The Harmonic Pulsar. Harmonics, unleashed.
Discover the structure within sound. Then make it your own.
The Harmonic Pulsar is Xionia Audio’s harmonic synthesizer, bringing together advanced FM, additive synthesis and intelligent spectral reconstruction in one remarkable instrument.
From crystalline purity to ferocious complexity, from familiar acoustic character to new sonic forms.
Coming soon to
- macOS
- Windows
The harmonic force
Build the spectrum. Transform the sound.
Every sound is a universe of frequencies. The relationships between them define its character. Change those relationships, and the possibilities multiply.
Traditional synthesizers give you oscillators to shape. The Harmonic Pulsar gives you a deeper relationship with the sound itself.
Build sounds from their harmonic foundations, sculpting the balance, relationships and evolution of individual partials with additive synthesis. Shape the interactions between oscillators with frequency modulation, where they influence one another to create rich harmonic complexity.
Or begin with a recording, and explore the frequencies, textures and transients that give it character. Reconstruct those elements as editable synthesis. Transform their relationships. Combine the characteristics of different sounds to create instruments that have never existed before.
Then bring every detail to life through interconnected Motion Waves, expressive control and evolving harmonic movement. Move from a pure, delicate tone to a rich, evolving instrument, turn crystalline harmonics into complex metallic textures, or shape a warm, organic pad into an immense growling bass.
The challenge of harmonic synthesis has never been a lack of power. It’s making that power feel natural to use.
The Harmonic Pulsar is designed around a different philosophy. Sophisticated harmonic structures should be as intuitive to shape as the filter of an analog synthesizer, and the structure inside a recording as open to you as the harmonics you build yourself.
Don’t just shape a sound. Reimagine what it’s made of.
Construct
Build sound from its harmonic foundations.
Use additive synthesis to explore the frequencies, amplitudes and relationships that define a timbre. Discover everything from exceptional purity to intricate, inharmonic structures.
Interact
Harness the power of advanced frequency and phase modulation.
Shape relationships between oscillators, explore rich harmonic interactions and transform delicate structures into powerful, complex sound.
Reconstruct
Rebuild a recording as editable synthesis.
Analyse a voice, an instrument or a texture into its harmonics, noise and transients, then reshape every one of them as synthesis, from a single partial to the whole spectrum.
Combine
Join the character of different sounds.
Transfer the spectral envelope of a human voice onto a synthesised carrier, or combine the strike of a piano with the sustained harmonics of a synthesizer, and create hybrid timbres of your own.
Precision has a pulse.
Create from sound
A recording, rebuilt as an instrument.
Two ways to begin, one instrument. Create from scratch, and build a sound from its harmonic foundations with FM and additive synthesis. Or create from sound, and let a guided analysis turn a recording into an editable harmonic instrument. Both lead into the same synthesis and Motion Waves.
Bring in a voice, a piano, percussion, an instrument or a texture, and The Harmonic Pulsar analyses it into three parts you can shape independently. Its harmonics are the tonal partials and pitch, its noise is the breath, air and texture, and its transients are the attack and impact.
It rebuilds them with additive synthesis, noise modelling and transient reproduction, so the recording plays again as synthesis, with every element open to change. Resynthesise it, morph it, cross-synthesise it with another sound or set it in motion, without having to understand spectral tracking, partial banks or optimisation.
Analyse
Import or capture a sound, and see its spectrum unfold over time.
Understand
Separate its harmonics, noise and transients, the components that give it character.
Reconstruct
Rebuild them as synthesis, with every partial, noise and transient open to change.
Transform
Reshape the partials, bring in FM, morph between sounds or combine them with others.
Perform
Play it as an instrument, with Motion Waves and expression bringing every detail to life.
What a sound can become.
| Source | What happens | The result |
|---|---|---|
| A human voice | Its evolving formants shape a synthesised harmonic carrier. | Expressive, vocal-like synthesis. |
| A piano | Its strike is isolated, and its sustained body rebuilt with additive synthesis. | An authentic-feeling attack with an evolving, synthetic sustain. |
| A violin | Its partial trajectories and vibrato are analysed. | A new instrument that keeps selected expressive characteristics of a violin. |
| Metal percussion | Its inharmonic resonances are separated from the noise of the attack. | Playable, evolving metallic textures. |
| Two recordings | Their spectral characteristics, transients and noise are combined. | New hybrid timbres. |
The original recording becomes a source of synthesis behaviour, not merely audio being played back.
Motion Waves
Every parameter. A world of movement.
- Partial balance
- FM depth
- Operator ratio
- Spectral envelope
- Morph
At the heart of every Xionia instrument are Motion Waves, our way of giving parameters their own movement, rhythm and expression. Let movements influence one another, evolve independently or synchronise into something greater.
In The Harmonic Pulsar, the balance of individual partials, the depth and ratio of each FM interaction, the spectral envelope a recording lends a sound and the morph between two sounds can each have a Motion Wave of its own. Bring in a voice, and one wave can move its vocal character while another reshapes the partial relationships and a third brings in FM complexity as the note is sustained.
