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VST3.5 compatibility is a great selling point for users of Cubase (the only DAW so-far to embrace the platform).

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When Steinberg unleashed HALion back in 2001, it represented a breakthrough of sorts by offering a fully kitted-out plug-in sampler for DAW users.

The company has trundled out a few significant updates since, but other products have sprinted ahead in terms of features, especially Native Instruments' Kontakt, which has become the de facto standard for third-party sample libraries.

We got a taste of what Steinberg were cooking up for HALion 4 late last year when we looked at HALion Sonic, the sort of 'read-only' version of HALion. HALion Sonic is a powerful workstation instrument with an expansive sound library, much of which comes from Steinberg's parent company Yamaha.

"Superb synths, orchestral sounds, electric guitar/bass, ethnic instruments, drums, and lots more."

However, there will be users who prefer to be more involved in sound creation, and they will be thrilled with the deep sample manipulation and editing features of HALion 4 (well, assuming they're not already neck-deep in Kontakt).

HALion 4 is a VST2/3 plug-in for Windows and a VST3/AU plug-in for OS X, with a standalone mode included.

Super Sonic

If you've already used HALion Sonic, much of what's on offer in HALion 4 will be familiar. It has all of HALion Sonic's sounds and more - there are superb synths, orchestral sounds, electric guitar/bass, ethnic instruments, drums, and lots more.

It shares the same basic sample-playback engine, effects and an awesome synthesis engine. The latter offers three-oscillators, a suboscillator, ring modulation, noise generator, and multimode filtering with six different routing schemes, including morphing filters.

The key difference is that HALion is designed to work with your own samples, so in our review we'll focus on those things that make HALion 4 a full-blown sampler.

Naturally, there's a full complement of sample mapping, looping and editing tools. This is nothing new per se - previous HALions had loads of user-friendly sample mapping and editing tools, and they've been carried over into v4.

HALion can still automap samples based on embedded root note or file name (though we have always found this a bit clunky and prefer to drag our samples directly into the mapper). It's what HALion 4 can do with the samples that makes the difference.

New features enable more realistic performances and creative expression - for example, this version is VST 3.5-compatible, meaning it can take advantage of Note Expression and Quick Control integration.

Using VST Expression maps, you can easily control articulations and performance styles. More interestingly, the Note Expression feature allows you to assign unique sets of controller data to each note when the patch is played polyphonically. It's a great selling point (well, for Cubase users, since that's the only DAW that currently supports VST3.5).

Signal routing has been given a significant makeover. There's now a full mixer section and an unlimited number of busses for each Program and Layer. Each bus has level, mute, solo and pan controls and eight insert slots for the on-board effects. There's support for six channels of surround sound and up to 32 stereo outputs.

Fortunately, all of this routing is pretty easy to manage, particularly if you're used to the mixer and routing options in Cubase or Nuendo.