I agree that the strings, particularly the violins, are the hardest part of the sampled orchestra to get right. I'm not sure if getting new samples, plugging them in, and presto they're perfect, is going to happen. Not that new ones are unnecessary. I particularly feel that mp/mf espressivo dynamic - especially in legato - is a gap in anybody's current string representation. If VSL added portamento in a soft dynamic and an mp lyrical espressivo it would be the most signficant event in the history of mankind as everyone here knows.
But despite that, the violins are many intruments playing at once, and a sampled section is one (at a time). I am convinced this has something to do with it - a loss of the sense of multiple instruments in the samples. Also, the timbre is affected in the mix by the mere presence of other instruments, unlike a live orchestra, which if you have conducted or played in one, you always notice sounds richer and richer the more instruments play, and you can still feel the size and spaciousness of the strings. But with sampled strings, they sound thinner and thiner the more other instruments play. So this is a phenomenon of the mix, since if you listen to them straight out of the box with nothing else playing they sound fabulous. There is a third element and this is noticeable in the demos, many of which sound very rich and full: orchestration which uses the strings in a characteristic manner. If you score a thin little piano line for sampled violins it is going to sound like a thin little piano line for sampled violins. On doing the Vaughn Williams demo, I noticed that VW's scoring for the strings is so contrapuntal and full in how one group supports and accentuates another that it automatically made the strings sound much fuller. (I didn't have to do a thing for that - just play in the brilliant music and it happens instantly.) Though I also noticed some of the same thinness cropping up in the mix nevertheless which I tried to combat. Jay Bacall has probably done as much with this as anyone and could offer many suggestions. Perhaps another thread should address this.
O.K., sorry to go off topic.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THREE DAYS!!!! I CAN'T STAND IT ANY LONGER !!!!