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Mar 28, 2017 DOWNLOAD VST! Native Instuments THE GRANDEUR Kontakt. Kontakt VST: Grand Piano - The most realistic Virtual Piano ever! DOWNLOAD THE MAREVICK PIANO KONTAKT FREE. The tone, timbre and depth of a well-tempered acoustic piano has perhaps the widest expressive range of any instrument this side of a complete orchestra. Encapsulating the magic in digital audio samples, combined with a compelling way to play back these samples with grace and subtlety is something of a holy grail for plugin developers and VST users alike.

Keyzone Classic 1.0. 27.385 Views Rating: 3.3 /5 (40 votes) This plugin does not have one but qualities of five different professional pianos that include Keyzone 1, Yamaha Grand Piano, Steinway Grand Piano, Basic Electric Piano, and Rhodes Piano. All of these are of premium quality and are made for professionals.

Are you new to music production and looking for free piano VSTS? Well, you’ve come to the right place. I do want to say that you will most likely find a bunch of different free piano VSTS that you don’t like before you find ones you do.

Sample based piano plugin on Windows and Apple OS system. Grand Piano VST instrument. Versilian Upright Piano. Designed as a lightweight sketching piano, the VS Upright No. 1 is a clean sampling of an upright piano, the standard of homes, small clubs, and studios around the world. The All-Time Best Free Rhodes VST Plugins. Looking for the perfect free Rhodes VST plugin in 2021? Look no further! Over the past 13 years, I have searched through hundreds of plugins and spent hours and hours trying to find the gold amongst the endless sea of shitty free VST plugins. Download the Best Free VST Audio Plugins for Mac OSX. Synths, Reverbs, Compressors.and much more. Just click and download. Keyzone Classic Free VST Piano (100% Free Download) We are proud to introduce a new plug-in called KeyZone Classic, available for both Windows users and MAC users. Bitsonic created this virtual piano using some real piano instruments and professional microphones.

It is my opinion that there are a few good options for free piano VSTS that sound pretty realistic. With this being said, I wouldn’t put these next to some of the expensive options.

I just feel like there a few options that the free options don’t measure up to, however, that should be expected in my opinion.

Note: While there are many options, I am going to mention the few that I think are actually worth your time. There a lot of options that are dated and just sound plain bad.

Free piano plugins are a smart choice for musicians who are looking to the waters and figure out what kind of sound they like. You will find that a lot of the piano plugin sounds vary quite drastically. Find something you like and then check out some Youtube videos of some of the paid VSTS for better options.

These free piano plugins can be used with all major DAW’s including:

  • Reason
  • Logic
  • FL Studio
  • Reaper
  • Pro Tools

If your DAW isn’t on the list, they will probably still work with them.

Contents

  • 3 Best Free Piano VST Plugins
    • 3.1 Salamander Piano By Bigcat Instruments
    • 3.2 KeyZone Classic – Windows & Mac
    • 3.3 The Grand DSK Piano – Windows & Mac
    • 3.4 Versilian Upright – Windows & Mac
    • 3.5 Piano One – Windows & Mac
    • 3.6 Dead Duck Audio Dpiano – Windows & Mac
    • 3.7 Ivy Audio Piano In 162 -Windows & Mac
    • 3.8 City Piano – Windows & Mac
    • 3.9 Jazz Baby – Windows
    • 3.10 VGP Grand Piano – Windows

Pros Of Using Free Piano VSTS

  • Test the waters without breaking your bank
  • Get a feel for which types of piano sounds you enjoy
  • Get comfortable with using VSTS
  • Instantly have a piano that you can experiment with
  • Save memory space

Cons

  • Limited Sounds
  • Quality of sound isn’t always great
  • You may run into compatibility issues and buggy software

Let’s get into my favorite choices below.

Best Free Piano VST Plugins

Salamander Piano By Bigcat Instruments

The Salamander piano plugin is the latest plugin that I’ve tried out. With this, what you see is what you get. It’s not a crazy in-depth plugin, but it’s efficient.

The quality might actually be my favorite to date. With this being said, you may run into problems with it. I’ve seen and heard a few different things going wrong with this. Sometimes, going high up on the register (C5) can cause a crackling sound.

Another thing to note is that you may have to uninstall and reinstall occasionally as it seems to be a little unstable.

