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MDA PIANO is a free low CPU intensive VST piano by Smartelectronix It has a simple and effective piano module, which supports super-useful features like Decay, Release, Stereo width for pan positioning, gentle low-pass filter with the control of muffle parameter and more. Highlights of the MDA PIANO are as follows. An award-winning Piano VST that can be used in both standalone modes and as an instrument plug-in in VST/AAX and also AU hosts. What makes Pianoteq one of the best Piano Vst is that the instrument sounds realistic and can simulate the playability of an advanced behaviour of real acoustic instruments.

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The 10 Best Free Piano VSTs for Authentic Piano Tones. Spitfire Audio LABS Soft Piano. Spitfire LABS contains some of the best free plugin instruments available. LABS is an ongoing series of free. Ivy Audio Piano in 162. Prism Audio Atmos Piano. Keyzone Classic. Versilian Studios. The Guitarist’s Guide to Home Music Production on The 250 Best Free Vst Instruments: 2020 Edition; whippedsounds on The 250 Best Free Vst Instruments: 2020 Edition; Allen Avanesian on The 250 Best Free Vst Instruments: 2020 Edition; whippedsounds on THE BEST BLACK FRIDAY MUSIC DEALS OF 2019; whippedsounds on MASTER EVERY NOTE ON THE PIANO. 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. The best free VST plugins 2020: must-have freeware synths, drum machines and effects By Si Truss ( Computer Music, Future Music, emusician ) 20 November 2020 Make music for nothing with our pick of the finest free sound makers and processors.

If you got into piano playing for classical reasons, you’re probably content with an acoustic piano or a basic digital keyboard. But even if you’re not planning to moonlight as a DJ, you’ll need more than orchestral skills to survive in the modern music world. It helps if you can mix a track and add some beats to your songs. And piano VSTs are a cost-effective way to do that.

VST means Virtual Studio Technology. It’s a software that comes in various forms such as effects (reverb, equalizers, modulators), instruments (these are sometimes called voices or timbres e.g. organ, harpsichord, guitar), or plug-ins (these are uploaded to your mixer). You’ve already spent money on keyboards and soundboards, so let’s explore the best free piano VST.

1. Spitfire Audio Labs

The trouble with free software is it’s often a hobby project. So while it costs nothing to download and install it, it’s rarely updated. Spitfire is different because it’s created and compiled by London musicians and sampling experts, so it’s constantly upgraded. Besides piano, the lab offers downloadable VST instruments as wide-ranging as chorals and frozen strings.

2. Versilian Upright No. 1

Even if you know nothing about music, you’ve heard of Berklee’s music school. This famous college developed a 250MB piano VST with samples that are compatible with Mac, PC, or Kontakt. Each note has multiple samples recorded and layered at three speeds. The samples are taken from diverse mic perspectives so you get good acoustics and well-rounded sounds.

3. Neo Piano One

This plug-in VST from Sound Magic uses modeled samples recorded from a Yamaha Concert Grand. So you get the full acoustic sound and resonance. But remember, many VSTs use a freemium model, so while you get rich, sonorous notes, you’ll have to upgrade to the paid version of the software if you want authentic details like key-tap sounds and pedal-pressing pops.

4. Ivy Audio Piano in 162

You’ll find the term ‘round robin’ used a lot in the VST space. It means several samples are looped in an algorithmic sequence to create a richer, more comprehensive sound. On Ivy Audio, samples include two round robins, on-pedals sounds, off-pedal tones, and five dynamics. Each sample is modeled of the Steinway Model B Grand at both close and ambient angles.

5. Keyzone Classic

A lot of VSTs draw sound from acoustic models. But if you want a keyboard that feels electric and sits on your screen, try the Keyzone. Instead of sourcing sound from a single piano, it picks samples from five models that include a Steinway, a Fender, and a Yamaha. Because it’s a virtual digital keyboard, it also has clickable knobs for reverb, sustain, detune, and velocity settings.

6. Sample Science Pianotone 600

Still, in the realm of digital pianos, the Pianotone 600 VST is based on a retro electric keyboard. Sounds are sampled from the Jen Pianotone 600. It was a pretty bare-bones piano without touch sensitivity. So when you use the VST, you could opt for ‘original mode’ with no touch sensitivity or ‘amplitude mode’ that gives you more key control. It has 10MB of samples.

