ddunn, you have provided no facts to back up your opinion, whereas I have provided the facts as I found them (although in retrospect I was wrong about double-stopped harmonics).
jasensmith, I apologize that you found my post offensive. I did choose an outrageous title. It should have ended with a question mark. I was feeling very frustrated at having spent weeks, indeed, trying to figure out things that I thought should have been obvious even to a newbie. (Why doesn't a long note last for its written duration?) I had also just received an estimate of what it would cost to buy a computer big enough to fully handle VSL. So I wanted a quick response, in order to decide whether to jump ship, and I'm grateful to everyone who responded, even those who are condescending.
Herb, thank you for your efforts to correct me. Like Henrik, I appreciate what you do. May I be allowed to respond?
My posting was not intended to have an offensive tone. Any opinions or feelings in it are derived directly from the facts presented. I would love to believe that you can change my mind. Note that I have not yet said anything to my professional friend. First I wanted to post my findings here, where I was sure to draw a barrage of fire, before saying anything negative to my friend.
I have looked through the PDF manuals to educate myself following your statement that "the sustain patches are mapped with the option of retriggering the sustain sound at all available bow changes". Sadly I have not found the word "retrigger" or "bow" or even "loop" in the manuals. I don't doubt the truth of what you say, but your manuals do not help me to understand it.
The nearest I have found, perhaps, is something about Release Time. I did this experiment: I created MIDI notes for the sustain articulation (the one which lasts 6 seconds). Each note was 5.5 seconds long. I left only 18 milliseconds between notes. In the VI Perform window I mapped controller 68 to the Master Release. In the MIDI track, I increased controller 68 just before the end of each note, and brought it back to zero after the retrigger. What sound did I get? A bow change after the first 5.5 seconds, then the second note died after only 3 seconds! This seems to indicate that I'd have to write a new note every 3 seconds, and still hear a bow change that sounds nowhere near as good as a real violinist would make. And, there was a long release trail after the last note, even though controller 68 was at zero. This is not good. I look forward to being corrected by you. But wouldn't it be nice if the solution were explained in the manual?
Regarding my points 2 and 3, I'm not sure what you're saying, but I assume the solution would be similar to the solution for point 1.
Regarding point 4, I was wrong. I can get double-stopped harmonics, as long as both notes are high enough. My error was to test double-stops where the lower note was outside the range. Sorry.
What I said in point 5 stands. You are right; that's the way it was designed. And I am right; it is troublesome to use.
My point 6 stands. The glitch in A440 is very noticeable. It came to my attention because I was working on some real music, and this note stood out. The nearby G# and Bb do not have this problem. Another take with the microphone could have eliminated this problem.
My point 7 stands, although I don't expect much sympathy in this forum. Everyone will tell me my computer is too old. Yes, maybe it's too old to run VSL. But it's been running Kontakt for a year, with lots more intruments, no problem. Comparatively, VSL is a resource hog, as cgernaey has found, and it may force me to spend a lot more money on hardware I wouldn't otherwise need.
I'm at a point where I need to radically accelerate my learning curve, or spend a great deal of money, or give up on VSL.