Sunray

Sunray is a brand new suite of Acqua plugins (available in VST, VST3, AAX, and AU formats) that faithfully recreates some exceptional units with a vintage styling, but a modern sound, handcrafted in the USA by a famous boutique manufacturer of high quality, professional audio gear mainly based on vacuum tube technology, catering to the recording, post-production, broadcast, and live sound industries.

Let your arsenal shine with:

Sunray EQ: A Class A solid-state 4-band parametric equalizer featuring Low and High shelving/peaking, Low and High mid frequency bands consisting of bell shaped filters with an adjustable Q factor (ranging from 0.6 to 2), each EQ bands offers up to 16 dB of boost or cut and continuous frequency controls. Plus, added High and Lowpass filters (with 12 dB/octave slope) and an exceptional pre-amp stage for superior audio performance.
Sunray Comp: A tube-based compressor/limiter with its pre-amp stage.
Sunray Pre: A pre-amp hybrid section encompassing 2 stereo and 4 mono pre-amps for a total 6 emulations.

A no-compromise EQ

The Sunray EQ accurately emulates the extraordinary sound of a rare Class A solid state Equalizer including the microphone preamps, as well as the two high/low-pass filters. This gear came out in the late 1990s as result of a collaboration between a renowned American company and one of the greatest audio Pro gurus. It delivers flawlessly pristine analog parametric equalization with an incredibly smooth sound when boosting high frequencies. This smoothness evokes the characteristics of vintage parametric EQs, (to draw a parallel with Acustica's product line, we could refer to our Scarlet suite), often attributed to the use of output transformers rather than IC chips. Additionally, this EQ possesses a distinct and unique character. When combined with the exceptional sound of the 'classic' preamplifiers this equalizer offers versatility, precision, and an unmatched flexibility. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the original equalization is digitally controlled, providing an intuitive and user-friendly interface. We have strived to maintain this ease of use in our plugin version, equipping the suite with a visually distinctive look while ensuring easy and immediate understanding, thus delivering a seamless and intuitive user experience.

Hybrid comp with a precise but warm sound

The Sunray Comp is a mono version of an iconic hybrid design compressor/limiter. It combines hand-selected vacuum tubes with high-reliability 990 op-amps in a transformerless signal path, in short it merges the most desirable sonic characteristics of valves with the increased reliability of solid-state devices resulting in an incredibly clean and precise sound with subtle overtones and the warmth characteristic of vacuum-tube technology. It offers exceptional versatility and imparts a musical quality that has shaped the sound of countless albums and concerts over the decades. The sound of this compressor offers a harmonious combination of gentle tube warmth and delicate harmonic tones, while preserving a bright, clear, and modern character.

One of its notable features is its ability to deliver exceptionally fast attack and release times, making it particularly well-suited for vocals and bass. Its distinctive tonality and compression behavior set it apart from the rest. Even when pushed significantly, the Sunray Comp's compression remains subtle; suitable attack and release settings can always be found to prevent excessive pumping. Similarly, when used to apply a slight compression of just a few decibels, the resulting sound is truly sublime: wonderfully warm, full, and exquisitely controlled. Given this premise, it is logical to expect a rather controlled and not excessively prominent saturation. Its 'hybrid' nature has a significant impact on saturation, resulting in a different character compared to many sampled units thus far.

Sunray Pre offers the best of both worlds

The Sunray Pre encompasses all the preamplification emulations found in the suite into one comprehensive plugin. It is a 'hybrid' plugin, allowing users to select between the circuitry of the Sunray EQ (Class A, discrete and solid-state, plus transformer-coupled designs) or the Sunray COMP (FET and Tube). Moreover, users can choose between the original Stereo model or the corresponding Mono preamps derived from them, for a total of 6 different preamps based on our ultra-performing Hyper2 technology.

The 'Hyper' technology

Thanks to our new Hyper and Hyper2 technology, we can now deliver even more realistic and convincing compression, saturation, filters, and preamp signals in the digital domain by emulating the sound of analog recording equipment with lower CPU consumption and improved stability.

Sunray | Demo

Try it for free!

Experience all our plugins for 30 days without spending a dime. It's super easy to get started. Just create an account and use our Aquarius Desktop to download and activate any product you want to try. Happy testing!

How to download a plugin

With the installation manager Aquarius Desktop you can select, download & install all the Acustica Audio plugins and start spicing up your productions.