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 same t ...

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 software for writing, recording, arranging and editing music, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It ...

for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It uses a sample-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: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, 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 synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis an ...

to produce other

software synthesizer 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 same t ...

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-productio ...

) plug-in within

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

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 trade show and music festival for the music products industry that took place annually in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1980 until 2019. At its peak, the fair was one of the largest international trade ...

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 central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...

support. In July 2009, Michael Fakesch (former member of the band

Funkstörung Funkstörung (sometimes stylized as Funkstorung) are an electronic music duo from Rosenheim, Germany, consisting of Michael Fakesch and Chris de Luca. History Chris de Luca and Michael Fakesch first met in 1992 at a techno party organised by ...

) produced a score for the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

commercial ''

Carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

'' (which won the ''Film Grand Prix'' award at the

Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

) 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-do ...

. 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 sample-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-based

scripting language In computing, a script is a relatively short and simple set of instructions that typically automation, automate an otherwise manual process. The act of writing a script is called scripting. A scripting language or script language is a programming ...

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