I certainly will . ive been waiting for something on these lines for years , im not really interested in the synth side but as a sampler with beat slicing IMO (if it all works correctly )this sampler is now complete !!!
The slicing capabilities are very sweet and they have totally replaced relying on Recycle for me. Everything is kept in one application now and the on the fly tweaking makes getting things to fit to your needs, very quick and simple. The ability to quickly put effects on individual slices is very, very cool and assigning all of this to note expression 2, makes it even better. HALion 5 is one kick ass product!
BTW, from watching the videos, I never seen it mentioned officially, but HALion 5 now has fade in and fade out handles in the sample editor window, a long requested feature that was missing from HALion 4 that allows your samples to fit just that little bit better, without the need to adjust the amp envelope as a workaround for smoothing out fade in and outs.
Unfortunately not, this is still a long outstanding feature request that has yet to be fulfilled. Though I will admit I am disappointed in this omission, there is still so much being offered in HALion 5, that I can’t complain. It has never been flat out said, that ping pong/fwd-bkwd loops would not be implemented, there has just been no word at all on it, so I am still hopeful for a future update to contain this.
As for changing playback on the fly? This has always been possible since HALion 4, it just has to be done through automation. What I personally do is, right click on the playback mode drop down menu and assign the playback mode to a cc. I then, via note expression, automate this function by drawing in, on a note I want to change the playback of, this CC (a different value for each of the four modes) and it will do exactly as you are requesting. Very handy to give those drums a little reverse here and there for some flavour!
There’s always going to be features to add. I was hoping the mixer routing would be a little bit more flexible instead of the extremely linear path a sound has to take now. I’m disappointed that the QC and PD CMC controllers aren’t integrated stand alone.
But, all things considered this looks like a solid update. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.
HALion 5 is very stable too guys and gals. Don’t be afraid, that just because this is a new version, that it will be buggy, cause it isn’t. I can’t say its perfect, but personally, it is just as stable as HALion 4 and has presented zero issues. When loading projects that were done with HALion 4, HALion 5 loads in its place seamlessly and without notice. This is unlike Kontakt, where each version acts as a new plugin, being for a real pain in the ass. All the new features work in tandem with what HALion 4 offered and the extremely familiar GUI we are all used to has remained 100% intact. There is a very slight font/knob look change, but being so minor, you may not notice, or will quickly forget.
As JMCecil mentioned, there will always be additions and changes to be had and we can’t all be happy all the time, but being a 5.0 release, it offers tons of stuff that we never thought of and filled in a good few gaps from things we did request since HALion 4. In future updates, I am sure there is lots more to come. For the upgrade price from HALion 4 to 5, it is a no brainer!