William-- I am without a doubt "legato happy"-- and more specifically "zigane" happy. I did listen very carefully to recorded performances and tried to emulate what I heard. It's likely that I went a bit overboard, but the vast majority of slides I used were in one form or another in the "real" recordings. But it's probable the real violinists technique was more sublte and varied than mine.
Joaz from Northern sounds posted a series of comments from his wife an accomplished violinist. I repost them here because I think they will be of interest to all.
@Joaz said:
Hi Jay
I ran it past my wife Azhaar, and these were her comments...
Good stuff
Progressive vibrato very good.
Great harmonics,She loved the bow noise.
Down Shifts,very lifelike.
A Tad Critical
Needs more variation of vibrato speed and intensity.
The upshifts all sound like one-finger shifts, whereas for big shifts, Violinist usually cross strings and change fingers.(I have no idea if that is possible with samples though)
A Little more bite on the downbows even in the mp-mf range.
She felt that the cresendo's were a little too fast as you do have to physically move the bow a long way to get a good crescendo.
Overall
She was impressed with the musicality of the whole performance. And liked the overall sound.
Unsurprisingly When it comes to Violin, she tends to be a harsher critic of sample performances, than live ones, and having been on the end of one of her critiques of some of my stuff, I can assure you, you got off lightly.
I would enjoy hearing the reactions of other violinists on this forum.
Best,
Jay