Brilliant.
You are the dude. Very well done and easy to understand and follow
bro whoa i just learned a lot about halion bro
Thanks for this, it's exactly what I was looking for!
A very helpful video, thank you very much! As always, well explained. I have been using Halion Sonic in my projects for a number of years, but so far I have done the PC resource-saving configuration and output assignment 95% wrong. Now I finally know. Greetings from 🇩🇪
This was a perfect tutorial and helped me out a lot! I smashed that like button and subscribed immediately at about 3mins in. Thank you MusiceTechTuituon, and btw that Electric Banana shirt is awesome
Cristal clear! thank you, sir!
No problem, glad you found it useful!
Thank you so much ! 🙏🏾
Thanks, Darren! You sure know what's up! 🙂
This was what I was looking for real knowledge without the fluff.
Cheers for this, this isn't well explained by Steinberg and there should be some type of tutorial inside cubase/halion. This has been very helpful for myself, very grateful. 👍
Thank you for posting this video. I had been planning on calling Steinberg tech support to get the steps. Now I don't have too!
Dude. I love you.
In 2014 I had an Intel Q8400 with 8GB RAM. I was using Cubase Artist and maxed out the 32 instrument slots with 32 instances of HSSE. I never had problems with it. CPU monitor was at about 50%. Then I bought a new system with an Intel i7 2600 and 8GB RAM too and the CPU monitor was at about 14%.
But I am sure that this is a useful tip when using an old or cheap laptop.
Handy thanks
merci pour ces tutorials
Very useful video
Thank you for the explanations! I wonder why it is so complicated :-) I've found one thing very confusing in such Instrument Track + MIDI tracks setup. When you rename the Instrument track, say, to Piano, then this name is used as Instrument Name for the MIDI tracks.
great info!
Darren, once again you have produced an excellent yet concise tutorial on a very relevant subject matter for Cubase users. Hats off to you sir. Any chance you could do something similar with Vienna Ensemble Pro 7 in the future as the Dorico team suggest this also aids RAM optimisation? Keep up the great work, it’s always a most welcome distraction when I receive a notification to say you’ve released a new video (Best wishes for the festive season btw).
There will be some VEP7 stuff coming up, as it allows total offload of high-load plugins to a separate instrument. But I've found that VEP can be a little bit of a leap in terms of understanding, so I'll probably do it as part of a series on it at some point... Best wishes to you too Ian!
The tricky part arises due to the fact that the Halion Sonic lives in the Instrument track which is a combination of audio track and Midi track. Why then not to use HS in the rack, this way we would have only Midi tracks and there would be no confusion.
HI. Yes, that's all true, but often I've found that use grows from an instrument track with settings already made, and then you want to add a track to an already existing instrument track, plus not everyone knows that Instrument Tracks can be multi-timbral. I actually prefer using IT vs Rack as in a big project the rack instruments can be all over the place, plus if I'm only using a single output, I'd prefer to have it in the same place in the project as the instrument track (in my workflow I prefer to leave Rack Instruments in their default locations in a folder, rather than moving them). It's horses for courses, as with many things it comes down to personal preference.
Hi Darren..Great explanation of the key aspects. But, just one more step which I have been struggling to find an explanation for. How can I use midi change info to actually change programs on any given midi channel in Halion (3)? Will using the list editor allow me to insert program changes for NON GM sounds? Surely, there must be some (electronic) way of selecting / changing existing programs on a Halion channel, apart from only having to manually select a different sound from the media bay menus?
Thanks Paul. That's a great suggestion, so a video on that will be upcoming.
This is a very helpful midi video. I still don't know how to do program change from piano to guitar (let's say at bar 50) in the same channel. HOW DO YOU CHANGE PROGRAM AT BAR 50 FROM PIANO TO GUITAR? I also understand I can just add another channel. Thanks.
Thanks Ryan. It's a bit tricky to explain... so I'll do a short video on it as your comment has made me realise I've not got one! I'll post here when it's released.
Hi Darren, I have Halion Sonic 7 Setup the same as your description, when I render in place any one of the 3 channels I get all 3 channels rendered, 2 empty and the one I chose is OK with the expected data, Why all 3, I have channel 1 O/P to main, 2-2 3-3, in the inspector the O/P's are assigned to their respective outputs, in Halion, the outputs are assigned the 2 midi ins are assigned to their correct I/P's its no big deal I just delete the empty rendered tracks, should I have Dissolved the part first,
Great vid, I’ve been using HALion for years and really like the flexibility it offers. When Cubase introduced Instrument tracks I tried using HALion with an Instrument track as you did but I found the management of the MIDI and Output tracks a bit bothersome. I assume that since I was use to using HALion as a Rack instrument made the Instrument track management odd. What are your thoughts on using HALion as a Rack instrument vs. an Instrument track? Thanks!
