Max Richter takes the timpani to outer space with Valley Forge, a sci-fi-inspired virtual instrument developed in partnership with Song Athletics

Back in 2023, Song Athletics teamed up with Grammy-nominated composer Max Richter for a software instrument that captured the sounds of Richter's Steinway D SPIRIO | r grand piano, before releasing the free Dark Mode plugin late last year.

This week, the British company, headed up by former Spitfire Audio CEO Will Evans, has released another Kontakt instrument developed in collaboration with Richter under the SRM Sounds banner. Valley Forge is a sci-fi inspired virtual instrument and "celestial toolkit" based on the sounds of a 15-piece timpani ensemble, an original Minimoog and an array of analogue effects processors.

Recorded at Richter's personal studio, Studio Richter Mahr, the timpani recordings were made using a number of different microphone types and placements that can be be blended together on Valley Forge's interface. The timpani library features hits, rolls, and clusters performed with a variety of mallets and percussive objects.

Those recordings were run through a selection of Richter's analogue effects to produce cinematic and textural drones, while his own Minimoog Model D has been sampled and included as a synth accompaniment. There are also a range of built-in effects onboard for further processing, including delay, chorus, phaser, saturation and tape emulation.

"Valley Forge is a place of sonic exploration," Richter says of the instrument. "Like all musical instruments, it's an act of the imagination. And in this case, it's a place where these strange sounds exist.

"Named after the spaceship in Douglas Trumbull’s prescient 1972 sci-fi eco-parable “Silent Running”, these sounds are evocative of a spaciousness, with a darkness about them. There's resonance and memory, and a sort of alien warmth in this material. And that comes from the fact that it has mostly organic origins. In a way Valley Forge is a kind of ode to an imaginary spaceship. And this is what it would sound like."

Find out more on the SRM Sounds website or watch a walkthrough video below.

Valley Forge - Walkthrough (The new virtual instrument from Max Richter) - YouTube

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