piano with lcd screen free sample

A scale is a set of musical notes ordered as a well-defined sequence of intervals (tones and semitones). A semitone is the minimum distance between two consecutive notes in any tempered scale (12 equal semitones per octave). In other words, a semitone is also the distance between two consecutive keys on the piano. For example, the distance between C and C# (black key next to C), or the distance between E and F (both being white keys). However, the distance between C and D, for example, is a full tone (or two semitones).

Musical scales are an essential part of music improvisation and composition. Practicing scales will provide you with the necessary skills to play different styles of music like Jazz, Flamenco or Blues. You can also use scales to create your own melodies and set the mood of your piece.

Any chosen scale can be transported to any tonal center (e.g. E minor and A minor both use the same minor scale). The tonal center or tonic is the note where the scale hierarchy starts and it is represented on the virtual piano with a darker blue dot. When playing music under a particular scale, you should normally avoid any key without a blue dot, although composers sometimes use altered notes which are not within the scale.

Use your computer mouse or keyboard to play the virtual piano keyboard (or the device touch screen for mobile devices). You can view the corresponding computer keyboard letters by activating the "Real Keys" feature. For the entire keyboard spectrum, click it twice.

If you got the hang of it and are interested in playing your favorite songs using the virtual piano keyboard, use the OnlinePianist piano lessons or mobile app (iOS app, Android app).

Pianos are one of the most cherished instruments in popular music. They arevery resonant, bright-sounding, and versatile, causing so many musical styles to embrace their sonority. From pop music to classic rock, blues, jazz, or classical, a piano can certainly make a difference by being full of presence and improving the harmony in a song, for instance.

Among the many models and styles, thegrand piano is praised for its unique character, sometimes associated with elaborated symphonic pieces or cinematicfilm scores. It’s nice to understand how these instrumentscan be useful in many other genres or situations, and today’s list brings some libraries that prove this.

Yes, learning the piano before learning music production is recommended. The reason is due to the piano’s capability to develop new and creative ideas through a simple and organized key structure that can encompass melody and harmony together in an intuitive way.

A piano containsa considerable number of octaves, all distributed in white and black keys. Fromleft to right, it goesfrom the lowest to the highest note. This is a very clear and linear way to present the 12 notes, and that’s one of the main reasons why learning piano is relatively easy.

All chords, scales, and modes are distributed in a logical form, so it’squite reasonable to understand them even if you’ve never played a piano or keyboard before. A

s many plugins offerconnectivity with aMIDI controller (that usually happens to come in a keyboard format),a producer can always benefit from learning some piano chords and knowing where every note is located.

The main difference between a real and a virtual piano is how such an instrument is built. A real one features a wooden external case, aside from a complex system of keys and strings assigned to each note – in other words, the instrument’s resonance is what matters. A virtual piano will emulate such aspects, either by a sound sample or synthesis.

A real piano obviously depends much more on acoustics than a virtual one. They’re usually made of wood, with proper metal strings relative to each key, and other various metal and plastic parts. Hitting a chord on a real piano will sound brilliant, especially if the room is accommodated for acoustic performances.

However, a virtual one always tends toemulate these aspects, either by sampling – recording a real piano, note for note, from soft to heavy playing – or synthesizing the proper frequencies. Since the 1970s the music industry rely on sound synthesis to create new sounds or reproduce old ones, so both ways are very commonly used.

It’s one of the best Piano Kontakt libraries with a versatile range of sounds, from lush pads to grand synth leads to warm retro style presets, classic EPs, organs, deep Rhodes pianos, etc. In addition, the plugin has windows like FX, SEQ, and Macros to edit sounds, so the FX and SEQ windows are switchable, all packed in an intuitive and attractive interface.

PresetsThe presets in the library are labeled as Hazy Piano, GoTo Piano, Arcade Piano, Icy Piano, Glass keys, Dream Keys, twilight keys, etc. There are 151 presets like these, with 106 sounds and preset categories.

WorkflowThe instrument has two layers of sounds: A and B, which could be tweaked and edited individually with parameters like transpose, tune, pan, volume, etc., such that you can apply two LFOs, two envelopes, and other modulators on the sound. There are also MACRO controls that you can assign and order them.

The Kontakt instrument is great for modern Pop, RnB, K-Pop, pop-rap, pop punk, synth-pop, the 80s, and EDM genres like future bass, future pop, house, etc. Ignition keys are a diverse and flexible instrument with tweakable settings, making them suitable for sound designers.

CHROMA is a representation of the timeless elegance of the piano. This recording was painstakingly made using a Yamaha C3 to ensure that it would preserve the full sonic vitality of the perfect piano sound. It is an exhaustive investigation of theinstrument and faithful recreation of its acoustic properties.

