How do the Full strings sus+short work?

[AndreasvanHaren]

I am playing around with the different strings and am wondering how the short strings work. When I select the Full strings short, I do hear the short bows while playing on my piano, but what about for example the Full strings sus+short? I hear sustained notes and there are no key switches. Does this patch depend on a special way playing?

André

[Tom Hopkins]

Sus+Short patches layer short bow samples with the sustain samples. The overall patch volume/timbre is controlled by cc1 as with all other "expressive" sustained instruments. The short bow samples' ratio of contribution is controlled by velocity - the higher the velocity the more you hear the short bows. This can be used to control the attack strength of the beginning of a sustain line. It also becomes possible to play or construct lines that contain different note lengths without the need for keyswitching between sustain and short bow samples. Short notes with higher velocity will favor the short samples (adding to the realism of the short notes. It's a convenient and flexible way to get relatively intuitive and fast results.

Tom