Keyboard Editor

The Keyboard Editor contains the wheel controls, the sphere control and the internal keyboard.

Wheel Controls

To the left of the internal keyboard, the pitchbend wheel and the modulation wheel are located.

The modulation wheel is hardwired to MIDI controller #1, which is normally used as a source in the modulation matrix, but can be used as a quick control as well.

Typically, you assign the modulation wheel to a parameter of an insert effect, such as the speed of the Rotary effect.

Internal Keyboard

The internal keyboard in HALion spans the entire MIDI note range from C-2 to G8. You can use it to trigger notes by playing them, but you can also drop samples onto it to import and map samples, for example.

You can resize the internal keyboard horizontally and vertically. A vertical resize changes the size of the individual keys and a horizontal resize defines how many octaves are visible. If the horizontal size is not sufficient to display all octaves, you can use the left/right arrow buttons on both sides of the keys to shift the visible range by octaves.

For each key, the keyboard indicates whether a sample is mapped to it.

The following color scheme is used for the keys:

  • Keys to which a key switch is assigned are shown in yellow.

  • Keys to which a remapped key switch is assigned are shown in beige.

  • Keys to which an expression in the Layer Alternate MIDI module is assigned are shown in red.

  • Keys that are assigned to a trigger pad are shown in blue.

  • Keys to which a loop trigger note is assigned are shown in green.

Note

The above describes the default color scheme for the internal keyboard. However, it is possible to write or use Lua scripts that use different colors.

Previewing Notes Using the Keyboard

  • To preview a note, click the corresponding key on the keyboard.

    The vertical position where you click a key defines the velocity that is used to trigger the note. Click the lower part of a key to use the highest velocity, and the upper part to use the lowest velocity.

  • To play a key and all following keys at the same velocity, for as long as you keep the mouse button pressed, hold down Ctrl/Cmd and click the key on the keyboard.

  • To play each note 10 times at increasing velocities between 1 and 127, hold down Ctrl/Cmd-Alt and click a key.

Keyboard Context Menu

Right-click a key to open a context menu that contains information about the key.

  • The Assigned Zones submenu displays the names of all zones that are mapped to this key, allowing you to select a zone.

  • The Info submenu shows pitch and velocity information.

  • Select Clear key to remove all assignments.

Sphere Control

The sphere is a two-dimensional control. It allows you to adjust two parameters simultaneously, by dragging the mouse horizontally (Sphere H) and vertically (Sphere V). Typically, two parameters that belong together are assigned to the sphere, such as cutoff and resonance.

If parameters are assigned to Sphere H and Sphere V, triangles for indicating the horizontal and vertical axis are available.

You can reset the sphere to the center position using the corresponding options on the context menu.

  • If Center Horizontal and/or Center Vertical are activated, the sphere returns to the corresponding center position as soon as you release the mouse button.