CHROMA is more than just a piano; it’s the experience of playing the piano, from the depth of a single note to the expansive soundscapes made possible by mallets, pads, and even an e-bow.

This library features a comprehensive exploration of the piano. They employed mallets, brushes, palm mutes, an e-bow, and chains, all programmable in the virtual instrument and the more conventional techniques. You may also adjust mechanical noises such as Note On, Note Off, and Pedal to enhance your genuine grand piano sensation when playing.

CHROMA gives you a lot of creative leeway by drawing from various recordings of the piano and its body and a set of powerful effects. However, CHROMA is more than just a piano; it’s also a potent tool for creating soundscapes, from novel and abstract compositions to realistic recreations of natural sounds like rain.

All engine settings, including special effects, can be found under theENGINE tab. Finally, the MIX page is where you’ll find the mic position mixer and the options for customizing the velocity curve. The MAIN and ENGINE pages have a similar layout, with the sound library on the left, the effects on the right, advanced controls in the bottom or middle of the user interface, and the preset browser at the very top,next to the Sonuscore logo.

All the articulations you could want in a piano, plus a top-notch sound creation engine and a wealth of useful presets for composing your music. While the Yamaha C3 sampling may initially draw you in, chroma’s sound design features keep you coming back.

Piano Colors is a genuine virtual instrument that offers a breathtaking spectrum of overtones that will spark your imagination. This plugin brings unique and unusual musical concepts to life, whether it’s dark thriller scores, groove-filled dubstep, or plain pop creations.

It blends a wide range of innovative playing styles with a unique processing engine that mixes dynamics, tone transitions, and movement to take the sound of a piano into previously unthinkable realms.

The synergy that this plugin produces between its rich bank of distinctive grand piano articulations and the creative modulation engines (which include the “Arpeggiator,” as well as the newly extended “Particles”) is what makes it so crafty.

Different soundsA range of unusual tools was utilized to record the wide collection of source samples in Piano Colors, like hammers, drumsticks, rubber, screws, and several EBows. A grand piano’s strings and body were performed in unconventional ways, and the resulting acoustic effects were precisely documented using the most advanced recording equipment, yielding a vast range of energetic resonances, expressive harmonics, and colorful overtones.

ArpeggiatorA common feature in synthesizers, the arpeggiator is inserted on this virtual instrument in a very creative way. Bycreating ever-changing sequences and randomized patterns, this tool can provide a variety of nuances and musical ideas right away, with various configurations such as “Humanize Time” and “Velocity.”

Tone effectsThis library also features an extended section dedicated to tweaking your grand piano sound even further. The “Tone” section includes“Color,” “Tonal Shift,” and “Dynamic” controls that can transform the classic piano sound in an avant-garde way. Also, the envelope parameters feature modulation options that can expand this alteration to the limits of your imagination.

Native Instruments’ Piano Colors is dedicated to reproducing the grand piano’s unique sound, butwith a selection of tools that can make it fit in the most complex modern productions.

Modulation and envelope controls, allied with an arpeggiator and a set of rich-sounding algorithms, are the ingredients responsible for such aninnovative and fresh virtual instrument, with a multitude of options that can inspire any music producerlooking for a different piano texture.

All of this is complemented by a great assortment of emotional solo grandswould help if you broke the norms and dogma surrounding merging acoustic and synthetic sounds. With a single preset and sounds so expressive, it’s the only instrument you need to create fully realized inspired cues and compositions, from melodic meditations to concert hall fullness.

Any composer, musician, or sound designer can find something useful in Revelation Scoring Grand. If you need some motivation for your next chapter, put on some music with some magnificent underscore, some glittering hybrid keys, some subtle and nuanced rhythms, and some rich piano textures.

An excellent variety of heartfelt solo grands complements the whole thing. There should be no rules or orthodoxy when combining natural and artificial sounds. It’s the only instrument you need to realize completely realized inspired cues and songs, from melodic meditations to concert hall grandeur, and all with only one preset with sounds that are so expressive on their own.

The multi-sampled Steinway Grand Piano serves as the basis for Revelation. Your ears will be able to machinate on an extraordinary range of tones and timbers thanks to the four microphone perspectives that have been captured here: sub, near, mid, and far. As a result, more precise control over thetones than even the most advanced live session can offer.

The ability to freely apply subtle character and mechanical acoustics to one’s mic and tonal expressions is a powerful tool. Use the Pedal, Felt, and Mechanism Release to inject a hyperrealistic dose of analog reality into your piano’s vocal range.

