Creating Realistic Trills & Tremolos

I can't get a trill or tremolo to sound natural.  Are there any techniques for doing this, particularly in Staff View?

You don't mention what softsynths/virtual instruments you're talking about. Basically, it's the velocity values that are used to create the accents that make them sound natural. Also, the samplers/sample players may have varying amount of velocity layers and the quality of samples varies.

For orchestral trills and tremolos, you are probably not going to get what you want without proper articulations that support this. You can try and fake trills, and if it isn't up front in the mix, it might be be passable. I'd suggest taking a look at some of the better libraries that are available that have the articulations you would need.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

If you have a patch the does not re-trigger—that is, there is a soft attack when you play connected notes instead of a sharp attack when you play separate notes—you can usually get a decent trill by programming notes that are about 1/10 or 1/12 of a quarter note in duration and overlapping them slightly (but it depends on the tempo).
 
For example, if you are using 120 ticks per quarter, you might put notes 10 ticks apart but give them 12 tick durations so they overlap enough to prevent re-triggering.
 
For an ensemble like a string section, you can do this on two tracks and make sure the notes are not perfectly aligned—for example every 10 ticks on one track and every 8 or 12 on another.  Some instruments play the first note of a trill a little longer than the others; like: daaa,di,da,di,da,di....
 
This is tedious but once you have it you can copy it.  Whether or not it sounds good just depends on the patch and the timing.  I have spent 30 minutes making a trill, decided it was too fast or too slow, and then spent another 30 minutes redoing it.  Such is the pain of an artist.

You need the proper articulation sample from the instrument. Anything else sounds fake. You may get away with a trill if the attack is only on the first note. Tremolo, no chance whatsoever.

You might try messing around with the Arpeggiator... you might find something that comes close to the sound you're looking for.  You can tweak the timing and velocity a bit in the Arpeggiator window.
 
BUT... if you really are serious about getting a good trill/tremolo sound (strings, woodwinds and brass), save up for EastWests Symphony Gold...

Here is an example of that patch in use for a xmas song I threw together last year:http://soundcloud.com/eta...ess-ye-merry-gentleman