HALION SONIC SERIAL
HALION SONIC FULL
HALION SONIC PLUS

HALION SONIC FULL

Most of these are very good, and the individual control over slices and pattern randomisation allows for some cool variations (although for full pattern editing, you'll have to drag them into your DAW). Overall, the sounds themselves are pretty good, featuring plenty of pads, basses and keyboards.ДЄ sizeable chunk of the drums category is taken up by loops. But if you're yearning for a keyswitching sampled bass sound, you can't search on that basis. It's not unusual to find a program combining synth and sample-based layers, which isn't a problem in itself, of course. In use, we found the differences between modes the most confusing aspect of HALion Sonic, mostly because you have no way of knowing before you load a program which modes have been used. This and the fact that you can't audition layers before you load them means a bit too much guesswork is involved when hunting new layers. Our only real gripes are the fact that individual layers can't be grouped by mode type in the browser.

In use, the interface makes this all very easy to navigate, although we did wonder what we should be doing with all these options. When you consider that you also have fully independent FlexPhraser options for each of those layers and the program as a whole (so five in total), as well as individual insert effects for each layer and the program and quick controls for each layer and the program, it's obvious that HALion Sonic is a very powerful instrument. The upshot is that you can combine totally different sound and synthesis types not just at multi-level but also at program-level. The significance here is that each layer can be any one of the four modes: Synth/Sample, Loop, Drum and Instrument. However, each program also consists of up to four sound layers, and these can be loaded individually from the browser. HALion Sonic uses a tried and tested sound module concept whereby multiple programs (aka patches and presets) can be combined into 'multis'. However, it does include a keymap graphic and parameter adjustment for sounds assigned to each key, including effect send levels. Similarly, the Drum and Loop modes share an interface, which is also less full on. In contrast, the Instrument mode is for keyswitching multi-articulation patches, and offers a much simpler single-tab interface. Understandably, not all features are available in all modes, with the step modulator and the powerful filter configurations only found in the Synth/Sample mode. The results are superb and you could easily get waylaid by them for some time.

HALION SONIC SERIAL

You can use them in serial and parallel modes, and morph between up to four filter shapes.

There are a whopping 23 filter types, all available in Classic and Tube Drive flavours. The filters are one of HALion Sonic's most powerful elements. The latter allow independent modulation per note, and also have additional shape-editing features. In addition to the usual sines, squares, saws and whatnot, HALion Sonic's oscillator types include cross-modulated, synced and the ring modulator-esque 'exclusive or'.ДЄlso worth mentioning are the four LFOs, two monophonic and two polyphonic.

HALION SONIC PLUS

In use this is most obvious with the virtual analogue system, which offers three oscillators plus sub, noise and ring modulation. So, HALion Sonic clearly packs some serious horsepower.

Halion sonic