David, the solo strings in Kirk’s diamond orchestra are outstanding. It is the best sounding soft synth orchestra that I have ever heard. It is very realistic. But it should be for the MSRP! I must add that I have not heard the even more expensive orchestral synths as they are way out of my price range.

You really don’t want to mess around with the demo mode in Kontakt player. It’s a PITA.

Kontakt’s Session Strings is really good for pop/rock music but you need a full version of Kontakt to run it. Again it is out of your price range but I just thought that I would let you know it’s there. I have it and use it for pop/rock.

Like you said adding vibrato via the mod wheel (LFO) can sound really weird. I use the pitch bend wheel or the pitch bend via my wind controller (same thing, different ways to do it) to add vibrato. It is much more realistic.

I hope this helps.

Whenever I get something stuck in the back of my throat, I dislodge it by drinking a beer.
It's called the Heineken Maneuver.

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware