NAMM 2005: Steinberg has announced a new, playback-only version of its famed HALion virtual sampler. Tailored to newcomers to virtual sampling, HALion Player puts many of the next-generation technologies available on the HALion sampling platform behind a sleek, no-frills interface.

Capable of playing any HSB, FXP or FXB files created for HALion 3, HALion Player offers an affordable, high quality sample content playback module for VST, DXi and AU.

HALion Player provides a low-cost way of playing any of the hundreds of commercially available HALion libraries, including samples by some of the finest content creators in the industry, such as Scarbee, Garritan, Wizoo, the Vienna Symphonic Library and many more.

With an SRP of $89.99, HALion Player includes the full HALion 3 sound library, consisting of a broad selection of highest quality instrument and drum sounds, and utilizes the award-winning, surround-capable HALion 3 playback engine. HALion Player also offers the outstanding Waldorf filters and disk-streaming power that have helped establish HALion 3 as one of the top virtual samplers available today in terms of both sound quality and performance.

While HALion Player can’t create new programs from scratch, the unique Q-Control concept introduced in the new HALion 3.1 version provides HALion Player with an adaptable set of sound-shaping controls. All HALion libraries include predefined Q-Controls which have been assigned to a certain set of parameters by the content creator and are chosen to ideally suit shaping and forming sound for that program. This allows a high degree of flexibility in altering and shaping sounds with HALion Player, while keeping functional clutter to a minimum.

The advanced HALion Player program loading facilities unify finding, selecting and loading a sound for quick, no-hassle access to even the largest HALion sample libraries. HALion Player also offers 256-voice polyphony delivering pristine 32- bit audio to 256 possible audio outputs into the mixer of the host application.

Price and availability

HALion Player will be available through authorized Steinberg dealers for $89.99 SRP in February 2005. HALion Player customers will be able to upgrade to HALion 3.1 for only $299.99.

More information is available at the Steinberg site.