Review Tutti Vox from Sonokinetic
Tutti Vox is all about Choral Effects, and at that it is Excels. Any professional composer would benefit from adding Tutti Vox to their tool kit. I love the way Sonokinetic has incorporated icons representing clusters, glissandos, falls, ect.
If you are a very melodic composer then Tutti Vox could inspire you and help you expand your sound in a way you maybe haven't thought of before.
The GUI display isn't not very intuitive. I spent a couple hours with the instrument and still missed some of the key features. You may need to watch all the Sonokinteic videos and read the manuals carefully to make the most of Tutti Vox.
Tutti Vox at Sonokinetic.com
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Review Tutti Vox from Sonokinetic
The Facts
Tutti Vox is cinemtac choir instrument for Kontakt and the Kontakt player (5.1 and up). Tutti Vox contains 41,000+ Samples. Tutti Vox has three main patches including: Tutti Vox Core, Tutti Vox Lingua & Tutti Vox Spoken. Each patch is offered in 24 & 16 Bit versions as well as LITE versions.
Tutti Vox was recorded using a 48 piece choir of Male and Female Singers. The 48 piece Cinematic Choir is comprised of 12 Sopranos, 12 Altos, 12 Tenors, 12 Basses. The patches include the ability to control the Male and Female singers volume (and mute) separately. The patches also include a set of effects for reverb, filtering, eq and delay.
First Thoughts
Tutti Vox is a cinematic choral effects library. The samples are clear and will blend well in your template. One of the important things to know is that this is an effects instrument. There are no legato patches but you are able to create convincing effect when playing vowels and using the modwheel for expression. You can also use the Pitch Wheel for attack control although this was a feature I did not discover when I fist reviewed the instrument. That said, Tutti Vox does modern cinematic choir effects beautifully with options of clusters, glisandos, chants, rises, falls, crescendos, decrescendos, atonal beds, tonal beds, whistles, whispers, words, vowels, consonants and shouts.
The Patches
Tutti Vox Core
The main patch is the Tutti Vox Core patch. It is a collection of vocal effects. The Core patch contains glissandos, clusters, rises, falls, crescendos, decrescendos, atonal beds, tonal beds, whistles, whispers, words, vowels, consonants and shouts.
Many of the samples cluster and glissandos have 2 bar, 4 bar and 8 bar versions. Many of the clusters, vowels and consanants’ have the ability to loop them. The patch has the ability to trigger velocity wither by key pressure or by using the mod wheel.
In the Tutti Vox Core instrument you are able changing the section for each row by clicking on its title and selection one of the options. This gives you the ability to store glissandi across the first octave, or only beds or FX, . You can then save these settings as your own presets.
Each phrase of the Tutti Vox Core patch has a number ‘takes’ and is triggered round robin. The takes cycle through, each time you trigger a performance. It is possible to control which take you playback by clicking the takes button (little dot) at the bottom of the interface, and then selecting the corresponding dot (below the graphic). You can reset back to the first round robin by pressing the keyswitch in the middle there.
Tutti Vox Lingua
Tutti Vox Lingua is the instruments phrase builder. Here you have 4 banks to create phrases by choosing vowels and consonants’ as well as full words. Each section (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) has it’s own range mapped out on the keyboard which has been colored to delineate change in section. By going into the Lingua advanced mode you can program your choir sections independent of one another in ONE instance of Kontakt and have them sing multiple phrases simultaneously.
Lingua has an ‘advanced’ section of which allows you to fill up words and vowels in a 4 bar sequencer for playback giving you endless possibilities.
The longer words in the instrument allow you to switch melody and harmony in the middle of the words. This lets you play a melodies or chords with words.
Tutti Vox Spoken
Tutti Vox Spoken is a patch of unpitched spoken word recorded by the male and female voices separately and mapped across the entire keyboard so you have access to them all at your fingertips.
Interface
Although I do love the way Sonokinetic has incorporated icons representing clusters, glissandos, falls, etc, if I am going to be picky I am going to critique the interface. There is something about the big blocks on the interface that bother me. I wish the GUI wasn’t so squared off but was more organic. It seems very ridged and I just wonder if there isn’t a better design that might be more intuitive.
Wrap Up
Tutti Vox is all about Choral Effects and luckily it excels at it. The icing on the cake for me are all the amazing aleatoric textures. Sonokinetc have captured all the excitement of being in the room with a full choir performing odd stabs, whispers,clusters, textures, glissandos and cresendos. Tutti Vox can add so much life to a score and be a great addition to your sample library arsenal especially of you are scoring epic music for film, trailers or video games.
If you are a very melodic composer then Tutti Vox could inspire you and help you expand your sound in a way you maybe haven’t thought of before.
Now I haven’t worked with Cappricio or Grosso, I have heard the demos and they sound great, but just getting hands on with Tutti Vox I am inclined to take another look at Sonokinetic‘s other libraries.
With a retail price of 299 Euro my thoughts are that any professional composer would benefit from adding Tutti Vox to their tool kit especially if they are scoring anything calling for Choral Effects.
Also, I salute Sonokinetic for coloring the kontakt keyboard which makes navigating the instrument much easier. With Tutti Vox Lingua (quick play & advanced mode) you also have the ability to map sections on the keyboard. This lets you stack your loaded vowels, words, consonants` in one octave, allowing you to play the insturment with one hand, or lets you layout males and females separate, or everything separated. Lots of flexibilty although this was a feature I did not see when I fist reviewed the instrument.
One thing I like about Tutti Vox is how it is developed as an instrument. It’s not just playing back samples captured in the real world, it’s set up in a way that lets you play the choir effects at your fingertips as an instrument of it’s own. This is the kind of innovation that I get excited about with software instruments.