This sampled Steinway Grand Piano may be the foundation of any score, and with the help of Sound Yeti, it can become much more. This piano may be the only piano you need for your cinematic score since it features many effects, a three-layer system, and many preset to get you started.

Nils Frahm is a German musician known forcombining classical and electronic music elements, aside from playing pianos and keyboards in a very unconventional way.

That’s the reason why Native Instruments’ team chose him to play a hand-picked grand piano, with custom intonation, in a very special location: Bauhaus-designed recording complex, Funkhaus.

Still, some unique controls can make this grand piano very versatile, especially regarding a more delicate and introspective approach when hitting the keys, such as the aforementioned“Particles” engine and several effects.

Pure and FeltYou can pick betweentwo soundscapes when using Noire. The “Pure” version produces a clean, unadulterated grand piano sound with excellent sound quality. The “Felt” version is an entirely different sample – it’s the same instrument, but with a felt placed between hammers and strings, resulting in a mellow tone with less attack. You can also adjust the envelope, resonance, overtones, velocity curve, temperament, and more to further shape the sound.

Galaxy InstrumentsUli Baronowsky and Galaxy Instruments meticulously sampled this hand-picked, custom-intonatedYamaha CFX 9′ grand piano. The crew spent many weeks in Saal 3 of the iconic Funkhaus Nalepastrasse in Berlin, recording this remarkable instrument’s entire dynamic and tone spectrum utilizing vintage mics and preamps. The final result is an amazing sound quality that reflects the majestic tone of such piano being played in a well-prepared studio room.

Easy to get inspiredNoire isn’t about copying other sounds; it’s aboutproviding you with inspired raw material and various creative alternatives for making it your own. You can includenoises for realism, select from a variety ofsound design ideas, add some sub--bass, and experiment with tone shifting. EQ, compression, reverb, and delay effects are also used to fine-tune the piano’s arrangement in the mix.

The impressiverecording quality is one of the strongest merits of Native Instruments’ Noire, but having a musician such as Nils Frahm handpick a grand piano model and actually play it makes this library very exceptional compared to others.

The two sound modes, “Pure” and “Felt,” are responsible for making this instrumentsound as vividly as possible, with just as many articulations and dynamics involved. Although this can appease sound designers and score producers, musicians can also take full advantage of these sonic tools the same way.

This plugin recreates the Steinway D Concert Grand Piano’s rich harmonic texture and deep resonances, as heard in concerts and recordings by a few of the world’s finest artists.

When dealing with instruments such asgrand pianos, the resonance is basically what differs it from any simulations. Suchdynamic response is entwined with the instrument’s particular features, but some brands and models eventually stand out in the crowd.

Steinway is a renowned company, very famous for its amazing pianos. These instruments have shaped the history of music since 1853 and continue today. The amazing work done by thee-instruments team of developers showcases the best details about such beautiful grand pianos in a simple Kontakt library.

AnimatorThe “Animator” was created to generate genuinely musical piano performances in the most dynamic manner possible. It provides a simple approach todeveloping adaptable piano motifs that match your harmonies, making it the ideal source of musical inspiration.

PentamorphWith only one knob, you can simplyalter the grand piano’s acoustics – from typicalconventional tones to sonic atmospheres that go well beyond the normal – and also generate movement on the fly. This translates into a fluid and natural-sounding virtual instrument that can take advantage of the real instrument’s resonances.

Smart chordsSession Keys’ “Smart Chord” mode is an entirely new and imaginative method to add depth of musicality to your production by providing quick piano chords on the go. The pad control or the single keys can be used to play whole chords or “Animator” riffs. All you have to do is simply pick the key of your tune and let it produce the harmonies instantly.

Recreating an instrument such as a piano into adigital environment is definitely not easy, bute-instruments did a very good job anyway. Based on a specific Steinway model, this plugin can be a toolbox for anything related to pianos when you’re producing a track.

The amazing 9-foot Concert D has been redesigned as a great-sounding plugin. Heavyocity opted to sample this particular grand piano thoroughlybecause of its amazing warmth, depth, and texture, which was recorded in stunning detail at a legendary NYC studio.

This is thecinematic composer’s chance to perform on one of Heavyocity’s favorite pianos. They chose one of the world’sgreatest cinematic pianos, then drove the best of grand pianos further still, experimenting with new techniques to elicit sound from its nine-foot structure.

ASCEND engineThe gorgeous engine featured in this library showcases a brand new sonic world to explore, with a complete collection of rhythmic convolutions and many layerable sources and effects. Aside from these choices, you canblend them very easily, thanks to a refined algorithm that will make it sound as natural as possible.

