The Resonant Star. Give matter a voice.
Every object has a response. Every material has a character. Every vibration tells a story.
The Resonant Star is Xionia Audio’s physical modelling synthesizer, designed to explore the extraordinary sounds that emerge when energy meets matter.
From delicate, acoustic-like expression and breathing, human-like voices to the resonance of objects that have never existed, discover a world where sound has body, movement and life.
Coming soon to
- macOS
- Windows
The Resonant Star
Strike it. Excite it. Hear it become.
Sound is more than a waveform. It’s a physical event.
A string vibrates. A surface resonates. A body responds to energy, creating complex interactions that give acoustic instruments their remarkable character.
Physical modelling recreates these relationships through mathematics and DSP, opening a world that extends far beyond conventional recorded or synthesised sounds.
The Resonant Star makes this world an expressive instrument. Explore the character of vibrating structures, shape how energy enters a resonant body and discover how its response changes over time.
Create sounds with the immediacy and subtlety of acoustic instruments, or venture into imagined materials, unfamiliar resonances and new sonic forms.
The voice is a physical event too. Breath sets the vocal folds vibrating, and the throat, mouth and lips shape that vibration into vowels.
The Resonant Star models it from source to body, with glottal oscillators for the vocal folds, vocal-tract modelling for the throat, mouth and lips, and formant-wave-function synthesis to sculpt the resonances that make each vowel. Breath and consonants are generated as you play, giving every phrase its air and articulation.
The result is expressive, human-like sound without relying on vocal samples. It’s a voice that answers the way you play, from a breathy whisper to a full-throated cry, or one that no human throat could make.
Excitation
Shape the energy that begins a sound, from delicate impulses to forceful strikes and complex interactions.
Resonance
Explore the character of vibrating bodies, where structure, damping and resonant behaviour give each sound an identity of its own.
Voice
Shape expressive, human-like voices from breath, vocal folds and a modelled vocal tract, without relying on vocal samples.
Expression
Make sounds that answer the way you play, with responsive dynamics, evolving resonance and natural-feeling variation.
Don’t just hear the sound. Feel it respond.
Motion Waves
Every parameter. A world of movement.
- Excitation
- Damping
- Resonance
- Material
- Vowel
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 Resonant Star, the energy entering a body, its damping, its resonance, its material and the vowel a voice sings can each have a Motion Wave of its own, so a struck object can keep changing as it rings and a voice can drift from one vowel to the next.
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 Resonant Star is Xionia Audio’s dedicated physical modelling synthesizer, designed around the relationship between excitation, resonance and expressive control.
Its vocal models are built on the same relationship, from the breath that excites a voice to the vocal tract that resonates with it. Formant shaping, which can give any sound a vocal character, is part of Xionia Core’s shared processing, so every star has it too.
Its identity draws on the idea that everything in the universe can vibrate, from the smallest structure to the vast resonant behaviour of celestial matter.
Its sound is engineered to feel substantial and tactile, in an instrument whose response matters as much as the note itself.
Built on Xionia Core
Today’s vibration. Tomorrow’s instrument.
The Resonant Star shares the Xionia Core architecture with StarShaper, so its resonant structures can become part of a larger creative environment.
Inside StarShaper, a recording can excite a modelled body, a synthesised impulse can produce an unfamiliar resonance, and one instrument can supply energy to another, creating sounds shaped by the interaction of entirely different synthesis technologies.
Its voices can take part too. Let an analog oscillator sing through a modelled vocal tract, or a percussion pattern set the rhythm of a voice’s consonants.
Give sound a body. Then give it a new world.
Existing Xionia customers will be offered a crossgrade into StarShaper, with the details announced alongside its pricing.
Made by Xionia Audio
Engineered with decades of experience.
The Resonant Star is designed and built by Xionia Audio, the pro audio division of Xionia Ltd, whose small team has more than 30 years of experience in deep software and technical development.
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.
Development status
In development. Coming soon.
- Engine
- Physical modelling
- 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 matter find its voice.
Join First Light for sound previews, first looks at the instruments in action and release news from Xionia Audio, including The Resonant Star.
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 Resonant Star, how it fits with StarShaper, and what comes with it.
What is The Resonant Star?
A physical modelling synthesizer from Xionia Audio, in development and coming soon. It’s designed to explore the sounds that emerge when energy meets matter, from struck and resonant bodies to expressive, human-like voices. 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.
What is physical modelling?
Synthesis that recreates how sound physically happens. Rather than playing back recordings, it models how energy enters a vibrating body and how that body responds, through mathematics and DSP, so you can shape the strike, the material and the resonance, including materials that have never existed.
Can it synthesise a voice?
Yes, without vocal samples. Its voices are modelled rather than recorded. Glottal oscillators take the place of the vocal folds, vocal-tract modelling and formant-wave-function synthesis shape the vowels and resonances, and breath and consonants are generated as you play. So a voice stays expressive and playable, whether it sounds human or like nothing a human could sing.
Do I need StarShaper for Motion Waves?
No. Motion Waves are part of Xionia Core, so every star comes complete with them. In The Resonant Star, 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 Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star launches with will be confirmed before release.
When will it be available?
The Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star among them. The Resonant Star shapes everything within itself; StarShaper shapes the relationships between complete instruments, so they can move, trigger and transform one another. The Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star?
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 Resonant Star 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 Resonant Star. 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.