Sound

Salamander sounds warmer than most of the other options. I’m a big fan of warm and dark sounding pianos, rather than bright. This is a sample of the Yamaha C5 Grand Piano.

Overall

Depending on the DAW that you’re running, this could be perfect or it could a little bit annoying. Download it and give it a whirl is my advice.

KeyZone Classic – Windows & Mac

KeyZone is one of the more popular free piano VSTS as it has been around and gone through some nice updates. I personally l dig the sound of this and I really like the clean interface. You will most likely need to add some EQ and reverb in order to get it where you want it to sound.

It comes with 5 presets that include:

  • Piano from Keyzone 1
    Yamaha Grand Piano
    Steinway Grand Piano
    Basic Electric Piano
    Rhodes Piano

While it contains 5 presets, I only use the Steinway and the Rhodes piano from it. The other ones aren’t bad, I just for whatever reason always find myself going to those two when I use Keyzone.

Sound

Honestly, it doesn’t sound bad, I actually find this one to sound pretty decent. I frequently use the East-West Piano, so when I don’t use that, it’s hard for others to compare.

I have to mention that there may be a slight hissing sound on A and A# on the Steinway piano. You can hear this when recording and when doing solos, it’s a little annoying, but it is free.

I recently wrote about my favorite paid piano VSTS here. Check them out!

Overall

As far as Keyzone goes overall, I think this is a super solid choice to test the waters and get your feet wet.

The Grand DSK Piano – Windows & Mac

The DSK Grand piano is a classic free piano VST that I think is definitely useable. I know that there will be some people who rip on it, but for a free option, it’s easy to use and gets the job done.

Available for Windows and Mac (32 and 64 bit).

One thing I will note is that some people complain about certain notes distorting. I personally haven’t had this problem, but I’ve only used it a handful of times.

Free piano vst download

Sounds

The low end can get a little bit jumbled, but it’s not the end of the world. The mids seem pretty decent to me, which is where most of your playing will be. You will definitely want to dial in some EQ and reverb for this.

Overall

This is a fairly newer VST as it came out about 2 years ago. I think it definitely gets the job done for new producers and producers on a budget.

Versilian Upright – Windows & Mac

I personally might actually rate this as my favorite free piano VST plugin. It also comes with a great story. A student of Berklee decided to mic up and record a few upright pianos in the basement of a dorm. What we get is what his results were.

I think is the most realistic sounding free piano VST that’s currently available. If you’re a fan of upright pianos or grew up on them as I did, you will enjoy it.

Sounds

Right out of the gates, this sounds better, in my opinion, than all of the other free piano plugins that I’ve found. You can add a little bit of reverb and sustain and it should start sounding good quite quickly.

Overall

I believe that Versilian Upright is a great choice for a free option and it should definitely be on your radar of plugins to try. It’s a simple download and there’s a great chance you enjoy it.

Piano One – Windows & Mac

Piano One is a great choice and it actually uses an extremely popular piano, the Yamaha C7 Concert Grand. This has been used all over the world and it is a beautiful sounding piano.

What I really like about this is that they updated to take up less memory and they made it have faster load times. The interface is rather simple to navigate as well and you can quickly add effects like reverb.

While the interface on this isn’t the most appealing to look at, it’s simple to use and you will easily be able to change what you need.

Sounds

Piano One sounds really warm. I have the unpopular opinion that warm pianos sound better than bright pianos. This sounds really warm to me and that’s a big plus in my opinion.

Overall

Piano One is a solid choice if you enjoy warm pianos. It’s not super bright, which in my opinion, can lead to cheap-sounding plugins. Since it’s hard to emulate a real piano, I find that overly bright plugins can often sound thin and stale.

Dead Duck Audio Dpiano – Windows & Mac

When it comes to user experience, Dead Duck Audio delivers in this department. You get a rather simple interface that is very easy to navigate, even for beginners.

With this being said, there are no piano keys for you look at or click on. What I really like about this plugin is that you’re able to able to tweak presets and instantly save them as your own.

This is handy for those who are hands-on and really like to tweak things. What I also like about this plugin is that not a lot of people have heard of this one, yet. I do believe that this will become a popular free option though.

Sounds

The straight-up presets are not my favorites, however, you can easily tweak them to your liking. As far as dynamics go, this plugin is able to capture dynamics surprisingly nicely.

