When it comes to music production a good piano VST might just be one of your most used tools. A decent piano VST will act as a go-to tool for quickly laying down melodic ideas.
However, a great piano VST can help inspire new ideas. Today there are plenty of vst’s to choose from. But, how do you know which one is best? Which one is worth the investment?
What To Look For In A Great Piano VST..
Years ago a vst that emulated a piano sound was considered great. After all, you got the sound of a piano right at your finger tips without having to actually spend thousands on the real thing.
However, as technology advanced, piano VSTs have gotten better, and these older piano vsts just don’t cut it today. Older Piano VSTs now sound robotic and electronic compared to modern ones.
So, when looking for a great piano VST today you want one that sounds ultra realistic. You want it to sound like you actually recorded yourself playing the piano in a professional studio with top notch mic setups.
If you’re not looking for that kind of sound then some of the free piano VSTs that come with your DAW will cut it for whatever project you’re working on.
But, if you want that ultra realistic sound keep reading as I’ll break down the best piano VST plugins today!
1. Sunset Pianos VST
Price: $50 $29
Yeah of course we listed our piano VST as number one. However, not necessarily because were bias. But because we made this plugin for a reason.
Like most of our products, we love vintage, retro sound. And we love slight imperfections that make things natural and human.
Sunset Pianos is the only piano plugin on the market that truly focuses on fine details. For example, there is a release trigger and texture engine. A release trigger is a sound that plays after you release a key.
In the real world when you lift your fingers off a piano key you’ll hear light noises like your finger sliding off the key. The key moving back into place. It’s subtle, but it’s details.
You can get that level of detail with this plugin.
This plugin is great for lofi, cinematic, film, hip hop, etc. Anything that requires the sound of a real piano.
It can be integrated and used inside any major DAW. There are a few things that sets this VST apart from the rest:
- Full Piano Collection: Sunset comes with every major piano sound. This includes Grand Pianos, Upright, Electronic and a handful of unique restored pianos
- Ultra High Quality: Every sound in this plugin was recorded in studio with multiple mic setups.
- Realistic Textures: To take the standard piano sound to the next level this plugin features subtle textures like hammer hits, subtle breaths, and other misc sounds.
- Beginner Friendly UI: The user interface is simplified to the point where beginners can easily start working with the VST without having to spend excessive amounts of time learning the program.
- Affordable: Unlike other piano VSTs this one is one of the most affordable on the market. Especially considering the quality of sound you get access to.
- Unique FX Rack: Sunset includes 10 built in effects that allow you to take standard piano sounds to a new unique level.
Now a question you may ask yourself is why is it so cheap? Well a lot of the sounds included were recorded over several years for various projects. So when we created it we simply pulled from our already existing collection of piano sounds. In other words since we already did the hard work throughout the years, it didn’t cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to create. Since it didn’t cost us much we didn’t see the need to over charge for it. But trust me, users have claimed this to be their favorite piano plugin. So cheap price dose not mean it’s not up to par with more expensive ones.
2. Native Instruments Noire Grand Piano
Price: $149
Native instruments has several VST pianos. Unlike our Sunset Pianos plugin, where we loaded in several pianos like upright, grand, and electric. Native Instruments tends to focus each plugin on one specific piano sound.
The pros of this is you get one plugin that highly focuses on one sound. The downside is you have to purchase multiple piano plugins to get multiple sounds.
You can check out all of their current piano VSTs here.
However, my favorite piano VST they have is there plugin called Noire. It’s Nils Frahm’s piano they recorded for this.
Nils is a legendary composer and pianist. The plugin samples his concert grand piano. It’s a great plugin if you’re looking for the grand piano sound.
It also has felt recordings of the piano for a more softer tone of the grand.
3. Spectrasonics Keyscape
Price: $400-$900
Now if you’re rolling in the dough and have a big budget for a piano VST, you’ll want to check out Spectrasonics Keyscape.
This VST comes with all the basic pianos sounds. Upright, grand, rhodes, wurlitzer, etc. There is a couple of cool things this plugin offers.
One is there duo pianos. Basically they layered and blended two piano sounds to create something new. Some of them are very interesting.
Secondly, each piano sound comes with mechanical noises, pedal noises, and release overtones. Similar to what our Sunset Pianos plugin has.
The downside of this plugin is it’s $400. Also, I’m pretty sure you also need to purchase Spectrasonics Omnishpere is you want to add some dreamy, cinematic piano sounds to the library. That will run you another $500.
For years Spectrasonics ruled the piano sounds. But in my opinion there is a lot of cheaper alternatives that are just as good if not better. However, it’s still worth mentioning if you’re looking for an all in one piano solution and have the budget to cover it.
4. MODARTT PianoTeq
Price: $139-$1,000
Again, another big budget plugin. PianoTeq has been praised a lot especially from users on Reddit. This VST contains pianos that were physically modeled instead of sampled.
Physical modelling (or “modelled” instruments) simulates how the instrument works mathematically / physically rather than relying on recorded audio. So instead of “here’s how the piano sounded at this loudness,” the software models how strings vibrate, how hammers hit, how the soundboard resonates, how the hammer felt, etc.
Because of that:
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You can vary parameters in ways that would be very difficult with sampling (change hammer hardness, change string length, mic placement, etc.).
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File sizes tend to be much smaller because you’re storing algorithms + parameters instead of long recordings.
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Flexibility, tweaking, maybe more expressive/dynamic variation with less pre-recorded constraint.
So, if you’re on the search for getting piano sounds you have complete control over. Similarly, sounds you can tweak every last detail this would be a great fit.
They offer different packages. Their full package being close to costing you $1,000. However, it comes with several different piano sounds and even other sounds like guitars and harps.
5. Addictive Keys Complete Collection
Price: $249
Addictive keys by XLN audio is another great option. It’s complete collection is also what I would consider mid teir pricing. For $250 you get 4 piano vst plugins.
One for upright, grand, electric piano, and rhodes. Again, can’t stress this enough..Sunset Pianos has all of this in one for the price of two starbucks coffees lol !!
Anyways, the pianos sound very clear and unique in this collection. Each piano was recorded in different ways so you get standard piano sounds with more unique sounds like close up recordings and ambient recordings.
Conclusion
In conclusion there is a lot of piano VST plugins out there. In my opinion these are the best options of the market. Especially if you are looking to get not just one piano sound but several. Each vst mentioned here is high quality, realistic and can be used for multiple music production projects regardless of genre.
Oh and by the way, grab Sunset Pianos lol !!
