HALion 5 and HALion Sonic 2 process thousands of synthesized and acoustic sounds through eight new instruments: virtual analog Trium synthesizer, Auron for granular oscillation, Voltage delivers extra punch, World Instruments and World Percussion, HALiotron, the Model C organ emulation and the B-Box step sequencer for beats and drum patterns.

Both HALion and HALion Sonic have nine new effects including VST Amp guitar and bass amp sounds and Auto Filter for sound morphing. Yamaha's Motif technology is used in FlexPhraser complex arpeggiator with a phrase editor to create custom patterns and phrases.

For beat matching, HALion has a slicing mode to adjust audio material to fit any beat or track. Two new MIDI modules feature MIDI Player to load MIDI files that can be edited and triggered remotely. Drum Player is a step sequencer conceived and designed to play drum beats and rhythms.