Overall

Overall, I think this plugin definitely deserves a peak, however, I don’t reckon that it will become your go-to option. I feel like it falls just a little bit short in its sound.

Ivy Audio Piano In 162 -Windows & Mac

The Ivy Audio piano plugin is one of my favorite sounding free options to date. The one downside here is that it requires the full version of Kontakt in order to run.

With this being said, if you happen to have Kontakt, you may have found your winner. The interface rocks and it also has a piano on it, so you can see the keys play as your MIDI plays.

You can also adjust certain parameters while doing playback.

There are 3 different options that you can tweak in the interface, those being: reverb, damping, and EQ. They all work as they should and you can also use your own external plugins for these effects should you choose.

Sounds

I believe the Ivy Audio plugin actually sounds really nice. It is a little brighter than some of the other options, yet it still covers the low-end nicely as well.

This is a Steinway & Sons Model B and this is a very pricey piano that has been sampled.

Overall

If you have the full version of Kontakt, this is a free option that you shouldn’t pass up. The dynamics are some of the best that I’ve found in a free option and you can get very expressive with your playing.

City Piano – Windows & Mac

City Piano is a popular option that doesn’t have much to it. You get attack, decay, sustain and release controls as well as panning and volume.

The interface is easy to navigate as there’s not much to it. There’s also a piano on the interface that allows you to see the notes that are being played.

This plug is made by Bigcat Audio, the same makers for the Salamander plugin. I personally prefer the Salamander over this, however, this is another option to check out.

The City Piano is a sampled Baldwin baby grand piano. The mics that were used to capture the samples were high-quality and Baldwin pianos have a nice dark undertone that I typically really enjoy.

Sounds

Kontakt Piano Plugin

City Piano sounds decent overall. This is another one of those options that could work if you’re needing something fast to test out the waters on a song.

Overall

Overall, this is a plugin that is worth checking out. There are a few that I think are better free options, however, everyone has their own things that they like as far as with plugins.

Jazz Baby – Windows

Jazz Baby is an older, yet solid option. The one negative thing about this VST is that it is only for 32 bit.

This is a rather small download that doesn’t take up much space and it is super easy for computers to run it. As far as tweaking goes, you really don’t have many things to tweak on the interface.

With this being said, you can easily use any of your own effects on it in order to get it to your satisfaction.

Sound

Jazz Baby is a sampled upright piano that gives you a vibe of a jazz piano bar. It sounds especially good when playing the blues or jazz pieces and it almost has a bit of a honky-tonk sound to it.

Overall

There are some limitations and it doesn’t work on Macs. As far as sound goes, this is a decent look at a free option.

VGP Grand Piano – Windows

The VGP grand piano is a free option that comes with a nice user interface. The customization that you’re able to do is what sets it apart from certain plugins.

With this being said, this plugin only works with Windows, so if you’re a Mac user, you won’t be able to use it.

As far as the presets go, there’s 40 of them. Some of them don’t sound the greatest, however, you can easily tweak them to your liking.

Sounds

VGP competes with the other options mentioned in this article and I think it beats some of them as well. It’s a brighter sounding piano, so if you’re into bright pianos, you may dig this one.

Overall

This is 32 bit and it doesn’t work with Macs. If you’re running Windows, this could be a great option to check out. One of the nice things about it is that it is a small download and easy on computer space.

What To Look For In A Free Piano VST?

Sound: Everyone enjoys different sounding pianos. With that being said, if you download enough free piano VSTS, you are going to run into some that you can’t stand. Give each a try and determine if you prefer bright or warm with pianos. ( I find that a lot of musicians prefer bright, however, I just love dark and mellow sounding pianos.

Effects: All of these options that I’ve presented above come with basic effects and controls that you can play with. The more things you can tweak, the better.

CPU: You want to find something that doesn’t take up a ton of CPU. Most of these options aren’t very intensive, so that’s a plus.

Functionality: There’s nothing more frustrating than downloading free VSTS and having them just not work or be extremely buggy. I’ve never had any serious glitch problems with these options.

Are Free Piano VSTs Worth Downloading?

While I already mentioned that I believe you’re better off going with a paid piano VST usually, I still believe you should have an option that you can go to while writing.

While some options may not sound the best, they still do ultimately allow you to hear what your finished product could sound like.