Sound sourcesThe “inverted triangle” on the main screen lets you mix between different sound sources, with 16 different options. You canalter the microphones and their respective positions, as well as a pianissimo option for them to work out in quieter situations. Another option includes different ways in which a piano string could be hit, like with a metal or wooden material.

SnapshotsASCEND comes with110 snapshots, which combine the sound sources in creative ways to wield a variety of playable piano textures and effects. They are grouped into different folders within the interface, like “Ascended” (a selection of recommended presets by the team of developers) and“Core Concert D,” which exhibits the wide range of timbres achievable by combining different mic positions, effects, and reverb settings.

ASCEND is all about creating textures and blending different sonic layers within themselves. The source for this library’s sound is a classic grand piano model, but fidelity isn’t the only merit here: the possibility to blend different soundscapes and mic configurations is what can lead to an exciting new atmosphereon your track. The highlight is a dedicated pianissimo source included here.

The Grandeur vividly recreates the sound of a renowned concert grand piano. It produces a high-end timbre that is completely at home incontemporary pop, jazz, and classical recordings, with a sharp, smooth top end and booming, profound bass in the quietest parts.

It’s ideal for all modern projects because of the recurring tweaking possibilities. Pedals, damper, string, and mallet sound levels can all be adjusted, and to modify the dynamic range, turn the “Dynamic” slider up or down. Thanks to these built-in effects, you may fine-tune the sound all without leaving the interface.

AnatomyThis section dedicated to the instrument’s resonance brings some great tools to your track. Aside from setting an appropriate dynamic range through the knob with the same name, the number of resonances can also be twisted from a similar knob. A dedicated control section features advanced configurations, such as an “Overtones” level knob and dedicated faders for selected noises present when playing the real instrument.

Lid controlThe “Tone” section is responsible for adjusting the piano’s “Color” setting. It dynamically shifts the entire sound between thesofter and louder sample sounds as you twist the knob, bringing expressiveness or quietness to your track. But that’s not all: a special “Lid” button underneath the “Color” knobsimulates the sounds of a piano’s opened or closed lid, expanding even further this library’s versatility.

EffectsAdditional effects can be used to adjust each setting even further. An EQ can help shape the tonal aspect of the piano sound, and there’s a dedicated menu for the volume on the lower keys, so the bass sounds just as bright as in reality. Dedicated faders to control the“Tonal Depth” and “Transients” help make it sound even more natural, from subtle to dramatic configurations.

Fitting in many music genres, The Grandeur is an excellent option from Native Instruments to fit the needs of a modern producer requiring a wonderful grand piano sound. Theintuitive interface was designed to simplify things with appropriate controls and easy-to-use tools.

It’s awesome how you can tweak the ambiance and the piano’s dynamics at the same window, and such easiness will reflect on a more fluid and natural workflow.

Alicia Keys has helped design a virtual piano that fits her musicality and exemplifies the blissful sound that has become her signature as a superstar, collaborating with Danish producer Thomas Skarbye (better known as Scarbee) and impulse response specialist Ernest Cholakis.

Thomas Skarbye, Kontakt script developer Nils Liberg, and Grammy-award-winning engineer Ann Mincieli meticulously recorded the magnificent and unique sound ofAlicia’s Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano, making this special instrument available to everyone.

Based on a unique instrumentAll the sounds come from Alicia’s personal Yamaha C3 Neo grand piano. This instrument was built to celebrate Yamaha’s 100th anniversary, representing the very best of the Conservatory Collection line. Such exclusive access to a high-end device is a bonus, getting even closer to her musical style.

Offered by the same developers that created the out-of-the-boxLoft Piano, Denver Grand Piano is a straightforward option designed for producers who look for a decent freeware option for high-quality piano samples.

Focused on bringing a modern aspect throughout the samples, this plugin is very simple to use and can offer the perfect classic vibe that only a grand piano can offer.

Four presetsThere are four presets available: “Denver Grand Main,” “Denver Grand Cassette,” “Denver Modern House,” and “Denver Grand Ambient.” Each preset enhances a specific aspect of the instrument, whether a classic grand piano sound, aresampled sound through a tape cassette, or even a mode dedicated to simulating a Korg M1 piano.

100% royalty-freeYou can use every loop, sample, and preset present on Denver Grand Piano in any commercial releases you’d like, so you don’t have to pay anything for the developers. This is captivating foryoung or inexperienced music producers who want a reliable, free-to-use sample library.

Echo Sound Works’ team wanted to contribute with a library that could offerhigh-quality audio files while being free at the same time, so more producers could benefit from a decent virtual instrument.