Effects work the same way. Every star is designed around a complete effects system of its own, with dedicated controls, routing and Motion Waves on its parameters, so a delay’s feedback can evolve in its own time and a reverb’s size can follow the phrase.
Motion Waves are part of Xionia Core, so every star comes complete, engineered for exceptional sound generation, sound processing and Motion Wave modulation. StarShaper adds the ability to interconnect everything, so whole instruments, Motion Waves and all, can shape one another.
Extraordinary sound doesn’t have to stand still.
One of seven
A complete instrument in its own right.
The Harmonic Pulsar is Xionia Audio’s dedicated harmonic synthesis instrument, built around FM, additive synthesis, spectral resynthesis and cross-synthesis.
Rather than treating them as unrelated, it lets them reinforce one another. FM produces vivid harmonic complexity through interacting oscillators. Additive synthesis offers precise control over the components of a sound. Spectral resynthesis finds those components in a recording, and cross-synthesis combines the character of one sound with another. Together, they open a vast territory for expressive sound design.
Where The Particle Star captures, plays and transforms recorded sound, its grains included, The Harmonic Pulsar analyses a sound into its spectral components and rebuilds it as an editable, synthesised instrument.
The Harmonic Pulsar is designed around those relationships, with an interface that puts musical character and transformation ahead of technical complexity.
Its identity is inspired by the colossal forces and precise timing of stellar pulsars, objects of immense energy whose repeating signals reach across the universe. Perfectly controlled relationships. Extraordinary energy.
The visual language combines brilliant violet light, luminous harmonic structures, precise orbital geometry and the concentrated intensity of a pulsing stellar core. Every movement represents a relationship. Every interaction changes the sound.
Built on Xionia Core
Today’s harmonics. Tomorrow’s instrument.
The Harmonic Pulsar shares its synthesis foundation with StarShaper, Xionia Audio’s complete instrument-creation environment.
Sounds created in The Harmonic Pulsar open inside StarShaper with their synthesis, effects, Motion Waves, expression and harmonic behaviour preserved and editable. There, its FM, additive and spectral systems can become part of something greater.
On its own, The Harmonic Pulsar cross-synthesises the sounds you bring into it. In StarShaper, cross-synthesis can run live between instruments. Let an oscillator in The Plasma Star be the carrier, shape it with the changing spectral envelope of a sound playing in The Particle Star, and let a pattern from The Kinetic Star set how those characteristics evolve, while one Motion Wave drives the whole transformation.
That becomes a network of synthesis and spectral relationships, rather than a single instrument processing one sound. Let an analog instrument drive the harmonic movement of an additive spectrum, or a mathematical Motion Wave reshape complex FM relationships. Then turn everything into a new instrument of your own.
Shape the harmonics. Discover what comes next.
Existing Xionia customers will be offered a crossgrade into StarShaper, with the details announced alongside its pricing.
Made by Xionia Audio
Deep mathematics. Immediate creativity.
The Harmonic Pulsar comes from Xionia Audio, combining advanced DSP research with a commitment to exceptional sound quality and intuitive creative workflows.
It brings the power of harmonic synthesis out from behind complex operator diagrams and into the hands of musicians, along with the structure inside the sounds you bring to it. Every relationship matters. Every harmonic has a purpose. Every movement can change everything.
Friendly licensing
One-off payment, no subscription and no dongle, so licensing stays out of your way and your time goes into music rather than admin.
Fast, expert support
Help from a small team that knows every instrument inside out, because we built them. Urgent issues are answered within one working day, and everything else within 2 to 3 working days.
Frequent updates
We keep improving our instruments after release, with frequent updates that refine them and keep them working with new operating systems and hosts.
Built for the long run
Xionia is here for the long term. We make instruments to learn deeply and rely on for years, and design them so the sounds you make today keep opening in future versions and across the Xionia family.
Extraordinary complexity. Effortless expression.
Development status
In development. Coming soon.
- Engine
- FM and additive
- Platforms and formats
- Coming to macOS and Windows, as VST3, AU, AAX and CLAP plug-ins and a standalone app
- DAWs
- Designed for all the major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Cubase, Fender Studio Pro, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Pro Tools and REAPER
- Release date, price and launch features
- Announced before release
First Light
Be first to hear harmonics unleashed.
Join First Light for sound previews, first looks at the instruments in action and release news from Xionia Audio, including The Harmonic Pulsar.
First Light members will get an introductory offer on each instrument at its release, with the details announced alongside its pricing.
Once you’re in, tell us what you make and what you’re reaching for. We read every reply, and what you tell us helps shape our instruments.
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Frequently asked questions
About The Harmonic Pulsar, how it fits with StarShaper, and what comes with it.
What is The Harmonic Pulsar?
A harmonic synthesizer from Xionia Audio, in development and coming soon. It brings FM, additive synthesis, spectral resynthesis and cross-synthesis together in one instrument, so you can build a sound from its harmonics, or analyse a recording and rebuild it as editable synthesis. It’s one of the seven Xionia stars, standalone synthesizers each built around one synthesis engine, with its own name, sound, visual personality and interface.
