Tonal Matter has introduced Säve River, a new instrument designed for composers creating music for film, television, and video games, according to a company announcement. The release is the initial offering in the Instrumental Places series, which aims to provide tools for ambient and cinematic sound design.
Ivan Ivarsson, founder of Tonal Matter, explained the company’s exploration of whether a location could be transformed into a musical instrument, considering not only its sounds but also its visual and sensory characteristics. Säve River represents the first step in this investigation, and more similar tools are planned. The instrument’s creation involved field recordings taken at five spots along a river in western Sweden.
The instrument utilizes five XY pads instead of traditional controls, with the main pad offering continuous blending between the recording locations. Four additional pads manage tone, spatial characteristics, movement, and the balance between water sounds and pitched layers. Some of the pitched sounds were derived directly from the original field recordings.
Säve River is compatible with the free Kontakt Player and is certified for Native Instruments’ NKS system. The instrument includes 30 presets, and all 15 parameters are capable of being automated within a digital audio workstation.
For more information, visit prosoundweb.com.