Hi Bill. Thanks! TBH the distinctions have blurred over the years - initially if you wanted to use multiple outputs, then a Rack instrument was the only option, but that's no longer the case. The downside of using an Instrument track with multiple outputs is that you have two different track types in operation - one for as an instrument track (containing the instrument and typically the midi data for channel 1), and then the others as MIDI tracks, with outputs via the instrument track's alternate outputs. The upside is that these tend to end up 'in the arrangement', rather than hidden down in a rack instrument folder track, and managing multiple rack instruments can get a bit messy depending on how you approach it.
With real analog compression and eq at mixdown, instead of that digital crap, these things don't sound half bad...
Thanx for great tutorials. Is there a way to call up my saved multi programmes via cc massage?
Not that I know of - the only mapping is right-clicking on controls, and that doesn't work on the Multi slot, alas.
When I set the outputs it adds a slot channel for each midi channel I add. What are the slot channels for. Thanks for any help
Not sure exactly what you mean by slot channels?
I've just wasted a day trying to get Cubase 5 to run on my new workstation after my old W7 PC died. If I'd watched this first I wouldn't have bothered and just bought CB11 E
Very useful Video thank you for that. But I have a question: when I have a few instruments in my halion, to stick with your example lets say a piano, strings and a bass, is it possible to hear all at the same time when I play a note on my keyboard and further to record all at the same time? Lets say I play 'happy birthday', but then with the sound of all 3 instruments togehter recorded at the same time... you know what I mean?
It is indeed possible. Video upcoming on that as it's easier to show than describe. 👍
@@musictechtuition thank you very much
👀⚙👌😀
I'm struggling to just play a midi file in the standalone version of Halion, the documentation is useless.
Is that something this program is capable of?
Yes, you should be able to load it and play it back... but a quick test just now shows that it doesn't appear to do all the usual translation of program changes into GM MIDI ones (which would load the right sounds for most MIDI files), so it's less friendly than it could be. It's easier in Halion Sonic SE than 7, but still wouldn't be my go-to option!
Thank you for your clearly explained excellent tutorial videos! I use Cubase Pro 12 that has "Halion Sonic7". I don't see the "Load" page as shown in "Halion SonicSE3". Is that not included in "Halion Sonic7"? I am trying to load "Init Flux".
Halion Sonic 7 has moved things around a bit... and not in a positive way in many respects as far as I can tell! Video upcoming on how to navigate it a bit better.
@@musictechtuition Much thanks for your reply. I look forward to your next video.
@@musictechtuitionWanted to share this with you. I just found "Init Flux" in Halion Sonic7. I clicked on "Program", located at the left of the star ratings icon. In that drop-down menu I chose "Layers", at which point "Init Flux" and "Init Verve" appear in the listing below. Steinberg buries certain basic functions in Halion Sonic so deep.
Seems they should be a bit more obvious.
Anyway, thanks again for your excellent video tutorials. They are some of the best on CZcams!
@@take942 Thanks very much! I agree on the burying - I don't think a lot of things are as easy to use as they should be, alas...
I was looking for a way to load an entire 16 midi channel linked to Sonic with GM instruments already populated without having to add 1 channel at a time, you know, like it does with a GM file ?
I could do it with a template, but looking for quick way, Anyone ?
Do you want the same set of instruments each time you create it (i.e. say Piano on 1, Synth Strings on 2, etc)?
I'm using Halion and the instrument I've chosen is drums. I'd like to be able to pan the snare and toms independently. Do I need to create separate midi tracks for each drum sound? There's no way to pan individual keys on one instrument?
If I'm understanding you correctly, and you've got a drum kit selected in Halion Sonic, then the panning of those drum instruments is part of the sound itself; you can't change that. What you could do is set up multiple identical drum kits on different parts of Halion Sonic and play the snare on part 1 and pan that in the mixer, and the toms in part 2 and pan that as well.
@@musictechtuitionYou understood correctly! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking a simpler solution before trying that exact configuration. But that is exactly what I was going to try! I only had the intuition to try that because of how simply you explained all the functions. Once I had even the slightest grasp of what most of the controls do I was able to formulate a solution on my own.
No hate to other CZcamsrs covering this topic (there are many!) but your channel is the first I've found that makes any sense. All the others may as well be in Japanese to me. That probably says more about me, though! I often feel like they're making a lot of assumptions in their explanations, about what I already know. And since I know practically nothing it's really nice to have you explain it at my level and my pace. Perhaps when I'm more proficient I'll know what questions to ask to really get the most out of those more 'advanced' tutorials. But I was able to make an entire EDM song in one sitting after watching just this video. I really feel like I leveled up after just one video, so thank you!!
@@MrTomservo85 Glad you're finding the channel useful, and hope the music making keeps going well.
Can you pass through an audio channel to use Halion "essentially" as an FX tool/instrument?
Hi. No - there's no audio input facilty on Halion Sonic (you can tell as there's no sidechain enable button in the HS window).