I also would like to note that, some of the most famous songs were written and performed on some of the cheapest instruments. Creativity and what you are able to do as a musician or producer usually tops big pockets that lack creativity.

Are Free VSTs Safe?

Well, anytime that you download anything, you risk hurting your computer. With this being said, if you go through a reputable website, you should be okay. Just try not to click on any weird looking links that seem sketchy.

With this being said, stay away from cracked VSTs, they are absolutely dangerous and they are against the law.

Do Free VSTs Take Up Less Space?

Free Toy Piano Vst Mac

They typically will be easier on your computer to run and require less space. The recording technique does come into play here. Next to each download you will be able to see what the system requirements are.

One of the reasons why free piano plugins are great is that they generally are easier to run.

Conclusion

There are a lot of different free piano VSTS that you can try out. My advice is to try these ones and to continue trying more out as you go. Something might strike you as great, even if others don’t enjoy it.

I recently created some super in-depth guides that I think you might enjoy. Check them out below as they’re related.

Before heading out, be sure to leave a comment and share this article if you enjoyed it. Also, I would love if you shared this to other musicians in as many places as you would like!

Virtual instruments are now more popular than ever, so we are checking out the best piano VST plugins available in 2020.

Melodyne Studio Celemony 5.0.1.003 (Aug/2020) 64-bit (Standalone, VST, VSTi, VST3, AAX) Windows 7,8 and 10 Instructions: Run the installer and enjoy Direct Download (24MB) August 1, 2020 12 Arturia Analog Lab (Mac). What To Look For In A Electric Piano VST Plugin. Sound: With an electric piano VST, you want to focus on how close it emulates a real electric piano. Obviously, the closer the better. With this, you also want to focus on the features that each VST gives you.

Many piano VST’s are thought to sound more realistic than the piano engines found in keyboard workstations, etc. When you consider the processing power of high-quality PC’s and Mac’s, it’s no surprise that some plugins can push the boundaries further than a physical instrument. In this article, we will list and review our top piano plugins.

Here are the best piano VST plugins 2020:

1. Spectrasonics Keyscape

The ultimate piano VST plugin

Spectrasonics are giants of the virtual instrument world; their Omnisphere synth changed the way people think about VST’s. Now, they Keyscape Collector Keyboards VST is the benchmark for virtual pianos.

Keyscape is a collection of 36 stunning keyboard instruments, ranging from a beautiful grand piano to a more obscure harmochord. In between the conventional and the obscure, there are gorgeous Rhodes, Wurlitzer’s, Clavinet’s, and much more. Even more impressive than the instrument lineup is the meticulous attention to detail in finding, restoring, and recording these rare instruments.

Each instrument has lots of variations, for example, the flagship Yamaha C7 Grand Piano has rock, classical, cinematic, amongst others. Each variation suits different styles of playing or musical genres.

The user interface is well laid out and easy to use. There are two windows on the left; the upper window is where you choose your instrument, and the lower window is where you select your style variation. Once you have selected a keyboard, the main window will show a nice image of it, underneath which you will find a range of relative controls, like reverb, performance noise, EQ, etc.

To get the most out of your performance, Keyscape has a broad range of velocity curve settings that are optimized for the most popular controller keyboards.

Image credit: SpectrasonicsCheck Sweetwater
  • Massive selection of stunning keyboards.
  • Incredibly expressive grand piano.
  • Great user interface.
  • Deep editing options.
  • Standalone or plugin.

In our book, Keyscape Collector Keyboards is the best piano VST plugin; it’s that simple. The fact that it was around 10 years in the making show the monumental amount of work that went into putting it together.

Free Piano Vst Plugin For Mac

As a virtual grand piano, Keyscape’s LA Custom C7 is king. The beautiful C7 is incredibly articulate and crisp, with a low-end that almost makes you feel the weight under the keys. No other virtual piano has so much depth of character; no other VST is so responsive to your playing.

At this level, sounding nice isn’t enough; it’s about small details, and Spectrasonics do that better than anyone. All 36 keyboard instruments are of the same impeccable quality; that’s why Keyscape is our highest-rated piano VST plugin. Try it with a top-quality keyboard controller, and it will blow you away.