If you’re beginning to dwell in the production world or your budget isn’t good at this moment, Denver Grand Piano is a nice library that captures the essence of such an instrument in a straightforward design interface. It can be very helpful to use software like this in order toachieve good-sounding results in your next production.

Anders Wall managed to get his hands into a piano that once belonged to the Swedish Broadcast Corporation and incorporated it into his studio, featuring it into many tracks and records. The problem is that eventually, he had to move it all up, and the piano got damaged during transportation.

Although insurance fixed most of his gear, this piano never got fully back to what it was before, creating a unique aspect of its sound. These samples try to reflect this essence in a simple interface design in the best way possible.

Authentic vibeThesound characterof an instrument can bring tons of personality and an organic layer to whatever notes you play. No matter the situation or the genre, having such a unique-sounding instrument usually comes with a price tag attached to it, but gladly Pianobook famously offers great free options for good-quality virtual instruments.

Basic settingsAs basic as it gets, you don’t get many effects or options with this library. IR samples are included, as well as two effects layers that may be accessed using the mod wheel. A sustain pedal script is also included, which bypasses the release samples when you press the pedal.

A simple library, but still full of character. The Hoffman is a nice option to get a different-sounding piano with many uniqueness and personality. Usually, such a feature is justified by a small fee, but Pianobook successfully delivers a nice, lightweight option worth keeping nearby. It’s worth trying it into modern tracks or even some experimental soundtrack scores.

The piano sampled in this library is located in the chapel corner of a Latter-Day Saint meeting house. Samuel P. Davis was captivated by itsunique sound and texture, and thanks to the sampling technology available these days, it’s now possible to take all the best aspects of the instrumentstraight into your preferred DAW.

Smooth characterThis piano brings a very romantic, cinematic sounding to any chord progression played. It’s lovely how it can blend so easily and fill the empty blanks on a dynamic soundscape, creating beautiful scenarios in the upper registers.

A very smooth, rich-sounding, and evocative piano voicing is present in HYUNDAI U852. It has a natural property that leans towardairy tracks, especially cinematic ambiances. Although very helpful to anyone looking for this kind of sound, this library can be limiting if a more energetic or big-sounding aspect is needed.

David Bergman wanted to experiment with sampling his own home piano, only to see how that would turn out. The results were pretty satisfying, with every subtle nuance captured in excellence and delivering a pleasant piano sound.

Reverse samplesDedicatedvolume control can bring up somenice reverse sounds that can blend easily with bold and modern productions. A“Forward” volume is also present, and you can freelycombine both controls to create natural textures that can fit well into atmospheric tracks.

The nice addition ofreversed samples can make everything even more experimental and progressive, showcasing a rarely-used feature on virtual piano renditions.

With notable softness, this grand piano was developed by Dan Keen to have a strong, defined sound profile and stand out from other similar libraries. It sounds fantastic in theupper-middle register, a perfect choice for lyrical melodies inpieces, scores, or solo works.

Excellent recording processThese samples were recorded usinga pair of close-miked AKG C214s with a Saffire Pro 40 interface. This setting provides a natural resonance, almost as if you were in the same room as Dan when he played it. It also contains two dynamic layers and three round robins, so every small acoustic nuance is captured.

40 has hugely impacted the modern Pop and Rap space and produced a huge chunk of Drake’s discography. The Kontakt library consists of 150 presets of electric piano, grand piano, and classic synthesizers with single-knob effects that you can single out and tweak.

PresetsThe plugin has 150 brilliant presets in thirty categories to get you started. In addition, the website has a that teaches you how to play preset. From arpeggios to staccato sounds to sustained pianos, the range of presets is huge and versatile.

The library requires 3 GB of hard disk space and works with the free Kontakt player, which requires Windows 10 or 11 or macOS 10.15 (or later versions).

40’s Very Own Keys is one of the best and most versatile piano Kontakt libraries, with warm and lush sounds, simple and well-rounded presets, great effects and easy workflow. It gives you complete control over your sound, yet it can be used by a beginner or a composer who’s just concerned with getting easy sounds without tweaking anything.

The Maverick is a flawless replica of an acoustically unique instrument — a 1905 concert grand built for Prince Frederick William of Prussia. This plugin offers awide spectrum of color and an unusual sound, with each key having itsown personality – it’s a one-of-a-kind piano made for royalty.

This incredible library creates a unique sound that works well in pop, rock, jazz, and a variety of other genres. This virtual instrument was meticulously captured, withover 2,500 unique samples spread across 18 velocity levels.

Its natural harmonics ring out nicely thanks toisolated overtone and resonance samples. Even the most important releases were captured with nine velocity levelsfor maximum realism.

