STEINBERG HALion Symphonic Orchestra

Apr 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

Expressive Types

HSO offers several techniques for changing articulations on the fly, thereby allowing you to control musical expression in real time. It provides four main program types, each with its own method for playing different layers and controlling volume. Any program type may incorporate keyswitching.

XFade programs let you crossfade between layers using whatever controller you assign to control crescendos. Because the controller affects loudness, you won't hear anything until you engage it. The same can be said of XSwitch programs, which instantly switch from one layer to another whenever the controller's value crosses a threshold.

Note On Velocity controls expression in Velocity programs (labeled Vel). Like most multisampled instruments, Velocity programs select which layer to play in response to how hard you strike the keys. This technique sacrifices the ability to change layers continuously as a note sustains. Another option is Velocity with Pitch Bend (labeled VelPB), which lets you select the initial layer using Velocity and then control volume using Pitch Bend. Obviously, you lose the ability to bend pitch, but that's of limited use in most orchestral music anyway.

Performance Enhancement

You can improve your computer's performance by using 16-bit samples while assembling tracks, because they make fewer demands on your CPU, RAM, and hard disk. Then, when it's time to render tracks to audio, you can switch to 24-bit versions of the same programs for better quality. In addition, many programs are available in Eco versions, which require fewer resources.

HSO also lets you specify certain system values that affect computer performance, such as the maximum polyphony, the size of the voice buffer, and the length of samples preloaded from disk into RAM. Distributing the sample content on more than one disk can also improve performance, assuming your hard disks are equally fast.

Traditional Families

HSO's content focuses on the four primary orchestral families — strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion — and provides solo instruments and ensembles in each family. The only orchestral instrument conspicuous in its absence is harp.

All four instruments in the string section are well represented in both solo and tutti forms. Legato and spiccato violins, violas, and cellos each supply two alternate versions, labeled A and B, which you can use to play divisi parts or to double a section's size without layering the same samples. Several programs use keyswitches to alternate bowing between up- and downstrokes.

Violin offers the greatest number of articulations, including short, fast, tremolo, trill, pizzicato, and staccato variations, among others. Two programs let you use the mod wheel to transition from 16 to 32 violins. Viola, cello, and double bass have almost as many articulations, with enough timbral variety to keep things interesting (see Web Clip 1). In ensemble programs, different string sections are mapped across the keyboard, and pads furnish layered groups of strings with very slow attacks.

HSO's brass instruments cover French horn, trumpet, trombone, and tuba, along with sections combining them. Although articulations include legato, staccato, accented, crescendo, diminuendo, loud, and soft, there are considerably fewer choices than with strings, and no muted horns whatsoever. Trumpets and trombones are available solo and in groups of three; French horns are solo and in groups of four. Some programs contain brass ensembles, most comprising a trumpet and a trombone or three of each.

Woodwinds supply bassoon, clarinet, English horn, flute, oboe, and piccolo, but no contrabassoon. All wind instruments are solo, and most provide a broad selection of articulations, with an especially good collection of trills. Only the English horn gets short shrift, with no more than legato and staccato variations. And although real orchestras often group bassoons, clarinets, flutes, and oboes in threes, HSO's only woodwind ensembles are splits, with bassoon in the lower octaves, clarinet and oboe in the middle, and flute on top.

HSO divides percussion instruments into two categories, Chromatic Percussion and Drums & Percussion. Chromatic Percussion comprises small bells, tubular bells, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, and timpani. Drums & Percussion includes large and small cymbals, bass drum, a small collection of snares, and assorted percussion such as sleigh bells, tam-tam, triangle, and woodblocks. The Velocity layering is especially effective on the cymbals (see Web Clip 2). I appreciated the inclusion of snare rolls, bass drum rolls, and cymbal rolls, which many sample libraries overlook. A Percussion Ensemble program maps different instruments across the keyboard, with several notes assigned to each.

Where appropriate, programs for all instrumental families include release samples that contribute to their realism. In addition to natural decays, they capture a slight amount of room sound. If you need more, you usually have the option of using Q Controls to specify the depth, time, and volume of ambience.

Although it doesn't explain every parameter, the manual is quite helpful, and it features a brief introduction to arranging for orchestra. It also furnishes a tutorial on reconstructing the beginning of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. The installation disc contains project files and PDFs of the score to accompany the tutorial, and the result sounds quite convincing (see Web Clip 3).