One piano on this list uses nearly 3000 samples! While there are some free plugins that sound decent and "get the job done" (we'll discuss them in this guide), the most beautiful sounding virtual pianos tend to cost money. There are plenty of hobbyist musicians out there, right? Well, creating an audio plugin that emulates a piano is a lot of work. You'll have a lot of sample recording to do. Not only is creating a virtual piano a time investment, but it is also a monetary investment. The best piano plugins are recorded in quite expensive studios. And if you're not a programmer, you would have to hire someone to help you out with all of the code that goes into your plugin. For that reason, people that go through all the work of making a piano plugin have a strong argument for putting a price tag on their creation. Short Review: I love Addictive Keys and always use it when I need a virtual piano. Each of the included pianos, depending on which bundle you purchase, has a ton of unique presets.Īddictive Keys is made by the same guys that created Addictive Drums, arguably the greatest acoustic drum plugin to ever hit the market. XLN knows what they’re doing when it comes to creating realistic, acoustical software instruments. It provides an ultra-realistic sound that is highly customizable. One thing I really like is how you can change the position of the virtual microphone. This allows you to easily change how "up front" you want the piano to be. I was surprised to see how fast this plugin loaded up as well. You would think that with its massive sound library, it would take forever to load. There are 3 different piano libraries available: The Studio Grand, Modern Upright, and the Mark One. The Studio Grand is a great place to start. As you could imagine, it is modeled after a grand piano. It’s worth noting that each piano gives you MANY different sounds. There are a ton of presets per sound library that gives you a wide variety of variations to your sound. The Modern Upright gives you a more bright, "up front" sort of sound. This will act as an all-purpose piano that will fit into most productions. If you can’t get the grand piano to sound as tight and intimate as you need, the Modern Upright is your answer. The Mark One is modeled after the classic, and lovable, Rhodes Mark One. XLN did a superb job with this instrument! Playing a simple chord on the M1 sounds warm and deep. Overall, Addictive Keys is my favorite piano VST and I highly recommend you give it a go. Prepared piano is the province of the avant garde classical music scene. Essentially, it’s a way of playing a traditional grand piano in decidedly non-standard ways.
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