You mean complicated and will take a long time to learn ??
I think it depends on how deep you want to go. You can always load presets, or if you want to go deeper and use it as a traditional synth, you have your oscillators, filters, env, etc. If you want to go very deep and construct full samples sets, I think it helps to have used libraries that feature keyswitching, round robin, velocity layering… if you have a base understanding of that, you can ‘reverse’ learn H5. That’s what I’m doing. Overall it’s very layered, I’m sure veteran users would agree its one of those things you never stop learning!
Well, I have traditional HW equipment as you can see in my ‘signature’. But I am trying to learn more about modern day methods of creating music using a PC and software etc.
In that case, you might > like > the modular nature of it. It is classic, it to me speaks of old school signal routing, straight up midi implementation, it is actually very fundamental. I come from SW, I had to learn midi and audio via SW, a lot of it for me is, again ‘reverse’! I learn about audio/midi as I go deeper into H5. H5 is very much designed to be intuitive with Cubase users, the language is the same. Unfortunately (LOL) the effects are the same. (OMG if H5 hosted VSTfx, it would be amazing!) Having said that, a familiar language is a good thing. If you use 7.5 Groove Agent, look at the env/filter editors. If you know how to use them, you already know a lot of H5!
So does H5 actually come shipped with any factory Presets/Samples ?? Or does it use (if any) the contents of HALion Sonic(s) ??
Oh yeah it does, more than you would ever need, lots of bread & butter sounds, lots of off the wall stuff, imo there is too much GM and basic stuff few would use, but I respect that they kept it old school, compatible for any end user’s goal. It gets tricky and it’s semantics, but you get ‘synths’ within H5: grain synthesis, subtractive, even a pretty good organ. Then you have the sample zone! However those synths are built > from > the tools under-the-hood of H5. Those osc/filter/env I was talking about - that modular system, well H5 gives you shortcut interfaces… Macros. Groups of controls in one neat place where you can bypass modular workflow and work in more consolidated place. Those are the ‘synths’. Potentially you could load Cubase VSTs, osc generators, use Cubase filters, set it all up, and possibly do the same thing without H5…> in theory you could > LOL, it would not be a good idea.
At the moment I do not have any Samples or a library as such. Only the material I have purchased from the Steinberg site.
A huge chunk of the fun is discovering sounds from odd places, over the course of time! At this point, I’m ‘over’ collecting samples and chucking em into folders at the far ends of my HDs, but when I was doing that, I got amazing free samples from the cover of every Computer Music magazine, my dirty little secret. Nowadays, I carefully plan and buy small specific sample sets. You will have a ball sampling your HW into H5 - infinite possibilities. I’m also planning to import some older 32 bit unusable VSTi back into H5 to bring them back to life, I will mix Halion orchestra with supersaws, maybe give them the release of a bass string… that’s the kind of possibility, but this is also where you need to really know what you’re doing before it becomes overwhelming. But none of this replaces those synths like the Arturia collection. I have H5 but I will always use Trilian for my bass. I will always use TAL UNO.
Ta,
Paul