Embertone Friedlander violin

So.... one of the most difficult instruments to play convincingly from a keyboard. Some very clever Kontakt scripting has produced a beautifully playable instrument and I particularly like that you have full control over vibrato and that, unlike most violin patches, the sound will be without vibrato until you use the appropriate controller - several of the patches map the modwheel to this and on my one controller with aftertouch, I have this mapped to produce mod CCs and there is something enormously satisfying about leaning on a note to produce vibrato. When you play legato it will apply portamento when appropriate and, as far as I can see, only after you have sustained the note for a period of time, so that quick runs don't trigger portamento. I haven't had much time to dig but I imagine there's a dedicated CC for triggering portamento as well, if you had the appropriate controller.
 
In my opinion, well worth the 110 bucks if you've ever aspired to be a violinist. You get both 16 bit and 24 bit sample sets which total around 7G, which gives you an idea of the depth to which the instrument was sampled.
 
You don't need fifteen foot pedals, instant gratification is available but there appears to be a good deal of indepth control available if you want to tweak. Next payday I might look at the cello they've just released, as well.