A fresh new look and feel: Updated interface and workflows

• Everything in HALion is now less complex, has more space, and is designed to get you into your creative flow and keep you there. Fewer clicks, improved menus, zones, and icons, optional auto-size for macro view, and innovative tools like the Shaper envelope, plus preconfigured screen sets for different use cases, all helping you to focus on the important things: making music and designing sounds.

New pitch-shift and time-stretch algorithm

• This new algorithm was developed from the ground up with musical content in mind. The result is a high-precision tool, which sounds very natural and beautifully accurate, even at extreme settings. You can use the algorithm in the spectral zone for creative experiments, or use it in the sample zone as a new warp mode to adjust samples without sounding artificial. Phase locking, transient detection, and channel correlation help restore the natural sound of stereo samples, even while working creatively with the sound.

Advanced wavetable synthesis

• Bringing a new dimension to wavetables, you can create your own with up to 1024 individual waves. If that is not enough, you can load multichannel files of up to 5.1 surround and work on the sum or individual channels to get all the details. The best part is that you can setup a new fully customizable Spectral Filter for each wave individually, while the automatic interpolation makes the fades between the previous and next waves sound extremely smooth.

New wavetable tools

• You can work with wavetables in an extremely dynamic way, thanks to the new Acceleration and Target Speed parameters, which are available for modulation. The new Hold function freezes the spectrum if the start or end of a wavetable is reached. Combined with additional new tools like sub-sample precision loop, Overlap Add, and the Spectrum Analyzer, you get maximum control and accuracy for wavetable editing. All these features make HALion 7 the perfect tool for composers, sound designers, and any real wavetable geek on the planet.

Decompose samples for unique sound design

• You can split every sample into its tonal and noise components directly in HALion, opening the door to a whole new world of sound design. Combine the tonal part of an electric piano with the attack of a guitar sample. Separate the noise part of a recording and send it through a unique effects chain, while keeping the tone as clean as possible. This is not only great for creating unique sounds, but also for building new kinds of libraries.

New X-LFO

• Enrich your sounds with spectacular movements. The new X-LFO can modulate two-dimensional parameters for wavetable, FM, granular, and the spectral zone. Create everything from wobbly basses to complex animated FM sounds.

Redesigned MediaBay: Easy access to everything for which you are looking

• Find the sounds for which you are looking faster than ever. The MediaBay in HALion has been completely refreshed, with a clearer, uncluttered structure, context-sensitive search, and an improved user experience. This makes browsing for the right samples, layers, programs, presets, and multis much more efficient.

HALion 7 features new effects including VST Bass Amp, Studio EQ 24, Bass Tape Ducking Delay, DI Driver, Bass Overdrive, Bass Octaver, Bass Chorus, Bass Envelope Filter, Bass Phaser, and Clipper.

Oscilloscope

• Visualize audio signals directly in HALion 7 with the Oscilloscope module. You can adjust the displayed time frame, and switch between the left and right channels or the summed signal. This is especially helpful for analyzing your audio, or for visualizing how modulation changes the signal.

Load new impulse responses and import your own

• Make room for all your creative ideas by loading your own impulse responses from recordings of halls, studios, or legendary hardware units into HALion, and use these in the REVerence reverb. We have also added several IRs from iconic chamber, spring and plate units like the EMT 240 Goldfolie, Lexicon 224, AKG BX5, and RE-501.

New tools for designing outstanding instruments

• The Macro Page Editor is packed with incredible new features like the spectral view in sample displays and many more tools to help you build extremely creative instruments. HALion now allows you to connect bitmaps and SVGs with external editors. You can load SVG resources directly in HALion and animate these using Lua expressions. With new appearance and color options, you can design controls faster and more flexibly. Combine all of this with the new vector graphic controls library, and you can be sure the instruments you design will look simply amazing.

Chord export

• Drag and drop MIDI chords to your favorite DAW from trigger pads.

Native Apple silicon support

• One of the fastest HALion experiences on Apple Macintosh, ever.

Steinberg Licensing

• Use HALion on different machines with new Steinberg Licensing—no need for a dongle.

New mixer

• The mixer has been refreshed with improved handling of effects.

Bipolar/unipolar switch

• Pitch and user envelopes allow you to switch polarity.

User icons

• Assign your own user icons to programs.

SVG import and color editing

• Create macro pages with animations or color switches based on SVGs.

Section and module presets

• Navigate through presets using the new previous/next preset buttons even in the chord pads.

Spectral view in the Sample Editor

• Switch from sample to spectral view for analyzing your samples.

Improved program tree

• There is now a text filter to search for elements and a prelisten section for samples.

Move ranges

• Move the sample or loop start and end markers together.

FM Lab

• This powerful and versatile FM synthesizer for HALion allows you to create complex and dynamic sounds by combining up to eight operators, using them as carriers, or sending them to feedback loops. And with its intuitive design, features like the Algorithm Finder and easy-to-use Algorithm Designer, you can design everything from classic FM bell tones to rich, evolving pads, or hard, abrasive bass lines.

