Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try. By "ups and downs," I assume you mean more volume nuances? I have some there now, but mostly just fades at the end of stroke in order to eliminate the abrubt endings that samples give you.
Yes, volume for starters. You sir are the king of envelopes and taught me everything I know about them, you can use them to your advantage by putting nodes all over the place.
Two things we string players do:
1. Always focus on "the line"
2. We cannot physically sustain a note at one volume.
Long notes either get louder or softer depending on the line, but they never stay the same. For a rough idea, every time you change notes there is a volume change, a crescendo or diminuendo into the next note. It will take a while but not that long, just add a node before and after every long note.
The quality of sound is fine, its a good sample. If there is a way to add more vibrato on SOME ( very few) notes via the mod wheel or something, give it a try. Vibrato is inconsistent in real life, it changes all the time. we do "hairpins" a lot with volume and vibrato where we swell up the sound then back off.
For me, working with samples is all about reverb, it just sounds more realistic with more.