Xhun Audio RawPrime

Hybrid D/A Synthesizer

RawPrime is a physically modeled hybrid synthesizer, built using specific digital and analog electronic components derived from the 1970s-1980s telecommunications industry.

Meant to be a real-world replicable device and manufactured using vintage electronics, RawPrime features a very original synthesis approach: at first it generates huge amounts of aliasing signals on purpose, then it uses those aliasing signals as its sole sound source.

An expressive analog filter, a set of modulators accessible from a matrix interface, two multi-effect slots and a creative polyphonic arpeggiator just complete the picture: RawPrime aims to be one of the all-time favorite vintage synthesizers, from a past that never was.

The Past That Never Was

It’s truly fascinating how deep and distinctive certain vintage devices can sound. They were built many decades ago, using components with loose electrical tolerances and adopting manufacturing processes miles away from today’s standards of perfection. But they sound great, expressive and genuinely bold.

For this reason, RawPrime makes use of late-1970s / first-1980s telecommunications-class numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs) and digital to analog converters (DACs) components, carefully modeled in the virtual realm thanks to today’s CPUs real-time processing power.

Internally, this hybrid digital-analogue components are arranged in a very original way, in order to generate a great amount of overtones exclusively from the aliasing signals produced by such imperfect vintage technology.

All this raw sound material is then crunched by an expressive 2-pole resonant low-pass diode-ladder analogue filter with a specific, uncommon design.

An additional non-resonant high-pass analogue filter, three analogue envelope generators, two digital sinusoid LFOs and a full modulation matrix just open the doors to extended sound design possibilities.

Two insert/master effects slots and a creative multi-mode polyphonic arpeggiator complete the setup, making RawPrime a premium performance synthesizer for both live use or studio productions.

Features

• Physical modeling simulation of hybrid digital/analogue hardware, achieved by the adoption of the Advanced Component Simulation (ACS) approach – oscillators, filters, envelopes (,…) are built preserving their original architecture, featuring all the micro-instabilities and imperfections of the analogue technology
• Full 64-bit processing accuracy for every single aspect of the simulation
• An all-in-one complete setup : polyphonic hybrid digital/analogue synthesizer with built-in arpeggiator + analogue and digital insert/master effects
• Four-voice polyphonic (voice component modeling) – working as monophonic as well, including an optional unison mode
• Featuring a vintage polyphony management method, with first-voice re-assign (instead of round-robin)
• A compact real-world replicable device, established on a 100% original synthesis method
• A 100% original sound oscillator built from modeled lo-fi, late-1970s / first-1980s telecommunications-class NCO and DAC components, producing overtones out of expressly generated aliasing signals
• Separate controls for overtones generation, morphing and blending
• Expressive 2-pole resonant low-pass diode-ladder analogue filter (modeled after real hardware by the adoption of the topology-preserving transform / zero-delay feedback approach) with a very specific, uncommon design
• Additional 1-pole non-resonant high-pass analogue filter (modeled after real hardware by the adoption of the topology-preserving transform / zero-delay feedback approach)
• Three analogue envelope generators (two are freely assignable, one is hard-wired to the analogue amplifier) with a steep attack curve (0.3 ms) modeled after the Curtis CEM3310 proving the same capacitors’ charging/discharging responses as found on the original analogue circuits
• Two freely assignable digital sinusoidal LFOs (frequency from 0.02 Hz up to 30 Hz)
• Featuring a full modulation matrix, allowing for easy and clear source-destination assignments
• A built-in creative multi-mode polyphonic arpeggiator based on note-priority
• Including an insert effect slot with the possibility to choose :
• CHOR-S unit (rack), an expressive stereo chorus effect
• FLANG-R unit (rack), an expressive stereo flanger effect
• X-TREME unit (rack), an accurately modeled, ground-shaking tube distortion effect
• SOLIDA unit (rack), an accurately modeled, rock-solid transistor distortion effect
• PHEEBEE unit (rack), an expressive digital foldback distortion effect
• CRUSH-R unit (rack), a creative digital bitcrusher effect
• Including a master effect slot with the possibility to choose :
• D-LAY unit (rack), a tempo-synced stereo delay effect
• REEVERB unit (rack), a resonator-based electronic reverb effect
• Including 150+ ready-to-use factory presets collection covering multi-genre styles
• Single-view interface, vintage microcomputer-styled synth panel
• MIDI automation
• Support for sample rates from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz
• Available in multi-size GUI resolutions