Exquisite recreationAlthough this plugin might have very similar controls as other Native Instruments products in this list, The Maverick excels in bringing aperfect, vintage-sounding instrument into your computer. The 1905 grand piano is a blissful instrument on its own, and unfortunately, it’s not common to have one hanging around so often. The excellent quality of the samples reflects how good this instrument sounds and how effortlessly NI’s team worked to bring its best aspects to life.

Dedicated adjustmentsYou can bring the sound of this vintage piano to whatever mood you want, thanks to all thecontrols available. From gentle EQ tweaks tothe expressive ambiance, you can set the tone of this magnificent instrument to your liking quickly and with a subtle response from the audio samples. Make it soundbigger, fuller, deeper, or brighter in a heartbeat, without complicated parameters in a polluted interface.

Companies like Native Instruments usually offer great choices within their instrument libraries when it comes tofaithful recreations. The Maverick is special because of the source of all samples included:a magnificent vintage grand piano, built (quite literally) for royalty.

Specific instruments can trigger certain feelings, and Emotional Piano tries to do like so in a psychoacoustic experiment that will bring up the emotions on your track.

Soundirondeveloped this plugin based on a walnut-bodied Kawai grand piano that was chosen due to its soft, luminous warmth and rich, resonant timbre. Recorded with 15 velocity layers, every nuance of such an instrument was meant to be captured in order to provide thebest audio experience possible.

Multi-sampled keysAll 88 keys of this grand piano were carefully recorded multiple times, with many dynamic variations. A handful of microphones worked to capture every aspect of each key, bringing a more organic aspectto every audio sample.

Well-suited for scoringThe array of emotions propelled by a piano being played in the right way can be thekey element to your score or soundtrack to stand out. Emotional Piano is intended to excel at how emotive your track can be, so controls like the “Velocity Range” can help smoothen out things and create more delicate dynamic layers to your taste.

Many presets availableEvery good library can feature thousands of presets, but Emotional Piano gathers up good presets that are ready to fit your mood cleverly. Instead of adding an FX tab to the UI for all of these extra NKI presets, Soundiron did the hard work for you and went far into the Kontakt engine’s deeper modulation, convolution reverb, and insert FX capabilities. Your favorite sounds can beaccessed much quicker, with ready-to-use effects and settings.

Emotional Piano deserves some kudos for setting a perfect mood for specific usage of an instrument such as a piano. It’s ideal for film and television scoring, and it’ll also work well in modern pop and independent productions, particularly on slower-tempo tracks.

Some piano libraries might focus on getting that perfect sound from a particularly coveted instrument, while others tend to focus on a diverse array of samples. On the other hand, Loft Piano is innovative because it claims to be focused on popular genres such as Lofi, Trap & Hip Hop, EDM, and Pop.

TheLoft Piano is based on a sampled upright grand piano recorded in aloft – that’s where it gets its name from. To record the sound, Echo Sound Works’ team employed four microphones and recorded each key sound, hammer noise, and string reverberation, so every nuance of the instrument would be translated into the samples.

Awesome algorithmA nice algorithm can lead up to more natural and organic responses from a virtual instrument, especially one so dependent on acoustics as a grand piano is. For this, acustom KSP script was developed to handle the round-robin and allow you to control the best features of the piano’s sound.

Loft Piano is a refreshed alternative for anyone seekinga different piano library. Its main focus is to deliver a versatile yet highly customizable piano sample collection that should cover the most popular modern musical genres.

The excellent audio quality of the samples is a must, but the algorithm present is a nice touch from the team of developers that can make it sound as authentic as a real piano would’ve.

It’s not easy to capture a true acoustic essence of an instrument such as a grand piano. The first concern is the actual size of the instrument – it doesn’t fit in any random room, which in turn can also affect how it’ll sound drastically.

The great thing about sampling technology is that it brings such instruments closer to everyone willing to make music out of them. Now it’s the best time possible toget out there and have a nice, decent piano library to be trustworthy to any productions you may encounter.

Obviously, recreating iconic instruments always will be very desirable. Collections such as Native Instruments’ The Maverick ande-instruments’ Session Keys Grand S excel at bringing famous piano models right at your computer screen, with uttermost quality and plenty of controls to tweak with, making it sound very closer to reality.

Other takes, such as Native Instruments’ Alicia’s Keys, try to encompass a very specific piano model used by the famous artist. She even recorded all the samples!

Options like Soundiron’s Emotional Piano focus on getting theperfect ambiance and lightweight vibe a piano can offer, focusing on cinematic takes and atmospheric vibes to your tracks, while Echo Sound Works’ Loft Piano offers a revamped take, set to fit into modern genres such as lo-fi and trap.