2. Garritan CFX Concert Grand

The sound of Abbey Road Studios

When you think about Yamaha grand pianos, the 9-foot CFX concert grand is as good as it gets. Now, place that CFX concert grand in Abbey Road Studio One, and you have a match made in heaven. Good games for mac free. That is precisely what Garritan did.

The Yamaha CFX concert grand piano is world-renowned for its broad palette of tonal color. The acoustics of Abbey Road Studio One was the perfect place to capture all of that detail. It was done by using the very best microphones in the world in various positions to create lots of presets.

The presets are split into three categories, which are Classic, Contemporary, and Player, each with its unique microphone position. Within each category, there are numerous sub-presets to suit all styles. If we take a closer look, the Classic category is full of presets that range from Bach inspired classical settings to a Bill Evens themed jazz tone. So, it crosses different genres but remains in the classic era of each.

Contemporary provides amore modern mix of presets. It covers everything from dark and edgy soundtracksto Randy Newman style movie magic warmth. Both Classic and Contemporary are allabout the output and how the audience hears the CFX.

The Player category, onthe other hand, is all about the CFX itself. It’s full of presets that captureevery single noise and nuance of the CFX from right there on the bench. Thereare also a few alternate tuning presets that offer something a littledifferent.

Garritan put together an attractive user interface with just the right amount of content. It has enough tweaking options, whether it’s mic positions or mechanical noise, but not so much that it becomes tedious. It’s very playable right from the start.

Image credit: GarritanCheck Sweetwater
  • Multiple microphone positions.
  • High-quality FX design and mechanical piano noise.
  • Abbey Road Studio One acoustics captured beautifully.
  • Very expressive performance.

Deciding where to place this one on our list was quite tricky. It was always going to be near the top, but splitting this VST and Ivory II by Synthogy was difficult. In the end, we placed Garritan slightly ahead; the sound quality was close, but the lovely user interface won us over.

The Yamaha CFX concert grand is a genuine performers piano; it’s not tied to one genre. Garritan has delightfully captured all of that versatility through the extensive microphone positions. This piano is beautiful from top to bottom, but it’s the midrange that excels most. Play a simple major 7th root voicing anywhere in the mids, and you’ll be hooked.

3. Synthogy Ivory II Studio Grands

The most realistic grand piano emulator

Synthogy has been a leader in virtual piano software for many years, and some people still consider them to be the best. Their Ivory series has never failed to impress with its outstanding realism. This time, we are looking at the Ivory II Studio Grands plugin.

The plugin features two iconic grand pianos that were recorded in iconic studios. The first of the pianos is the Steinway Model B grand piano, one of the most recorded grand pianos in history. It was recorded at the legendary Power Station in New England with absolute precision.

The second instrument is the Bösendorfer 225 grand piano, which was recorded at the famed Firehouse Recording Studios in California. This specific VST has been used on multiple Grammy Award winning songs.

The thing that stands out most when you get the specs of Ivory II is that it boasts a 112 GB library. To think of the time involved in sampling those pianos to that extent is nothing short of spectacular. Each piano has up to 24 velocity layers and more release and soft pedal samples.

Ivory II was also the launch of an entirely new sound engine from Synthogy, the Ivory 2.5 Piano Engine. Apart from the improved sound, it comes with some new features like Shimmer, which gives more precise control over reverb and decay.

Image credit: SynthogyCheck Sweetwater
  • Massive sample library.
  • 24 velocity layers.
  • Two iconic grand pianos.
  • Ultra realistic grand piano tone.

Synthogy are experts in this field; they have been doing it for a very long time and keep getting better. Ivory II takes two iconic pianos, and they have replicated them digitally with incredible accuracy. When you think about the sheer size of the library and the 24 velocity layers, you can imagine nothing is lost, every nuance of these instruments is at your fingertips.

The Steinway Model B is a stunning classical grand piano, it’s beautifully percussive, too. The Bösenndorfer 225 is the more versatile of the two, great for classical, but exceptional for jazz. Especially that bottom range that Oscar Peterson made famous with his ostinato bass lines.

The interface lets it down slightly, while it offers a lot of tweaking possibilities, it looks very dated and isn’t as intuitive as it should be. When it comes to sound alone, Ivory II might be the most realistic piano VST available.

