After the cliffhanger ending of the Vienna Symphonic Library Solo Strings, the public clamored for resolution. This holiday season, there's a new Solo Strings in town, Solo Strings II, and this time its being played . . . con sordino!

Con sordino, or playing with mutes, dampens the energy transmission from the strings to the body of the instrument to soften or darken the sound -- as any good metal guitarist with palms can tell you. When applied to strings, this leads to soft, intimate arrangements and solo parts. Solo Strings II contains many of the same techniques as seen or heard in the original done all muted up -- articulations like short and long notes, crescendo and diminuendo variations and interval performances like legato, portamento and trills. Additional Performance Legatos with super long notes have been included for use with slow parts.

All pitches and velocities are available in 24 variations because VSL doesn't go half-assed, they go all-assed, ass-first, all the time. Shout-outs are also in order for Christian Eisenberger, Katharina Traunfellner, Rubén Dubrovski and Martin Deuring, the four soloists who poured their instrumental expertise into this collection with possibly perfect performances.

The full library boasts a whopping 46.5 GB of uncompressed sample data in 24-bit / 44.1 kHz. Samples are decompressed in realtime to take up only about two-thirds of that space on your hard drive. Isn't that something?

Fast Articulations:

• Performances:
• Interval Performances: Legato with medium, progressive, and without vibrato, portamento, marcato, marcato and cheese, spiccato
• Fast Interval Performances: Legato
• Performance Trills
• Repetition Performances: Legato, portato, mashed portato, staccato, spiccato
• Fast Repetitions: 16ths from 150 to 190 BPM
• Single notes:
• Short notes: Staccato, short détaché, long détaché, four variations each
• Long notes: Sustains with medium, progressive, and without vibrato
• Dynamics: Medium and strong crescendos and diminuendos with vibrato; fp, sfz, sffz, pfp with vibrato
• Tremolo
• Pizzicato
• Artificial harmonics: Staccato, sustains