to give some context here are some example screenshots from the vst I am using

 

Keep in mind it is not so much a matter of simultaneous sounding of notes as it is about attempting authenticity. If you are as I mentioned ealier, only going for pads, it does not matter as much.

More often than not, composers use DIVISI in a violin section when they want more complex chords. While they certainly can play 3rds, they tend to sound better to reiterate, doing perfect 4ths and 5ths.
Additionally, depending on the number of violins, there is no chord violins in section cannot play. This said, they are almost always allocated independently with a note per violin. It is worth noting, most composers spread a larger chord out between several string sections because simply, it sounds better, unless it is for a specific effect.

A string section has a natural chorus because in a section, there are microtonal differences... e.g. not all violinists will hit every note perfectly on the exact same pitch or time though the difference will be so marginal, to the ear the average person cannot tell, unless it is a student orchestra(sometimes painful). This is why many libraries do not sound real playing a chord from a MIDI keyboard at once, and why you should play each part in one at a time if you truly want to emulate real strings.

P.S - The best sounding violins I have heard that were sampled, the composer played each in manually and did NOT quantize them.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 12, 2023

For the benefit of anyone else who may come across this thread and looking for a solution.

DIVISIMATE takes a multi note chord, splits it up into individual notes, then sends each note to a different 'virtual' midi channel. In your DAW you then configure multiple tracks and set each tracks input midi channel to one of the virtual channels. Polyphonic string chords? No problem!

You can configure the number of splits, so for example if I was planning to play 3 note chords in the treble , I might configure 3 voices to 3 channels. You can trim the range which divisimate responds to by selecting LOW or MEL and adjusting the respective slider. You can tell divismate to work from high to low or low to high ( when it splits the chords).

You then configure the DAW of chose to listen on the respective virtual midi channel.

 

I'm always on the lookout for tools that enhance the violin's versatility, and this seems like a great addition to the arsenal.