4. Native Instruments The Gentleman

The best upright piano VST plugin

The Gentleman is one ofthe best-rated upright piano VST’s available. It comes from Native Instruments,and it was released at a time when they got into their groove with onefantastic VST after another.

Vst

The most significant selling point of The Gentleman (over other upright pianos) is that it was sampled from a vintage 1908 piano. That might not sound overly interesting, but this 1908 is fully intact with all original parts. So, you’d have a hard time finding an upright piano with more character and charm.

The charm of that upright piano was captured in 2300 individual samples and 16 velocity zones. To give an idea of how extensive the sampling process was, even the key release noises were sampled in nine velocity layers.

The Gentleman shines when it comes to it’s tweaking options. The main screen of the interface is nice and clean, with a few reverb, tone, and dynamic options. It’s once you enter the full editing screen that you can control every tiny performance aspect. Everything from key release, hammer noise, to the velocity curve can be adjusted with fantastic precision.

Image credit: Native InstrumentsCheck Native Instruments
  • Versatile upright sound.
  • Nice low end growl when pushed hard.
  • Expressive performance.
  • Some slight imperfections in the sampling process.

The Gentleman is one that might get a mixed response from players who want a more modern upright sound. However, we love the character that this instrument brings with it. The piano has been sampled with incredible detail, as we have come to expect with Native Instruments.

The overall sound is warmer than it is bright, but the low-end has that growl that you get from an old upright when it’s pushed hard. If you tweak the sound with the lovely 3-band EQ and abundance of adjustable parameters, you can head towards a brighter, livelier sound.

The downside is that a couple of notes have a slight click when played in a specific velocity range. It’s something you might not notice, but it’s a shame, considering the depth of the recording process. Despite that, The Gentleman is still the best upright piano VST, in our opinion.

5. Native Instruments Noire

One for the sountrack composers

Noire is the latest grand piano VST from Native Instruments. It was developed in collaboration with the German composer Nils Frahm, famous for his contemporary approach to recording piano. Frahm’s handpicked 9-foot grand piano was sampled in Berlins Funkhaus recording complex.

There are two sound settings to choose from, which are pure and felt. Pure is the clean, untouched, grand piano tone. The felt setting, comes from the same grand piano, but it was sampled with a felt moderator between the hammers and the strings. The result is a much more gentle tone with a reduced attack.

Piano

Piano One

Both of the main sound settings can be further tweaked by adjusting the various parameter knobs found at the bottom of the main screen. These include color, dynamic, reverb, tonal shift, and delay. The entire user interface is elegant and represents the instrument very well.

The thing that makes Noire different is the Particles engine, which is very much from the mind of Nils Frahm. What the Particles engine does is generate pulsating harmonic elements based on your playing. These elements can be mechanical sounds, percussive sounds, or pitch-based, and it adds momentum to your playing. It brings together the worlds of classical piano, industrial soundtracks, and modern EDM.

Image credit: Native InstrumentsCheck Native Instruments
  • Fantastic for soundtracks/composers.
  • Particles engine adds a new layer to the sound.
  • Versatile and modern sound.
  • Elegant user interface.
  • If you don’t want the Particles engine, there are better options.

Noire might be a new piano plugin, but it’s already proving to be a hit with composers and producers. It’s another one that is going to work better for producers rather than performers. The reason we say that is because the Noire’s pure piano tone isn’t as good as Keyscape, Ivory II, etc. However, it is terrific, and the added elements of the felt version and Particles engine give it something different.

The pure piano tone is fantastic for jazz and reflective classical music, not so much percussive playing. It’s when the Particles engine is used that the percussive qualities come out. To sum it up, as a performer piano, it’s very good, for composition and soundtracks, it’s absolute magic.

6. Native Instruments Alicia’s Keys

Free Cello Vst Mac

The singer songwriter’s virtual piano

Alicia’s Keys was one of the first majorly popular piano plugins from Native Instruments. Many people were dubious about the success, wondering if it was down to quality or having a famous name attached to it. Forget that it’s named after Alicia Keys and focus on the fact that it’s modeled on her unique Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano.

Apart from the ridiculously rare grand piano, the other thing Alicia’s Keys has going for it is the fantastic team who worked on it. Led by Thomas Skarbye (Scarbee), the development/recording team is full of Grammy winners and industry leaders. Even Alicia Keys herself was in the studio to record samples, so it’s not one of those products a celebrity puts their name on after the fact.