Hi..may i question function about 'any' channel on top on halion sonic...? Thks
"any" means that it will not alter the MIDI data that is passed through, so if the data is on channel 2, it will stay on channel 2, etc. if you set a channel number, all messages passing through will be changed to that channel.
@@musictechtuition so what recommend for u ..? to easy use multi timbral output..?thks
Great video. Thank you. Just a quick question to anyone out there. I recently got HALion Sonic 3 and installed it. I just tried loading the free Sonic SE 3 version and it does not load. The "instrument" field in the inspector which normally shows the name of the instrument is blank and the "edit instrument" icon is greyed out. Is this because Sonic 3 is an upgraded version of Sonic SE 3, meaning I don't need the latter?
I'd say something is wrong - I have Halion Sonic and Halion Sonic SE loads without issue (in fact, the mac I screencap on has that, and as you can see, it loads SE OK). However, as you say, you don't _need_ to use SE (as the full version has no real downsides), so I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you are concerned, I'd try getting the latest SE installed (from the Steinberg Download Assistant) and see if that fixes it - I'd imagine that it's probably best if both are at the same version.
@@musictechtuition Thanks for the response. I'll try DLing the latest version of SE. I'm pedantic like that...LOL!
FYI: Your videos on Halion are priceless. I'll be checking out your other vids soon. I also want to master Groove Agent and it has a very similar configuration to Halion Sonic.
Thanks for your video; I'm trying to put all this together in my head. Do you remember the old Roland SD-35 floppy disk midi player? I'd like to be able to play my MIDI file backing tracks from a laptop in a live gig performance situation and of course have the files sound good. First I looked at soundfonts, then someone told me to stay away from soundfonts and find a VST plugin that is general midi compatible. Is that what you're doing in this video? I can't seem to put all the pieces together in my head of what I need to do.
Hi. Years ago I had a client with an SD35, so I had a bit of experience of one. If you import a MIDI file into Cubase using the default settings, then it would set HSSE into multi-timbral mode, and send the (up to) 16 tracks to that HSSE, one on each channel. HSSE has a mode to enable General MIDI-compatible program changes - under the options tab, click Global, and set Program Changes from Off to GM Mode. Then if you send it the data from a MIDI track then you should be good. Cubase sets this by default, so if you're using it to import the MIDI file (File > Import > MIDI File) then creating a new arrangement, the default should see you up and running; you can then choose to "upgrade" any of the sounds you want from the MIDI-set GM programs to any of the HSSE-specific ones (which often sound better than the GM ones). HTH.
@@musictechtuition This is what confuses me as I get conflicting information. I had a chat with Steinberg yesterday, asking them of HSSE had a general midi set of instruments and they said "Unfortunately HALion Sonic SE 3 in General MIDI mode it will not assigned the sounds for each channel. It will only filtered the sound options for what the General MIDI use and you will have to select the sounds it will trigger." But you're saying it does have a full GM compatible instrument set? What do you mean by upgrading the sounds to HSSE specific?
@@MDC885 I'd suggest you import a MIDI file with program changes in it - Every time I've done this, with Cubase set to the default (where it imports the MIDI file, and uses a single HSSE in multi-timbral mode), HSSE runs in GM compatible mode, and assigns the channel program changes appropriately. In fact, just to prove I've not lost my mind, I just downloaded flourish.mid (which is in the Media folder of every windows installation since the year dot), and imported it into Cubase, and ended up with a single HSSE instance, 16 MIDI tracks feeding it, and all the program changes appropriately set.
Once you have that set up, you can remove the program changes from the MIDI parts and use HSSE's "better" sounds rather than the GM ones to improve the quality of the sound.
HSSE does indeed have a full GM sound set. Just put GM into the search bar in HSSE and you'll see [GM 001] Acoustic Grand Piano and so on - up to [GM 128] Gunshot, and then 129-135 for the drum kits (which are slightly odd the way they do this, but it's their kludge around it not dedicating channel 10 to kits only).
If I get time this week, I'll do a video on it - probably a bit rough and ready as I have a lot on, but if you don't mind that, I'm sure you'd find it useful.
@@musictechtuition Yeah I'm completely lost.. So you're saying what their tech support told me is not true? Are you also saying that HSSE contains GM sound set, plus it also contains "better" sounds than the GM sounds? I subscribed to your channel to be notified if you put a video up. I just can't wrap my head around any of this for some reason. It's quite frustrating.
@@MDC885 Well, I'll hopefully get the video out this week, and you can see for yourself!
8:01
No. Not a great lecture.
Hi John. Care to explain further?
@@musictechtuition I was not oriented to be able to follow a quite long process, nor was the cost-benefit of doing such a setup in the first place (each time you set up a stack) reasonable. In the same amount of time of trying to scrutinize the details, I could have upgraded my memory.
I think orientation to buses and a top-down explanation maybe even with a schematic would have been the better approach.