The SWA Masterclass HALion 6 tutorial, led by sound design expert Walter Hunnicutt, provides a comprehensive guide to Steinberg’s powerful sound design workstation HALion 6. The tutorial is divided into several chapters covering all aspects of HALion 6, from its introduction and structure to working with macros and packaging your sounds into VST sound files.
The tutorial begins with an introduction to HALion 6, providing a brief history of the instrument and breaking down its default screen into functional areas. Hunnicutt explains the fundamental signal flow and workflow and covers terms and conventions unique to HALion, making it easy for beginners to understand.
Next, the tutorial covers the user interface, looking at the basic navigation and how to locate, activate, and use all of the sound-sculpting tools in the 26 editors. The tutorial then moves on to working with presets, exploring the basic structure of a program tree and all its associated components.
The tutorial then delves into building your own sound from scratch using each of the zone types except sampling. It also covers sampling, including the routing configuration and channel set up required to create an audio feed directly to HALion and exploring both the manual and automatic sampling and mapping options.
Finally, the tutorial covers working with macros, allowing you to create a custom control panel for your sounds using your own artwork and custom mapping. The tutorial concludes by walking through the Library Manager utility to package your new instrument into a VST Sound file for collaboration, distribution, or even sale. Suitable for both beginners and advanced users, this tutorial is a must-watch for anyone looking to master HALion 6.
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Frank Gratkowski
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
Well done but it misses how to work with key-switches and different layers. The sampler part (building your own instrument) including key-switch layers could be much more detailed. Also nice would be an introduction to the lua script option.
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Magluss Musica i Natura
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
The whole tutorial is very good. Well explained and concrete, and it helps a lot to understand it. There are 2 things I would like to see improved. Some subtitles in another language, such as Spanish, etc. And the other that I consider very important is that the image of the Halion is often small in quality for viewing. It would be more interesting to see Halion better, even if that meant not seeing the speaker.
Thank you very much for everything. I recommend this tutorial without hesitation !! -
John Seoane
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
Walter Hunnicutt is a great instructor, thanks to HALion 6 Masterclass i now know how to get the most out of halion 6, for a year i could not find any good youtube videos that would show me how to use this instrument until i found Walters Sreamworks audio. Let me tell you the price was right and what i learned from walter is priceless and is going to take my production to the next level. This is a game changer for me. I am a cubase 10.5 user and we all know what am getting next.
Thank You Walter Hunnicutt you are god sent.... Am sold on your instructional master classes....
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Samuel Green
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
As far as I am aware, this is one of the only video tutorial series on this product that exists. There isn't really much choice in this regard, but what Walt presents here is a great start to an otherwise very unfriendly and daunting program.
As far as the content itself goes, Walt has done an amazing job getting into the trenches of this software and figuring it out so you don't have to! I can only imagine the amount of frustration and stress he must have gone through trying to learn this, especially to the point of knowing it so well he is able to teach it. He also demonstrates how to not get lost in the program accidentally, and has some neat tips and tricks to get back to a more manageable layout whenever the user might take a wrong turn.
However... The production quality of the videos are not brilliant. The entire series has seemingly all been done in one take (with breaks in between parts to introduce the new subject), and there are some slightly awkward edits in some parts to skip ahead in time or streamline a subject. The lighting and video quality of Walt talking to the camera is not good, it's more like a Skype call than what you would expect from a paid product (the mic audio is still clear, however, which is the most important part). He can also be quite dull at times, but to his credit this isn't exactly a very fun or inspiring topic to spend a lot of time on.
The information being provided is obviously far more crucial to get across than a good quality video, and Walt absolutely delivers in this aspect. It would just be nice to have both!
Overall, despite my complaints, this is an absolutely essential video series if you're even slightly interesting in pursuing HALion 6 any further than the presets that come with the software.
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Peter Hamlin
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
This is an excellent course. The pacing is just right. I was happy that everything is very well explained from the ground up -- so you don't ever feel left behind -- but there's good depth also. Walt, I like your that your expertise is presented in a laid-back and personable style.
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Hartley Banton
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
I wish I had found these classes taught by Walt ....he is a great teacher. Very well done series with tips and tricks galore. Would not be so far along with Halion 6 without this class...keep up the great work Ill be watching
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Neil Scott
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
Totally excellent, made the software accessible as a utilisable tool, ready for use.
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Bob
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
I have said it once and I will say it again "Walt and Streamworks is the best place for insightful and in depth explanations on any products listed in their site!". I haven't gone through the entire class but from what I have been through is really really great. Walt has the ability to go into great depths to explain halion 6 but leaves just enough wiggle run to allow you to learn a little more on your own. Like other so-called instruction videos Walt isn't under any time restraints nor do you have to listen to a half-baked song somebody wrote he (Walt) gets right to the meat and may use a song for some illustrations but not a type that is totally off the point he is explaining. I can never say enough good things about this site or Walt you'll just have to purchase a course and learn for yourself. They are the greatest if you really desire deep and insightful knowledge. KEEP IT COMING GUYS!
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Jewel
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
Very well taught. Walt is an accomplished teacher, not just someone who has hacked through the neat stuff... His layout is logical, and he keeps to the agenda. First time through, I followed along and did a practice session as I watched the vid. Second time through, I simply watched the vid and took notes on the little details I knew I'd forget. On that second watch, I realized what an excellent, experienced teacher Walt is: He presents his topics in the beginning, he goes through without floundering or getting off topic, and always gives the concept rather than just building his own particular instrument. A couple suggestions (which don't take away from my 5 star rating): Walt, be sure to maximize the HALion screen when your working from Cubase. I'm watching this on a laptop screen to I can simultaneously work on my big music computer , so the HALion examples you show without maximizing end up being a total of 5" x 7". The times when you maximized the window, it was perfect. Next, I felt the depth on the granular and wavetable windows was a bit too brief, and that is where I'm doing the majority of my work. Aaargh. Finally, I never could get my system to not crash while doing the Create Library, and had to meticulously go back through the manual to find my errors (which was what I could have avoided if you'd taken just a moment to refilm that very last 15 minutes of the series). But those are minor points compared to the overall excellence of your teaching.
PS! That notion of adding a “HALion Advanced” set of videos is well worth considering. !! Or focusing on one particular area within HALion, such as the filters…. Thanks much. Jewel
Thanks so much, and watching this made me realize my next step: Watch the Cubase 10 vids and cleaning up my techniques there. Thanks much. Jewel
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angelogiambra
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
I've watched many so-called tutorials on YouTube. Usually within five minutes or so, they drift off topic, or else you spend ten minutes watching them search for something because they never prepared the lesson in advance. So I was very pleased with Walter Hunnicutt. He is organized and works through each lesson in a thoughtful and interesting manner. Also, his videos are edited such that parts which might have caused the viewer to wait while Walter got something ready are edited out. I agree with the other review I read...I wish it were a bit longer. I realize that Halion 6 is so powerful that it is difficult to decide what to include in these lessons and what to leave out. Walter did a fine job of teaching us to navigate the product but I'd sure be interested in a "Halion Advanced" course. How about it Walter?
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napier3
SWA Masterclass HALion 6 Review
Walter Hunnicutt is a fantastic instructor. His Cubase courses are the best out there inasmuch as they are succinct, focus on useful, real world application, and are immensely helpful. This Halion course is the same. I've looked at a number of them from different providers and they either deep dive into the interesting but less useful esoteric side of things, or skim over essential info. Walter strikes a really nice balance between what you need to know to get things done, and what's nice to know so you can go exploring. I only wish it were a bit longer...maybe there will be a "Halion Advanced" course at some point... :)
