Halion Sonic: Trip Subtractive Synth - in depth guide

In this video, I take a look at Halion Sonic's "Trip" Synth engine, which offers editing (!) and a subtractive synth with a few useful features. I also take a look at how to get around some of its slight shortcomings, so you can use it as more than just a preset-loading device.

This turned into rather a long video, but hopefully it'll give you a pretty in-depth look at "Trip", which is pretty useful and has some good sounds buried inside it.

Section Timings:
0:00 Intro
0:40 Initial Setup
1:47 Analysis with SuperVision
4:13 Oscillators
6:29 Filter
7:31 Filter Key Follow
9:22 Filter Types
13:13 Filter Key Follow
14:21 Filter Envelope
16:02 Amp Envelope
17:28 Sub Page
19:53 Filtered Noise Percussion
20:54 Other Sub Settings
22:01 Modulation
25:25 Arpeggiator
28:09 "Disabling" the Arpeggiator
30:33 Layering Multiple Trip Synths
32:05 Summary

If you have found any of my videos useful, please consider supporting the production of more videos by purchasing my book "The Complete Guide to Music Technology using Cubase 11".

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[garrettbrown]

I've discovered a work around to the Arp situation but you need the new Halion Sonic 7 version which replaced Halion Sonic SE. 1.First right click on an arp variation in Trip's arp page and copy it. 2. Then click on the program tab in the edit window, and activate the flex phraser on the program level. 3. Paste the variation to one of the 8 variation slots. 4. Now click the "e" icon to edit. Now you have full control of the arp programming!!! Unlocking Trips full potenial. Only downfall is programs with 2 or more layers, you'll have to sacrifice one arp, because you can only use one arp on the program level. But just open up another instance of Trip and repeat if you want to use multiple arps.

[danek]

Thank you for the great guide, it helped me a lot!

Might be a bit late, but to anyone who is also annoyed by the arpeggiator: in the row with tabs „LOAD“, „EDIT“, „MIDI“ etc, is a button with two quarter notes (hover text: „Switch off All FlexPhrasers“), which should turn off the arpeggiator 😊

[msixty]

Great video with many useful parts 👍🏼. Just a little hint. You have set the filter to "TUBE". This filter type is active even with a "Distortion" setting of zero and colors the waveform. When the filter is set to "CLIP" (hard clip), the waveform is not colored and does not add additional harmonics. The sine wave is a very perfect sine with this type of filter.

[rickypollock]

You're the best instructor on YouTube! Thank you

[JayKay]

These are just a great information base, thanks so much for your time and effort taken!

[take]

Excellent presentation. Extremely helpful descriptions and instructions. Thank you!

[dankokozar]

Great stuff! I appreciate you give so much love to details. People are not aware how they could get great analogue-sounding sounds right from Hallion. Purists say nothing could compare to analog, whereas in reality - everything what meters is what’s getting out of the speakers - which is digital. Not saying how distractive for music creation is re-patching of physical synths.

[martichamomile]

Oh my god, thank you. Great and clear explanations. I spent way too much time wondering whether I was stupid for not finding a section where I could modify or create variations for the arp.

[HeatherRagnars]

Thanks for the video! Very straightforward explanations and helpful for a visual person like me :)

[earmole]

Turning the ARP off was exactly what I was looking for...thank you. 🙏🎛️🎚️💣✴️

[mvo]

Great stuff, very well put together, thanks for posting. You can teach an old dog new tricks and I'm loving it. Looking forward to your Cubase 11 Pro book as well now. I knew nothing about "Supervision" till today, that's very interesting as well. Cheers.

[buckycore]

That's the thing about sound banks like Trip for me: I'm here for the presets. I got the rest of Halion 7 to sound design with. But I understand if people who only have Halion7 SE, and want to customize them as much as they can. But I love the presets in this guy. They're unique, yet familiar

[Sol-In-Seoul]

Quite logical little synth. Only the “init” patch interests me.

[maciej]

Thank you! That's an amazing and so concise explanation. btw. One question: How to export TRIP arpeggiator notes to midi? (Under TRIP/Arp I can't see any option to record midi like it is available in Flux arpeggiator).

[DEADLINETV]

Is the "not being able to turn off the arp" and Halion Sonice (SE) issue only, or is this how they actually make you buy the big full version, so you can turn it off?

[PeterWTaylor]

How do you hold the note down while making adjustments? I use the mouse for all editing operations so I've been looking for a 'monitor' or similar control which will allow this.

[donjenaro]

As far as I got it, it's actually the same synth as Retrologue is but with another UI. Isn't it?

[jamespark]

I don't understand why it was made without the ability to turn off the arpeggiator.

[sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Does Steinberg have a synth which will effect pre-recorded audio sitting Cubase audio channel? I want any synthesis effects applied to the channel but also passing it's own synth sounds if possible.