Sorry, I was stuck doing a second reply - here is the actual difference - exact same arpeggio and velocity, different articulation:
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Difference Between Slurred and Legato
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Well, that's what I was referring to, in my personal opinion this is the acoustic evidence of the previously discussed topic:
- the little portamento of "Slurred" patch sounds like a position change, that occurs in long phrases due to the need of extending the fingering on the same string, (but of course it doesn't happen at every note because fingered legato and cross-string legato have a pretty different sound, and even more obviously the bow-change legato).
- additionally, in slow phrases and when it's not made on purpose for expressive reason, the player try to hide and/or minimize the portamento for the more flowless possible phrasing.
- my personal conclusion is that this pretty artificial and arbitrary patch has a very specific purpose, e.g. creating the blurred and less defined transitions of fast passages (but more specific "fast legato" patches were better for this purpose) and/or change position effect.
Sometime VSL team disseminate this type of recommendations in some video tutorials or in some patch description on the manual, maybe the information exists somewhere, but it seems not so evident or self-explanatory in synchron strings/player patch-names and manuals.