#HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA REVIEW MANUAL#
#HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA REVIEW FULL#
#HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA REVIEW PROFESSIONAL#

#HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA REVIEW FULL#

And if you’ll pardon the pun, this is where IK Multimedia’s offering scores very highly indeed – it’s fantastic value for money.Gary Garritan, owner of Garritan Orchestral Libraries, has just released Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO), a full orchestral software-sampler program for $249 plus $15 shipping. They, of course, are far more expensive and the price paid in many cases for a single instrument will be higher than the complete Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE, which also contains a very decent set of solo instruments, anyway.

#HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA REVIEW PROFESSIONAL#

It’s difficult to fault what is, after all, a remarkably comprehensive orchestral workstation that contains everything needed for adding orchestral music to existing tracks, be they pop, jazz, cinematic or whatever.įor pure classical-music projects and highly professional mock-ups, though, things have moved on technically in this area, with a variety of individual-instrument sample libraries on the market.

#HALION SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA REVIEW MANUAL#

The Edit page itself contains a ton of controls so make sure you refer to the extensive manual These can be controlled individually, or by using each instrument’s eight macros which enable quick access to the most commonly used parameters.Īlthough articulations are listed on IK Multimedia’s website, there’s no in-depth information about editing. To top it off, 34 plug-ins from IK Multimedia’s SampleTank 3 workstation can be inserted in the mixer, plus a convolution reverb and four mastering processors from their T-RackS. Titles like Action Sequence and Brass Drama provide a good idea of what to expect here. As if all this were not enough, to round it all off there’s a huge selection of mixed ensembles spread across the keyboard for a fast workflow and useful sketching. Other instruments of note include organ, guitars, harps and harpsichord and a full orchestral percussion section, complete with maps. So, too, are the tuned chromatic percussion instruments, marimba, glockenspiel and chimes. HALion Sonic SE 2 is included in Cubase (version 7.5 or higher) and Cubase Artist (version 7.5 or higher) and Nuendo NEK (version 6.5 or higher).Ī very welcome addition are the choirs – female, male and mixed – that are as good, if not better than, other budget choirs we’ve encountered. The HALion Symphonic Orchestra has a wide range of orchestral instruments, including solo, tutti and ensemble sounds in various playing styles and articulations.

Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 (GPO5) is a good choice and contains a complete orchestra with over 500 instrument choices, along with comprehensive control and a very easy-to-use ARIA player. So if you are on the look out for a complete orchestra at a bargain price, the Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE could be just what you need. This version retains some of the original material, along with much that is new and is very computer-friendly. It’s been used by many media composers since. This library was the first of its kind back in the day and was developed by the bassist with Weather Report, Miroslav Vitouš, primarily for his own needs. To their right, we find a choice of polyphonic, mono and legato one- and two-key modes, with portamento and curve controls. Below these are sections for two LFOs and two ADSR envelopes. The Edit window contains resampling, pitch and time-stretch, controls for fine-tuning selected samples along with filter and velocity controls. With a 10GB library and over 700 instruments spread across the same categories as the full version, the word ‘budget’ doesn’t really apply, content-wise. The full, newly enhanced version with extra content recorded at CNSO Studios in Prague is now under the auspices of IK Multimedia.įor those on a budget, IK has recently released a slimmed-down version, Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE, based on SampleTank 3’s 64-bit engine. Garritan Personal Orchestra 4, for example, was recently upgraded to GPO 5 with a large helping of extra samples from the defunct Garritan Orchestral Strings.Īnd we’ve just heard that Steinberg’s forthcoming notation program, Dorico, will feature the company’s full HALion Symphonic Orchestra (another golden oldie) for its orchestral playback sounds.īoth the aforementioned libraries are mere youngsters, though, compared to the original Miroslav Philharmonik Orchestra, which first appeared over 20 years ago. Every so often, they are updated in some way, usually to keep abreast with technical changes. That’s one of the reasons why, once established, they tend to remain pretty much unchanged for many years.

Halion symphonic orchestra review