7. 4Front Piano

‘Free’ doesn’t necessarily mean low quality, but it can sometimes mean you get a ‘lite’ version of the product. 4Front – for example – only has one piano module. The module is still pretty rich because it’s compiled as a hybrid of multiple keyboards. The downside is the VST has no editing features, beats, or additional pre-set sounds. It’s a VST instrument with no mixer functionality.

8. Iowa Piano

Earlier in this article, we mentioned the various types of VST in passing. And just like 4Front, Iowa Piano is a VSTi (Virtual Studio Technology Instrument). This means you can access complete octaves, but your virtual piano won’t have any polyphonic, presets, equalizers, modulators, or anything like that. Iowa is sampled from Steinway Grand in three layers.

9. Prism Audio Atmos

The VSTi isn’t always a separate entity. A digital piano often has multiple built-in VSTi models, though they’re usually described as ‘voices’ or ‘timbres’. But if you need more than a piano keyboard, try Atmos. It’s a heavy 2.4GB unit that has both virtual piano keys and audio board. The audio board only comes for Mac though. With a PC, you only get the piano part.

10. Big Cat VSTi

Free software isn’t always bundled and packaged. Sometimes, it’s a side cache for hobbyist programmers and musicians. Big Cat seems to fall into this category. It’s a series of VSTi’s sampled from Skerratt London Pianos (upright) and Iowa Pianos (grand). Apart from the two sampled pianos, this VSTi also contains ADSR, panning, and volume control.

11. 99 Sounds Upright

If you specifically want sounds harvested from an upright piano, consider this software from 99 Sounds. It was put together by Rudi Fiasco, a professional pianist and sound engineer. He samples each key four times in six layers for better sound fidelity. It’s a plug-in, so apart from the sonorous keyboard, you’ll also get filters, reverb, and even a tremolo effect.

12. DSK AkoustiK KeyZ

You might wonder why these software companies spell words so strangely. Sometimes it’s a gimmick to stand out or a workaround to secure a web domain. But always run background, because typos are sometimes markers of low-quality software. This isn’t one of those times. AkoustiK KeyZ has three sampled pianos (grand and concert) plus additional mixer features.

13. DSK The Grand

AkoustiK Keyz will give you a limited number of editing tools and features. But if you just want to play uninterrupted with limited bells and whistles, this is an easier sell. It’s a VSTi sampled from a single grand piano. As with its plug-in cousin, it has four layers and four to six velocities per note. It also has a basic envelope with reverb, but not as many mixing tools as AkoustiK Keyz.

14. Salamander Grand Piano

If you thought six layers were a lot, the Salamander VST has sixteen! The software also samples the mechanical sound of pressing a key and tapping a hammer (one layer), and the resonance of vibrating piano strings (three layers). These velocities are ‘harvested’ off a Yamaha C5. Sampling is done in minor thirds and two positions. These mics are 12cm away from the strings.

15. Dead Duck DPiano – A

The type of VST you download will depend on your musical requirements. Some users just want a virtual keyboard so they can practice their fingering and sight-reading without disrupting the rest of the family. DPiano is this type of tool. It’s a VSTi sampled from an acoustic piano, so it has that rich, organic sound, pun intended. You can edit velocity and volume while you play.

16. RDG Audio Piano

RDG is popular for its free musical software, but you need to be careful where you download it from. Some former RDG links now lead to spam sites. Others require a donation before the free download. That aside, the samples are recorded using 4 microphones so you get an authentic perspective from close-up clicks to ambient sound. The VST also has reverb and pedals.

17. City Piano

Baby grand pianos are a convenient workaround if you have limited space but prefer horizontal strings. And City Piano uses a baby grand as its sample source. The keys are recorded in four velocity layers for a fuller sound. But because it only has one Baldwin piano module, it won’t take up too much space on your computer. Of course, this comes with limited functionality.

18. Japan Piano

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Many pianos are manufactured in Japan, including Yamaha and Suzuki. So while the creator of this app doesn’t specify the source of his/her samples, some are sure to be Japanese. That said, the VST has one piano module and one virtual control knob, so you can’t do much mixing on this screen-based keyboard. It’s a sample oscillator and the knob works for sostenuto playing.

19. General Piano

The name may sound generic, but the quality is sufficient. The VST was developed by Safwan Matni, and while you can download it for free, the website does nudge you to donate to the programmer. It doesn’t have any mixing features, just a single piano patch. So if it’s just for piano practice, you’re good. But if you want to add functionality, you’ll need external input.