Talking about freeware options, Pianobook was featured four times in our list. This is because they offera wide variety of piano sample libraries, specially crafted to elaborate ambient sound (like Rolling Piano) or by capturing the sound profile of a very specific piano model (The Hoffman).

All options presented showcase extreme quality regarding the audio samples, and each featuresspecific controls that can be helpful on a number of different occasions. No matter which, it’s nice to get to know each item on this list to have a selected yet trustworthy collection of the best piano sounds available today.

Eduardo Cardoso is a musician and audio producer based in São Paulo, Brazil. He studied both music production and theory in college and has successfully launched his career as a solo artist in 2021. With over 10 years of experience with the music business, he currently acts as a session musician, music producer, audio editor, and content creator.

Hearing from so many of you over the years has brought no end to the gratification this project has given me. Thank you for going on this journey with me and thank you for using Synthesia!

At VI Labs we believe that some instruments truly can inspire and take your creativity to new levels. Ravenscroft 275 is one of these rare instruments. This one-of-a-kind concert grand has been recreated using nearly 17,000 samples and 4 discrete microphones, controlled from an easy to use interface. Our goal was to emulate all aspects of the 275"s detailed voice using the latest sampling technology and let this amazing piano speak with clarity. The result: a virtual piano like no other.

Reproducing the tone and playability of a concert grand like the 275 Titanium is no easy task. Precise playing velocities plus complex harmonic interactions and details are carefully sampled and then controlled by a powerful script and engine. Control is similar to a modeled virtual piano but entirely sample-based. Touch response is consistent no matter the controller used. All while keeping your resource usage minimal and offering fast load times.

It"s one piano that works for all styles. And gorgeous detail is abundant. Rich clear hammer attacks, unique Muted Strikes, staccato Release Trails, real sampled Una Corda pedal, and sampled Resonance all lead to a level of realism previously unobtainable in a virtual piano. If the usual piano tones have worn out their welcome and it"s time for something fresh, the Ravenscroft 275 is here. This is truly a pianist"s virtual piano.

Ravenscroft Pianos are designed and built by Michael Spreeman at his company in Scottsdale, Arizona. After working with renowned jazz pianist and composer Bob Ravenscroft on a custom performance piano built to satisfy Bob"s highest demands and expressiveness, Mr. Spreeman formed Spreeman Piano Innovations to build the exclusive line of Ravenscroft Pianos, named after the composer. Each handmade Ravenscroft grand takes well over 1,000 hours to complete which is about four times that of a factory built piano, and each can be built specifically to a customer"s requests or for a specific design or location.

Mr. Spreeman had been seeing trends in how a large part of the piano world was becoming digital, and realistic sampling along with ever faster computers enable acoustic piano sounds to become easier to emulate. It was imperative for Mr. Spreeman to have his signature Ravenscroft voice captured for the most accurate "simulator" possible. VI Labs worked with Ravenscroft Pianos at every step of the process to sample their 275 Titanium and do tests so we captured the perfect tone that satisfied the virtual and acoustic instrument makers both. A priority for Ravenscroft was finding the right team to sample their piano because of the expected level of accuracy and realism. With our detailed knowledge of acoustic pianos and recording methods plus complex scripting utilizing the UVI engine, we were able to create the officially licensed Ravenscroft 275 library that truly emulates the voice of the Ravenscroft 275 concert grand.

The Model 275 Titanium was built to be a concerto piano and have power to sing over a full orchestra but still handle the most delicate passages with ease and clarity. Sitka spruce from a 1,000 year old tree was used for the soundboard, the action is CAD optimized to be responsive and balanced to precise tolerances, and all string termination points are of solid titanium which contribute to its brilliance and long sustain. Front and rear tuned duplex scale further adds to the brilliance and sparkle. It responds with the agility of a fine sports car. And most important for the virtual instrument, tonal possibilities and depth of voicing with the Model 275 Titanium seem limitless. The bass is deep with a pronounced fundamental, the tenor is pure and rich, and the treble retains clear overtones and can be as bright as you want just in how you play without ever sounding edgy or brittle. The sustaining sound evolves beautifully over time with several notable "blooms". Overall there is brightness and definition but it keeps a warm quality at all times even when it"s played fortissimo in any register.

According to Mr. Spreeman, "Although our sound is very clean and pure, it"s also multi-dimensional. I strive for multiple layers, or demensions, of complex harmonics that can be heard, sensed, and felt without sacrificing a strong emphasis on a bold fundamental tone."

When recording a great piano in the studio, you want options. Versatility in microphone setups is needed to cover any playing style or mix without being limited to one basic tone. Plus the microphone selection and placement in and around the piano affect the stereo image and what tonal aspects of the piano are being recorded.

