Hi, jeff ---

My results still seem all too limited, but to the extent the string lines are successful, it's not a secret, just lots of time and attention, three computers, 150 sonar tracks, 6 or 7 orchestral libraries .... :

I set the velocity and duration by hand (in event window) for nearly every note ..

and set the pitch adjustment by hand or by an automated cal script for every note (adjusting +/- a few cents, depending on the position of the note in the scale and in a chord);

and use cc#11 for slight volume adjustments for most long notes;

and change articulations constantly, with three different string libraries;

and most recently, breaking up single lines not only by the library and the articulation, but also roughly alternating between two tracks with slightly different panning and stereo separation. This also fixes the problem of a pitch adjustment for one note affecting the release or reverb sound for the previous note.

When recording, I use sonar as the sequencer and samplitude to record the audio, and record each string line by itself, in real time, while listening for nuance (and while doing that, I visit forums and get distracted ...).

When starting this project, I said to myself that an orchestra of 60 players might devote 4 hours of rehearsal to a piece, so one person might propose to spend 240 hours on programming a piece. But I'm around 1000 hours, alas. Luckily I still enjoy the whole process!

Here's an update to the whole thing:

http://www.soundclick.com/util/DownloadSong.cfm?ID=2151941

Working on making the last minute more exciting still.

Thank you, Brad! Getting to the point where encouragement is very needed, trying to finish, finish, really finish it and get it in the mail to conductors.