I’ve been using that free MDA Piano VST since forever but I just got a new pair of very expensive headphones which have brutally exposed some nastiness in a few VST instruments that I use.
For example, the MDA Piano has a horrible artifact in the 10KHz range which is normally hard to notice but is really audible when using better quality gear.
My question is this:
Assuming money is not an issue, which piano VSTi is the best?
I already know that the MDA one is probably the best freebie VSTi and it does sound very good indeed.
Unfortunately it’s not suitable for trying to get out of amateur-land.
I second this recommendation. I played piano for many years. The Pianoteq VST sounds and plays like a piano. There is not a sampled piano on earth that does that.
Pinoteq’s author is also a fan of Renoise (he actually made native Linux VST version because Renoise was released for Linux) and there are some free add-on’s for registered users (for example, recently a new tubular bells add-on has been released), plus some non-free ones
No it isn’t, Tascam GVI piano is the best freebie, but it isn’t available anylonger from Tascam.
You have until january 1st to fetch it from my site, then i will remove it again.
If you have Windows XP SP3, you need this trick to install it:
There is also the Maestro Concert Grand V2 that you might be interested in as well. But i haven’t tested that one.
I know the Tascam CV piano is really very good and it is my favorite grand.
Great stuff, thanks.
Am downloading the Tascam one from your site now.
Thanks for all the other info/links as well guys.
I’m testing out the demo library included with the Kontact 5 player and it sounds excellent.
I’m extremely tempted to pick up the huge Komplete 8 bundle - has anyone had any experience of this one?
I’ve also been looking for a decent orchestral + others library and this looks like good value because of the amount of stuff that you get.
If I get it, it seems that I’ll almost never need to use anything else (apart from guitars, which I prefer to record myself).
EDIT: Ok, now I’m hooked and pretty much convinced to splash out on Kontakt (Komplete 8) after doing a few hours of research.
Check out this stunning video - looks like I’ll have to buy a decent reverb as well though eventually:
The 4front modules are nice, i have had their Epiano for years which i was already big fan of. Nice to know they now also have a native 64-bit plugin version of it and nice to know they also have the straight up piano version. You can also download these from George Yohng’s site self: http://www.yohng.com/software.html
(sidenote, anyone tried his headphone driver?)
The first VSTi I ever bought, about ten years ago, is Steinberg The Grand. I tried many free alternatives to commercial products but never found one that sounds good and responds well to my keyboard playing.
I replaced The Grand recently by Garritan Authorized Steinway (the Basic version). I am very happy with it and will probably keep it as my main piano for at least the next ten years…
As for physical modelling VSTis, they are in fact more versatile but they don’t sound as good as ROMplers, IMHO.
I tried some other sample based plugins, like UVI Sound source ones but I was deceived by their playability.
I have Komplete 7 and it is worth it’s price. You have also great IR reverb “reflector”, a plugin for guitar rig with a library of impulse responses, it’s great too.
Haven’t knew that he is a fan of Renoise. That’s incredible how can great products like that be ported on Linux platform.
Don’t have 250€ for the standard version though.
But the sound of Pianoteq is really AMAZING even in demo version!
