Hi Andrew
For the short notes, I use the spiccato patch. I find it more realistic than the staccato patch, especially for the violins. For the soft passages, I use the soft legato patch with legato blur at 50-60. I really like this patch. It's very expressive. For the fast passages, I use the fast legato patch with marcato at 127 for the violins and a bit less for the cellos. For all the long notes, I use velocity crossfade for the dynamics. Hope it helps.
Kind regards,
David