Is it an FM synthesizer or an additive one?
Both, and more. It brings four technologies together. Frequency modulation creates harmonic complexity through interacting oscillators, additive synthesis gives precise control over the components of a sound, spectral resynthesis rebuilds a recording from those components, and cross-synthesis combines the character of one sound with another.
Can it turn a recording into an instrument?
Yes. Bring in a sound and The Harmonic Pulsar analyses it into its harmonics, noise and transients, then rebuilds them as additive synthesis, noise and transients you can edit. Reshape it, bring in FM, morph it with another sound or set it in motion with Motion Waves, then play it like any other sound. It’s designed for single notes, short phrases and isolated sounds, such as a voice, a piano note or a struck piece of metal, where each component can be told apart cleanly.
What is cross-synthesis?
Combining the characteristics of different sounds. Transfer the spectral envelope of a human voice onto a synthesised carrier for expressive, vocal-like synthesis, or combine the strike of a piano with the sustained harmonics of a synthesizer. A sound’s harmonics, noise and transients can each come from a different source.
Do I need StarShaper or another star to rebuild a recording?
No. Spectral resynthesis and cross-synthesis are complete in The Harmonic Pulsar. Bring in a recording, analyse it, rebuild it, reshape it with FM and additive synthesis and set it in motion with Motion Waves, all within the instrument. StarShaper adds live connections between instruments, such as one star’s oscillator shaped by the changing spectrum of another.
How is it different from The Spectral Star and The Particle Star?
Each takes in recorded sound in its own way. The Spectral Star turns audio into waveform material for its wavetables. The Particle Star captures and plays recordings, and breaks them into grains. The Harmonic Pulsar analyses a sound into its spectral components, its harmonics, noise and transients, and rebuilds it as an editable, synthesised instrument.
Do I need StarShaper for Motion Waves?
No. Motion Waves are part of Xionia Core, so every star comes complete with them. In The Harmonic Pulsar, each supported parameter can have a Motion Wave of its own, with its own speed, rhythm and phase, and the waves can influence one another within the instrument. StarShaper adds the ability to interconnect whole instruments, Motion Waves and all.
Will it have effects?
Yes. Effects are part of Xionia Core, so The Harmonic Pulsar includes Xionia’s shared effects library, from EQ, dynamics and saturation to modulation, delay, reverb and formant shaping, with dedicated controls, routing and Motion Waves on their parameters. Every star has the same library, so you won’t need one star to use another’s effects. The full library will be confirmed before release.
Does it use AI?
Only where it helps. Intelligence is part of Xionia Core, so The Harmonic Pulsar can draw on it within its own instrument, with tools that analyse a sound and suggest changes you can see, adjust or reject. They’re optional, and designed to run on your own computer with no cloud connection required. The intelligence changes the parameters. The instrument’s own engine still makes every sound. StarShaper brings the same intelligence to the relationships between instruments. Which tools The Harmonic Pulsar launches with will be confirmed before release.
When will it be available?
The Harmonic Pulsar is coming soon. Release timing, pricing and the launch feature set will be announced before availability. Join First Light to hear first.
How does it relate to StarShaper?
StarShaper is Xionia Audio’s instrument creator, and it brings all seven stars together, The Harmonic Pulsar among them. The Harmonic Pulsar shapes everything within itself; StarShaper shapes the relationships between complete instruments, so they can move, trigger and transform one another. The Harmonic Pulsar is built on the same technology, Xionia Core, so the sounds you make with it open in StarShaper with their synthesis, effects, Motion Waves and expression still editable. Existing Xionia customers will be offered a crossgrade into StarShaper, with the details announced alongside its pricing.
Which platforms and plug-in formats will it support?
The Harmonic Pulsar is coming to macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and Windows (64-bit). It will run as a plug-in on macOS (VST3, AU, AAX or CLAP) and Windows (VST3, AAX or CLAP), and as a standalone app on both. Minimum system requirements will be published before release.
Will it work in my DAW?
The Harmonic Pulsar is designed to work in all the major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Cubase, Fender Studio Pro, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Pro Tools and REAPER, and in other hosts that load VST3, AU, AAX or CLAP plug-ins.
Who is making The Harmonic Pulsar?
Xionia Audio, the pro audio division of Xionia Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. Xionia’s founder, Stephen Ankelen, is a hands-on technical director and senior developer with more than 30 years’ experience building production software, and he designs and codes The Harmonic Pulsar himself, as part of a team of experienced senior developers. His background includes enterprise software engineering for aerospace, extensive work integrating AI into real-world systems, and a long history in music technology and audio engineering.
How will licensing work?
One-off payment, no subscription and no dongle. Pricing and the full licence terms will be published before release.
What support and updates will there be?
Support comes from the team that builds The Harmonic Pulsar. We answer urgent issues, such as a problem that stops you working, within one working day, and everything else within 2 to 3 working days. After release, frequent updates will refine the instrument and keep it working with new operating systems and hosts.
Can I hear it yet?
Not yet. Sound previews come to First Light first, and every recording we publish will say what it was made with.