What do you mean by 'We hate flats and love sharps'?
Our instruments respond better in sharp keys, we can read sharps easier, etc.
The violin "open" strings are g d a e. If those notes have flats, we cant use open and cant play as fast. Generally, arrangers know about this. It wont be quite the same using machines but some of the samples will be geared for this.
We also play sharp. This isnt always good, but it shows our preference for sharps and brightness. When we play sharp it cuts through easily. I am NOT suggesting you "sharpen" the pitch! Just tellin ya how it works.
Sometimes its cool to mix it up:
Pizziccato= plucking
Tremelo-rapid bow strokes ( its an effect)
Spiccato- bouncing short bow
Marcato= literally means Hammer
Ponticello= this is playing on the bridge. Probably hard to find a patch but its a great effect and spooky
Chords- Sometimes we roll them or stagger them, we dont attack together. Same with pizziccato, we roll them sometimes like a guitar.
If something starts slow and soft, try using a no vibrato patch. I.E. No vibrato at the beginning then warm it up with the modulation wheel. If you have a nice sample, the mod wheel can be awesome if used sparingly.
One final but CRUCIAL point:
Most samples or synths will be WAY behind. They all have a slower attack so you hear the note sound later than it should. Here is what I do:
Record it as is, then slide the .wav back. In SONAR its easy, you just go to process/slide and slide it back by lets say 40 ticks or so. You can even visually see the attack on a .wav so just look at it and line it up visually, I assume all DAWs can do this somehow.
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