Absolute 4 also comes with Grand 3, a great piano, but at the same time HALion 6 also has a nice set of different sounding pianos that can be turned, with all those controllers, into something totally unique and interesting. The thing with all those sounds that come with HALion is that even if some of them don’t sound perfect, then at least they often have a decent amount of character, bringing at the same time sufficient control options and additional effects to totally change the character, turning them into something new. As a bonus there is also a Dark Planet pack that offers additional scary moments and atmospheric pads that should cover most of your cinematic needs. With some programming skill, however, you can get quite impressive orchestral results. Luckily, Absolute 4 also contains HALion Symphonic Orchestra, which is not the best orchestral library you will ever hear, but it doesn’t sound bad or cheap at all, just a little rough compared to its expensive brothers and sisters. Hot Brass has quite a unique character and can easily fit into any modern production, while Studio Strings has a considerable number of arpeggio presets that sound way more interesting than is the case with similar staccato arp presets that come with some other, more advanced string libraries. Don’t get me wrong, both libraries have their good sides. OK, for those two I should admit that they seem to be more EDM oriented, as realism as seen in some big orchestral libraries is not the point here. HALion Factory content brings more ordinary instruments, and as a bonus for all those that are not satisfied with a collection of synths, there is also a Mellotron pack along with two orchestral packs: Hot Brass and Studio Strings. There is also a B3 pack for organ lovers. There are two packs with drums and percussion – actually World Percussion brings only loops while B Box brings loops and hits. Synth sounds are just one part of the packs that come with this sampler. It is true that Nexus is just a rompler while HALion 6 is a fully-fledged sampler, but obviously, this is not enough anymore and HALion 6 was forced to offer the best from both worlds.
Obviously, refx Nexus set new standards regarding the included content that other sampler/rompler developers had to follow, and Steinberg nailed it. This turns out to be an impressive collection of instruments and samples that sound very up-to-date and surprisingly good. The range of packs goes from ultra modern ones dedicated to the dance and club scene to some nice recreations of old gems.
GROOVE AGENT ONE FULL
Actually, HALion 6 won me over with all those packs that come with the full version, bringing all sorts of granular, wavetable, analog sounding synths that offer the dirt, roughness and saturation the world needs. Maybe I don’t need a multitude of basses and guitars, but who knows, maybe I will need them, as there are plenty that sound really good – no cheese here. Over 100 GB of downloads later, I found that I had gotten far more than I could ever have expected. As you can imagine, the devil inside me was saying: Come on! For the price of one strings library you get a whole New Years pack and a present from Santa to boot. At first, when I got the offer to cover this one, I thought: Do I really need all this? After all, I have plenty of other tools and instruments, and who needs another sampler? Not to mention that being a guitar and bass player I wasn’t too keen on getting a zillion guitars and basses in the virtual domain, and the same goes for the included strings libraries, as I have enough of them.
I had a problem with this because after downloading all the content and watching plenty of video clips, I knew that whatever I wrote here would sound like an understatement. We are going to look here at Absolute 4 from Steinberg, a vast and comprehensive instrument collection. In Absolute 4, we have a complete starter kit for production – everything you need to make a song in one package.
0 kommentar(er)
