Hutchins developed a acoustically balanced viola which she would later call the alto violin. Due to the traditional over the shoulder playing method of the viola there are major acoustic flaws with the instruments as the string length is shorter then ideal and the internal volume of the instrument is also smaller then ideal. Hutchins corrected both of these issues by developing a viola that is played upright and held between the legs much like the cello. Hutchins also tested many designs for an over the shoulder model of the instrument that were capable of greater acoustic balance, but none of the instrument shapes were ergonomic enough to act as good concert level instruments. The vertical viola developed by Hutchins is over 50centemeters long, making for a much taller instruments then is standard. ¹⁾

Early in her acoustic experiments Hutchins was inspired to build a set of instruments with various ranges that all had the acoustic balance found in the violin. She was led to this idea by recommendation by Henry Brant in 1957 when he mentioned that violins dont have a clear instrument family like those found in woodwinds. Hutchins saw the many flaws and uneven pitch distribution of the string family and sought to correct these issues by first making the distribution of instruments more even, adding a member between the cello and viola, redesigning the viola so that is is far more acoustically balanced, adding two members above the tuning of the violin and making two members below the cello that take on the range of the contrabass. Taking influence from wind instrument families all of the instruments are evenly distributed two to an octave and all of them are tuned in half octave increments that repeat throughout the range.

The instruments in the Violin Octet are-
Treble Violin tuned to G4–D5–A5–E6, one octave above the violin, a new member tuned like the kit or pochette about the size of a 1/4 violin.
Soprano Violin, tuned to C4–G4–D5–A5, one octave above the viola, another new member somewhat like the violino piccolo and the size of a 3/4 violin.
Mezzo Violin, tuned to G3–D4–A4–E5, same as the violin. The instrument has a longer body by 12-22mm with the same string length as a violin.
Alto Violin, tuned to C3–G3–D4–A4, the same as a viola but played upright like a cello due to the larger body size.
Tenor Violin, tuned to G2–D3–A3–E4, one octave under the standard violin, acted as a similar instrument to the tenor violin or viola da spalla.
Baritone Violin, tuned to C2–G2–D3–A3, Tuned the same as a cello but with a larger body.
Bass Violin, tuned to G1–D2–A2–E3 or A1–D2–G2–C3, acted as a new member between the standard tuning of a double bass and cello.
Contrabass Violin, tuned to C1–G1–D2–A2 or E1–A1–D2–G2 (same as double bass tuning) like the double bass but with a larger body.

First presented in 1965

Hutchins developed new methods for tuning the top and bottom

Hatchins published over 100 papers on acoustics and has authored over 5 books.

Hutchins consort website- ²⁾
Biography on the Catgut Acoustical Society website- ³⁾

Other earlier attempts to create a more balanced string section include the work of Alfred Stelzner, and Fred L. Dautrich who both built missing members of the string ensemble.

All authentic Hutchins instruments are labelled with a SUS numbers inside of the sound body of the instrument. The SUS number means pig in Latin.