thought i'd give the halion sonic se (yes I know its the free version) another go after all the discussions. i have been using the standalone version with the GM set selected in options.

i also thought i'd update it which i did. but the audio port now says not connected and i can't select my speakers as i have in the past- the audigy fx. it just says 'not connected' and there is no option showing for me to connect to, so no sound.

however............when i plug a usb headset in it shows up as an output and i can select it and get sound. the speakers work fine on audacity, BIAB, RB and a multitude of windows programs that play sound and vision.

i tried selecting and deselecting the sound card in control panel but that didn't help. and ticking and unticking the exclusive box. any suggestions?

i note that steinberg say halion sonic se has been superseded by halion 7 but that says it comes with no content. my halion sonic se has a GM set builtin - where did it come from and would it carry over to halion sonic 7?

and i've been using it as a stand alone - is there a vst2 anywhere? is there a dll i can't find? or is it a vst3 and therefore adding it as the default synth would be difficult

VST should be in your default VST2 folder if you installed it when you installed Sonic. If I remember correctly, by default, it does install VST.

You can try scanning for VST in BIAB or just search your computer for HALion Sonic.dll this is how my DLL looks like (note, there is a space) Yours might be HALion SonicSE.dll

well the silent playback was solved by going into the control panel sounds and configuring the soundblaster to stereo ( not sure if that was part of the problem or not as sound played fie from BIAB and RB) and ticking to give applications exclusive access to the soundblaster. i know the opposite solves some problems but now the HAlion plas back through my speakers.

Did I read somewhere that support for using a VST3 synth as a default synth is coming soon? (2024 BIAB?)

At present, BIAB does not support any VST3 plugins, but yes, I believe they are intended to be in the 2024 release. Logically(!) that would include for the default synth.
There are a few VST host applications around that will wrap VST3s inside a VST2 wrapper, so there are workarounds available today.
Musocity often recommends Kushview Element, partly as it's OpenSource and free. I believe it works well. There are several others.