Hello Jensos.

Here is my take on your question.

I would first say that in order to make a bigger sound, using more violins is not always the best option.  When you go from 3 to 8 then to 16 violins playing the same phrase, what happens is that you progressively lose the focus and the precision of the articulation.  There comes a point when you have soup.  You could be better served using a reasonable amount of instruments and putting them into a larger space with more "wet", again stopping at the moment you get chaos.

That being said, with 8 violins (I think this is more than enough) playing the same phrase like this : 4 with legato patch (and some velocity crossfade and expression controllers), one with pfp patch, one with harmonic patch and two with decrease patch, you get fantastic DYNAMICS, which is exactly the opposite as when you have 16 of them playing the same thing.

Also, the overall arrangement and orchestration can, by subtly using contrasts, achieve impressive results.  A good trick to make one passage sound really loud is to have a quiet passage right before.  This is much more efficient than putting all faders in the red zone (as our ears and our brain constantly adapt theirselves to the ambiant).

Of course, you could program 24 1st violins and by simply varying their place, humanize and filter settings obtain a very nice yummy potage.  But please, don't forget that any potage tastes only as good as its perfect temperature, the table it is served on, the curtains on the wall, the candles on the table, the style of the server serving it, and the cosy person you have in front of you when eating it.  I mean : don't forget to learn to write beautiful music.  No overproduction will beat that (at least, not for long).

Hope this helps.

Stephane. 

I think in your very position, Dimension strings is the best way to go.  You can try out and decide what works best, from solo violin to 8 members section.  If you get MIR alltogether, you have something that is quite new in the business : a convincing mean to make true orchestration decisions, as what you get is so very close to the real thing.

Interesting, those online classes.

Best.

Stephane.

The transposition of all 8 players to create a second group works perfectly, and enlarges the sound.  You can hear it in the Vertigo demo I did.  I have also done several other pieces more recently, not posted here, and it is very useful and works just like transposing the other ensembles or solo instruments. 

One thing to keep in mind is to apply completely different randomize settings to each player within the 8 player sections.  This helps a lot in creating a more complex sound that is almost uncanny in realism.    Also, since the individual players "interact' with each other, I have tried to keep them in groups of two 8 player sections, so that it preserves that tonal interaction which is a basic part of the Dimension recording technique.