The VSL Instruments Solo Strings II features muted Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. This Vienna instruments collection is the sequel to Solo Strings I, offering all-new and sonic subtleties.

The Solo Strings II contains many of the playing techniques that the first collection includes, but played con sordino or with mutes. Playing with mutes dampens the transmission of energy from the strings to the body of the instrument and softens or darkens the sound. Muted string instruments lend themselves well to soft, intimate arrangements and solo parts and provide nuanced variations to any kind of musical style with their different structure of overtones and harmonics. Only wooden mutes crafted by a special instrument maker have been used in order to fit perfectly to the bridge of each instrument. The Solo Strings II collection contains articulations such as muted short and long notes, crescendo and diminuendo variations, as well as interval performances like legato, portamento and trills.

Furthermore, additional performance legatos with very long notes have been recorded for use in slower parts. Thus, every single pitch and velocity is available in 24 variations and going the extra mile proved worthwhile.
The 4 soloists Christian Eisenberger, Katharina Traunfellner, Ruben Dubrovski and Martin Deuring have invested their life's work and hard-won experience, both from their international concert performances as well as from several years of working for the Vienna Symphonic Library, into this collection. Sensitive and clear, exact and homogeneous their performances at the Silent Stage are technically perfect and come alive again in this Vienna Instrument.

The Solo Strings full library contains 46.5 GB of uncompressed sample data in 44.1 kHz / 24bit. Due to an innovative optimization process, the Vienna Instruments engine decompresses the samples in real-time, so that they take up only 31 GB of space on your hard disk. Please note: Even if you licensed the Standard Library only, the full library of your collection gets installed on your hard drive since Standard and Extended Library can't be separated due to structural database requirements. Each library comes with the software instrument, standard library and extended library on DVD. You get each collection with its Standard Library and the software-instrument (i.e., the engine with its user interface). You can also test the included extended library for a period of 30 days.