Creating a Library

Let us assume that you have inherited a precious and unique acoustic guitar, for example, and you think it is worth building a virtual version of it so that you can play it with your keyboard. You have sampled the guitar sounds and noises, and now you intend to build a library named Precious Guitar.

Prerequisite

  • You have exported your program under the name Precious Guitar Layer by selecting Import/Export > Export Program as VST 3 Preset from the Program Tree context menu and activating As HALion Sonic Layer in the Export dialog.

  • You have saved the preset under the name Init Precious Guitar, and you have set up all the necessary tags, such as Category, Sub Category, Author, Character.

    Note

    Do not specify the Library Name and Manufacturer attributes at this point, because on building the VST Sound container, these tags are overwritten by the attributes defined for the library.

  • You have created the required presets for the library.

    A quick and easy way to do this is to create variations from the first preset.

Procedure

  1. In the Properties section of the Library Creator, assign icons for the MediaBay and the library selector.
  2. Set the Name to Precious Guitar.
  3. Set the Long Name to Precious Guitar.
  4. Set the Family to HALion Sonic.
  5. Add the name of your company under Manufacturer.
  6. Optional: Add a URL to your web site.
  7. In the Output Path field, specify a location for the VST Sound containers.
  8. In the VST Sound Containers list, set the file name of the VST Sound container to <name of your company>_001_Precious Guitar.
  9. Set the name of the library to Precious Guitar Samples and Presets.
  10. Set the Version Number to 1.
  11. Optional: Select a compression method, and add a comment.

    You have now defined the basic settings for your library and can start to add presets and other files.

  12. Select the VST Sound container in the Structure section, and drag all presets into the Content section.

    A VST 3 Presets folder is added, which contains all presets.

    The Unassigned Samples list now lists any samples that are used in the presets.

  13. Select all samples from the list, and drag them onto the Content section.

    A Private Audio Files folder is added to the VST Sound section, and all samples are placed inside it. If you do not want to provide any sub presets for effects or MIDI modules, you can now create the container.

  14. Click the Build Library button on the toolbar.

    If the preset consistency check discovers any issues, a red warning triangle is shown, allowing you to fix issues, such as missing tags, etc.

    Note

    If you added custom icons to your programs, these are automatically added to the VST Sound container and are used when you load presets from the library.

  15. Click Save Library to save the library to a location on your disk.

Result

You have now built the container, and the library is ready to be used.

Note

You can modify presets and the macro page and build the container again at any time. The Library Creator always refers to the current state of the files when processing them.