When it was complete, it had a massive 17 GB of samples with 12 velocity layers per key. In terms of unique samples, it works out at over 3000 samples across the 12 velocity layers – that’s insane!

The detailed sampling process paid off with possibly the cleanest quality virtual piano available at the time. The attention to detail didn’t stop at the playing, Alicia’s Keys still has one of the most natural sustain and release phases of any VST. Even the smallest performance details were captured meticulously, like fingers touching the keys, mechanical noises of key and pedals, string harmonics. The amount of that noise you want in your performance is entirely up to you, and easily tweaked from the interface.

The user interface is straightforward, clearly defined tabs have simple controls for everything from reverb type/amount, to mechanical noise, and mic position. You can even edit the stereo image of the output and hear the piano from the artist’s or audience’s point of view.

Image credit: Native InstrumentsCheck Native Instruments
  • Unique grand piano sampled.
  • Fantastic for performing pop/soul/R&B.
  • Very simple user interface.

When Alicia’s Keys was released, there was a time when it was the best-selling grand piano VST around. Those days have gone, but it’s still one of the best VSTs, especially for pop or R&B music.

The overall sound is remarkable, although it’s quite a warm sound, and maybe not as articulate in the high-range as it could be. The lows are thick but well defined, not muddy, and the mids are perfect for those lush minor 7/9 chords that Alicia Keys loves so much. If you are looking for a classical piano, this probably isn’t the one, if you are a pop performer, it could be right up your street.

7. Native Instruments The Giant

The most unique piano plugin

The Giant is somethingutterly different from Native Instruments. They sampled it from the KlavinsPiano Model 370i, and if you didn’t already know, it’s the biggest uprightpiano in the world.

The extreme height ofthe piano provides intense dynamics that you won’t hear anywhere else. NativeInstruments wanted to capture those dynamics as naturally as possible, so theysampled it completely untreated.

Vintage Piano Vst For Mac

The Giant comes with two distinct personalities, day and night. Each personality is reflected in the user interface showing a city skyline (day or night) seen from the top of a building.

The day interface hasthree primary control sections, tone, space, and anatomy. The tone section hasa simple soft/hard dial to adjust color and an XXL button that boosts alldynamics when activated. Space deals with reverb, and anatomy controls thedynamic range and mechanical noise. Both the tone and anatomy sections expand,giving you far deeper control of their parameters.

Now for the sinister alter ego, the night interface. The night interface has two distinct control sections, sources, and convolution. Sources deal with more extreme piano sounds, any resonant noise that this monster upright produces when pushed to its limits can be adjusted here. By that logic, the night interface is far darker and over the top than the day model. The convolution section provides a detailed EQ, limiter, and filter. The EQ has a swept middle, meaning it has two mid bands, so it’s very accurate.

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The Giant is big, bold, and beautiful.

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Image credit: Native InstrumentsCheck Native Instruments
  • Unique sound.
  • Fantastic user interface.
  • Deep sound-shape options.
  • Great for soundtracks.

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The Giant is one of our favorite VST’s period. It’s not in the same league as some of the others when it comes to library size or velocity layers, but it’s so different that we don’t care. Despite being quite an extreme instrument, The Giant is an excellent pop piano when in its day personality. It has a very bright sound, but because the dynamics are so severe, it also has a deep and full low end.

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When you switch to the night personality, it doesn’t just get darker, everything becomes more extreme. Night mode is perfect for creating eerie atmospheres and haunting textures for any soundtrack. That is what we would suggest The Giant is best at, it’s less about being a mainstream piano emulator, and more about creating textures as a sound designer.

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Conclusion

If you haven’t worked with piano VST plugins before, don’t be put off by stories of MIDI problems and glitches. As long as you are running a system that exceeds the requirements of the plugin, you’ll be fine.

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When it comes to sound quality, we can confidently say that many VST’s outperform physical keyboards. But, like choosing any instrument, each VST excels in different areas, so always consider where and how you will be playing it most. Our list includes some of the best-selling and most realistic piano VST’s available, check them out and enjoy!

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James is a writer and musician with a passion for audio production. He is a lover of all things tech, especially the latest keyboards, synths, DAW’s, virtual instruments, and effects plugins. Musical interests include jazz, funk, hip hop, blues, and rock.