Paul P
I've been trying figure something out, string-wise, but haven't found a suitable sample in my collection of DimPro samples - including Garritan Pocket Orchestra, DSF Hollywood Strings HD.
Maybe it's because I don't know what it's called, but it looks to me like the samples I have are all notes played with bowing in a single direction. When you play a bowed instrument, you bow back and forth, and this movement provides part of the rhythm. It may be on a single note, different notes on the same string or jumping to other strings. You can get a nice beat going when the back and forth is mixed with the note changes.
Perhaps there's a way to fake this with simple samples ?
I know that Vienna Symphonic Library has different bowing directions (pretty sure GPO does too), in fact, if you hold a note long enough you can hear it switch in VSL. It would be really nice to have more control over it (speed, etc.). However, this is what makes a sampled instrument so different from a real instrument. A violinist will alter the speed of the bow so that they can play longer passages without changing positions if required. They can also changed directions with as little or as much interruption as required (it's all in the wrist!). I cannot begin to imagination how much sampling and programming would go in to such a thing though.
I tend to think of sample libraries as very basic (even though VSL has lots of articulations as well as con sordino, col legno, half-step trills, whole step trills, tremolos, glissando, etc. -- all keyswitchable). I grew up playing violin and I can get some very realistic string passages with a little work and for the most part VSL and GPO are all I need. However, if I need something like bow control or technique I still have to rely on a real instrument--especially with solo parts.