Tales

• This beautiful sample library combines the intimate sound of a handcrafted guitar, with individual strings sampled as open notes and tuned to different pitches, with additional acoustic and synthesized textures. Its versatile sound palette and intuitive controls make it easy to create the perfect sound for any musical situation, from uplifting pop productions to emotional underscores.

Anima

• Anima features a huge palette of cutting-edge synth sounds. Coupled with a powerful arpeggiator, flexible modulation section and two wavetable oscillators, modern electronic music production has never sounded so good.

Auron

• Auron will inspire you to create unique new soundscapes, but also provides 160 granular synthesis presets for quick access to great-sounding pads, textures, and timbres.

B-Box

• B-Box is a step sequencer for beats and drum tracks. It features 13 instruments and 16 steps, each with velocity control and integrated mixing section—the perfect tool for straightforward creation of great rhythms.

HALiotron

• The sounds of 1960s and ’70s rock and pop have left an indelible mark on music history. HALiotron is a painstaking reconstruction of the analog technology that helped to make it such a great era.

Hot Brass

• A multisampled brass library with gloriously fat, tight, and authentic sounds, which are perfect for contemporary pop, funk, reggae, and soul music.

Model C

• Variously described as smoky, punchy, and silky, the Model C is a tonewheel organ emulation, which is suitable for a wide range of musical styles.

Skylab

• Soaring through space like a bright star, Skylab’s unique combination of a huge sample library and granular synthesis is the ideal creative tool for attention-grabbing cinematic scores and electronic music.

Studio Strings

• Combining great playability with vibrant sound, Studio Strings is a string ensemble sample library, which is optimized for film scores, pop arrangements, and any other music where depth and style are essential.

The Eagle

• The Eagle grand piano has a rich and transparent sound, which is ideally suited to modern pop, rock and jazz, as well as classical music.

The Raven

• The Raven is a grand piano that delivers a beautifully rich, harmonic sound with stunning nuances. It has a natural, precise playing feel that oozes craftsmanship and class.

Voltage

• Many of the most famous analog synthesizers from the past inspired Voltage. Adding the sonic range and power of true vintage style bass, it delivers truly inspirational lead sounds that characterize the warmth and class of the best electronic music.

World Instruments

• World Instruments brings a huge array of music from different cultures to your productions. These range from West African balafons and Turkish tambours, to Japanese shakuhachis, Shona kalimbas, and much more.

World Percussion

• From Africa to Asia, Europe, and many other places, World Percussion allows you to play and record percussion from across the globe.

• Resonator: 3-band formant filtering
• Auto Filter: filter driven by the LFO and Envelope Follower
• Tape Saturator: emulation of analog gear
• Ring Modulator: multiplies two audio signals to produce wild effects
• Envelope Shaper: manipulates transients by varying attack and release properties
• Rotary: creates an effect similar to that of a rotating speaker
• GraphicEQ: 10-band graphic equalizer with multiple response types
• Limiter: low-distortion limiter with automatic release
• Expander: classic expander with automatic release and low latency
• Reverb: stereo room reflections to large spaces
• Chorus: single-stage chorus
• Flanger: highly adjustable flanger with tempo synchronization capability
• DJ-EQ: 3-band EQ similar to equalizers found on DJ mixers
• Brickwall Limiter: hard limiter to ensure signal doesn’t exceed a specified point
• Tube Compressor: versatile compressor with tube simulation
• Frequency Shifter: shifts each frequency by a fixed amount
• VST Amp: amp simulator offering recreations of various amplifiers, speakers, mic types, and mic positions
• Wah Wah: adjustable emulation of analog wah pedals
• Step Flanger: flanger with sample-and-hold functionality
• Vintage Ensemble: multichorus effect
• Octaver: adds signals one and two octaves below the original
• StudioEQ: 4-band parametric equalizer
• Compressor: traditional compression with automatic release, makeup gain, selectable knee, and RMS/peak mode
• Gate: noise gate with adjustable attack and release
• Amplifier: guitar amp and speaker simulation with 14 amp and tube emulations and ten cabinet models
• REVerence: true-stereo convolution reverb
• Tremolo: tremolo effect with tempo synchronization capability and depth and phase controls
• Phaser: phaser effect with variable filter stage, phase modification, and tempo sync
• MultiDelay: multistage delay effect with variable filter
• Tube Saturator: adds harmonics similar to those created by analog tubes
• Maximizer: dynamics processor designed to increase loudness without clipping
• VintageCompressor: compression modeled after vintage-style compressors
• StereoEnhancer: modify the perceived width of stereo signals
• Many more

• All effects can be directly added to each program or layer, implemented as an aux effect send, or routed to the master output
• FlexPhraser for dynamically driving beats, arpeggios, and complex tonal phrases
• MediaBay sound management system for immediate access to sound libraries
• Stage-optimized workflows with dedicated player view, rapid building of keyboard splits or layers, and switching of entire multisetups with a single command
• Each instrument comes with eight predefined Quick Controls, offering fast access to the most important settings
• Eight SoftPads for triggering specific notes or phrase sequences from the FlexPhraser module, or taking snapshots of chords, which can then be triggered in a different order to create new chord progressions
• SoftPads and Quick Controls feature MIDI Learn support and can be assigned to a MIDI controller