Tremolo and the abstract truth

Tremolo is a great effect that can be used to add tension and volume to a cue. Tremolo is a fast, and by default, unmeasured oscillation of the bow. Tremolo, like harmonics, is a color where the use of samples has given composers a false sense of reality.
For some reason, just like sampled timpani rolls, sampled tremolo is performed way
faster than I have ever heard it in the real world. In reality, the speed is related to the
dynamic, just like it is in normal bowing. All of the same variables apply. See here for
a discussion of fingered/keyed tremolo.

Unmeasured tremolo is notated by marking the duration as thirty-second notes,

meaning three slashes. As the durations get shorter, fewer lines are used. This is the
same theory we use for notating drum rolls. Note in the example that there is no tie
between bar one and two. None is needed; there will be no gap or re-articulation.
This will sound like nine beats of tremolo. You would need to put a tenuto or an accent on the second C to force a re-articulation. Due to the way we now work with sequencers, MIDI files, and notation programs, many people now use ties on tremolos.
This is redundant and historically incorrect.
You will notice I did tie the last F. This is to indicate that I want it off on 3!. I do not
want the players to articulate beat 3 at all, just touch it with the end of the tremolo.
Even though I state that thirty-second notes always mean an unmeasured tremolo,
there is one place where I have found the players cannot help themselves and will
play measured. This is a mainly a physical issue, as the players are human not computers.
When a pattern such as the above has to be
played fast, the players will all go to a measured tremolo and perform two bows per
note.
Measured Tremolo
If you need to break the default and want a measured tremolo, there are two common ways to do it.
16th notes-

There are lots of advantages to this notation. For one, it takes less space so you can fit
more measure on each system and secondly, if you need to change the notes, it is easier as there are less to change. It also has a cleaner, less cluttered look. A single slash
gets you 8th notes.
Getting out of Tremolo
The physics of the tremolo need to be considered.
In this example there are a few things that will
happen that will affect the sound. The players
have to cross from the E string to the D string.
This would be an issue even without the tremolo. This happens all the time and is not
really noticeable in the real world. The players will finish the C a little early in order
to leave time to raise the bow and cross to the D string. As an orchestrator, I know
this will happen, so if I am fine with the gap, I will leave it written like this. If this is
with other instruments, I might write in the rest so I can give it to the others and keep
the end of the phrase together. However, the bigger issue with this is that it is impossible to go right from an unmeasured bow to a perfectly measured one. It will take
the players a couple of beats to get in tempo and lock together. You may not be bothered by this in the concert hall, but it will be obvious in the studio. In the studio we
can cheat and pick up the second bar, playing the first to the end, stopping, then
restarting. If this were loud and I needed everyone to play, this is how I would do it.
If it is not important that the C go right to the barline, I might bring them off on
four. Note that it is still extremely hard to go to the metric rhythm with a short gap,
but easier than none. If this was not loud, I could use the firsts for the C, then the seconds or violas play the rhythm. This came up in a cue recently. You can see I used the

firsts on the tremolo and saved the seconds for the rhythmic pattern. The violas are
OK to play, they will have a slight gap, but there are covered by the brass. The firsts
are not covered so have to play to the barline.

Here are some orchestration examples.

Woodwind and Brass
For wind and brass instruments, tremolo is performed by flutter tonguing. The notation is exactly the same as tremolo for strings and percussion. It is common to label
the part as flutter as well as the tremolo articulation, however, I feel this is redundant. The notation is sometimes used for a valve tremolo (same notes played rapidly
by alternate fingerings), but one would go out of their way to label this if it were
what you were asking for as it is not used very often. Flutter tongue is the default.
Percussion
A tremolo is performed as a roll. On all pitched instruments and the bass drum it is
performed by rapid singles strokes. On the snare drum each stroke has multiples,
two or more depending on the style of the music.