You can still do it on the softsynths as well, though... In fact, it works better at times on these because every single note (on some of them) is sampled separately, often at many different velocity levels. This means you don't have to learn where the boundaries are, they are on every separate note! And you get a choice of them by either bending a whole tone for one tone, or a half step for another.

The main thing that most of the softsynth saxes don't do is automatically remap samples on identical notes. In other words, you want to play a repeated note (da-da-da-da-da) at the same velocity (it's not a crescendo or diminuendo), but you want it to phrase differently (da-do-be-do-ba-da) so you don't get that giveaway machine gun repetition. This technique, even on sophisticated softsamplers, can still open up your possibilities...

And it's the ONLY way to do it in hardware....