HaLion 7 Educational: Sample and Synthesis Plugin by Steinberg

HaLion 7 Educational combines several synthesis methods in one plugin. The Spectral Zone uses a time-stretch and resynthesis algorithm that lets you change playback speed in real time without affecting pitch. Formant shift, spectral filter, purity and inharmonicity controls shape the result. The Blur effect smears incoming frequencies into atmospheric textures, and Stack layers up to eight pitch-shifted copies of the spectrum to build chords from a single note.

The FM Zone was developed with Yamaha. It lets you combine up to eight operators as carriers or feedback loops, and the Algorithm Finder helps you select a routing. The plugin also imports DX7 and TX81Z SYX files into the FM Zone.

The modulation system assigns a new modulation to any zone parameter with a click and can be edited by dragging sources onto destinations. The User Envelope offers brush, pen and eraser tools, and its Shaper mode cycles through shapes in sync with the host tempo.

The 15 included instruments range from FM Lab and Anima to the B-Box step sequencer, a granular instrument called Auron, and HALiotron, a reconstruction of 1960s and 1970s analog technology. The collection also includes Hot Brass and the Model C tonewheel organ emulation.