20. Jazz Baby

The name of this VST may seem puzzling since it’s not a baby grand or a jazz piano. It’s modeled off an upright piano. Of course, you can play jazz rhythms on this virtual keyboard. It’s more about chords, improvisation, and syncopation than keyboard selection. It’s a VSTi with no mixing functionality, so you may need external soundboards, phasers, or MIDI input for that.

21. Kontakt Start

Many of the VSTi’s we’ve looked at so far are designed to be compatible with Kontakt. This is because you can download a VSTi independently and add it to your mixer as a sound patch, but only if it’s compatible. So if you want a VST that has a piano and then some, skip the fluff and go to the source. Kontakt is a synthesizer rather than a piano, but it does have piano VSTi’s built-in.

22. MDA Piano

On occasion, you want a digital piano for your screen-based mixing. And in such cases, you may prefer a synthesizer rather than a regular acoustic. MDA is one such app. It’s an older VST so the skins feel rather retro. But the software has 32 polyphonic presets and lots of mixing features. You can use your virtual keys and knobs for tuning, decay, stretch, sustain, and much more.

23. Dexed

Still, in the synth space, this model from Dexed has 144 customizable parameters for your digital audio workstation (DAW). The VST is modeled off the Yamaha DX7 digital piano. Because it’s a multiplatform virtual synthesizer, you can add patches from its cousins e.g. TX81Z or even the original DX7 that may not be included. This won’t slow it down or affecting its performance.

24. M-Sound Factory Monastery Grand

Sometimes, a piano calls to you. When the developers of this software found an old acoustic grand piano in the concert hall of a Czech monastery, they were spellbound. They sampled sounds from this piano near Pilsen using 16 mics set at different angles. They added samples from other pianos to create this massive 3.5GB musical repository. The VST has 4 resonators.

25. FL Studio Full Grand

If you already have a mixer you’re happy with and you just want more keyboard sounds, this Full Grand suite is perfect for you. It’s a small 185MB sound patch sourced from 25 pianos, but it comes as an 85MD .rar file. The sound font sources include both acoustic and electric pianos. You need a mixer that can read .sfz files though, or you can download a free .sfz reader.

26. A73 Piano Station

Producers want as much musical diversity as they can get. A73 serves it up, with 73 keys on its screen. These keys cover 6 octaves and you can click them on your computer or use a MIDI interface to feed external piano sources. You can select from more than 2o preset genres (e.g. jazz, blues, waltz, etc.) and 128 polyphonic timbres. You can stack up to 3 musical layers on this. Free filter vst mac.

27. Helm Synthesizer

While it’s a synthesizer-based virtual piano, your sound engineering options are broadened with Helm. You can opt to use it as a sound patch, VSTi, LV2, AU plug-in, or VST3. It’s open-source and you can grab the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Some features like step sequencing and stutter function are laid out as sliders. This makes it easier for beginners to use.

28. EVM Grand Piano

This VSTi is mainly targeted at classical musicians (or rather, orchestral engineers). It’s based on an old baroque piano model that sounds more like a harpsichord than a contemporary piano. Sampled sounds are bright, sharp, and ‘plucky’ while the interface is simple enough for novices.

29. Mokafix Audio Glue Reeds

You can collect sounds from a keyboard in various ways. In the case of Glue Reeds, yes, the company manufactures an electric piano. But rather than sampling those keys, Mokafix synthesized its sound. The result is reedy because the initial Glue Reeds piano has sticky pads instead of hammers. This VSTi convincingly simulates that sound quality on your mixing screen.

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30. CV Piano

Spectral morphing sounds like something a shape-shifting werewolf ghost might do. But in this context, it describes the process continuous velocity used in this VST. Other software brands use multiple samples and layers on every note. CV Piano samples a single baseline.

It then uses an algorithmic variation to twist and shape the notes. This morphing process continues both during piano play and after you release the key, adding enriching effects. The VST is modeled off the Kawai Grand 7’4″ that sits at Electric Larry Land Studios in Austin, Texas.

31. VK-1 Viking Synthesizer

We’ll close our list with this powerhouse virtual keyboard. The keyboard has 228 preset polyphonics, dual ladder filters, and three oscillators that continuously generate variable waves. It also has dual modulation busses and retina support to reduce eye fatigue during prolonged mixing sessions. The VST was developed by Blamsoft and needs 64-bit PCs or 10.11 on Mac.

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

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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.

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.

empire total war skidrow crack password yahoo 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.

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.

The Giant is big, bold, and beautiful.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.