The four discrete phase-aligned mic setups of the Ravenscroft 275 accurately capture its unique voice in exquisite detail and can be used individually or mixed in any way. World-class mics and preamps were used throughout. Tones from close and intimate, diffuse and distant, warm or brilliant, all can be acheived with one or more of these mics. Load the samples you want and activate or deactivate mics without having to unload and reload the samples. This is the Ravenscroft 275 virtual piano studio.

The Main control panel features the Mic selection and mixing section center stage. Loading microphones is quick and easy while memory usage remains very reasonable. Adjust the mic"s volume with the slider and shut the mic off with its power switch. If a mic is loaded but deactivated by switching it off, no polyphony is used and system resources are conserved. Much time is also saved by not having to unload and reload mic samples letting you have quicker access to all the mics at once.

The microphone selection and setups were chosen for their variety of use, the character of the piano we wanted to capture as well as how they compliment one another when mixing.

CLOSE: A mix of mics inside the piano placed over the strings and hammers that capture a punchy detailed tone with a big stereo image. Great for pop/modern playing and hold up well in any mix.

PLAYER: A stereo pair of mics that capture the sound heard sitting at the keys and pick up more of the hammer attack. More distant than Close mics, they"re great for classical and player"s perspective while also mixing well with other mics.

SIDE: A mid-side vintage U87 setup right outside the rim that capture a balance of warmth and detail with a more focused image. Great for jazz and classical and blend well with other mics to add more room or detail. Side mics are also fully mono-capable due to the nature of mid-side.

ROOM: A mix of mics away from the piano that capture the complete instrument along with the room characteristics. Great for classical and for the unique perspective of the room sound and work great blended with any other mics.

Pianists are well accustomed to the aspect known as sympathetic resonance that occurs in acoustic pianos and its importance to the sustain and how chords resolve. It binds all notes together as one instrument. Sympathetic resonance is heard among harmonically related keys held and others played, while pedal down resonance occurs as all strings vibrate together when the damper pedal is pressed adding to the overall sustain.

Both pedal down and harmonic key pedal up resonances are sample-based and not synthesized in any way. We believe this important component of the piano"s tone is best emulated only with real samples. The Ravenscroft"s multi-dimensional resonances have been precisely sampled and scripted for both types of advanced resonance simulations responding naturally like the real grand, all fully adjustable.

Sympathetic resonance brings all the strings together as one instrument and adds immense depth and sustain.Our resonance simulations are entirely sample-based and have been carefully matched to the actual 275 concert grand in response and volume. This is done with complex scripting made possible in the UVI engine along with accurate sampling and voicing. The end result is stunning and recreates what you would hear from the real grand while also giving you full control of the resonance samples.

B• True Pedal Action ties the Pedal Resonance samples to your sustain pedal action. A chord played with the pedal down will cause other strings to resonate, but if the sustain pedal comes up and then back down quickly, the strings will resonate again but with lower volume. This enables the sample-based Pedal Resonance to precisely work the same as it would on the acoustic grand and offers realism not possible with separate pedal-down samples.

C• Repedal allows blending and blurring of the sustained sound when the pedal is lifted and pressed down again quickly. This is a crucial component to the pedal down sustained sound which differs from anything played with the pedal up.

D• Sympathetic Resonance occurs when partials are heard in keys harmonically related to keys that are struck. Not only is this an integral part of the grand piano"s tone and sustain, it"s also used musically to great effect such as holding a chord and playing harmonically related to cause sympathetic resonance in the chord that"s held.

The pedals of a grand piano must be responsive and give precise control of the dampers by using the Sustain and Sostenuto pedals plus allow you to sweeten the tonal colors with the Una Corda or soft pedal. Ravenscroft 275 works with a single on/off pedal for basic sustain, or you can use all three pedals including piano-style continuous damper pedals for smooth Half-pedal control plus Sostenuto and Una Corda functions.

The Sostenuto works just like a grand piano and is perfect for triggering Sympathetic Resonance samples on notes held by this pedal. Repedal is fully supported and a crucial function to blur phrases and blend the sustained tone if the pedal is lifted and depressed quickly. Other options like half-pedal range settings and custom CC assignments for any function offer a level of control discerning pianists will appreciate.

Full control of all pedal functions happens on the main interface. All three grand piano pedals are supported with our unique True Pedal Action plus Half-pedal samples for the sustain pedal. Full Sostenuto and sampled Una Corda can be used with the center and left pedals. Repedal action is smooth and True Pedal Action creates highly realistic damper pedal resonance which works well with Half-Pedal.

• Repedal: Allows the note to continue if the sustain pedal is lifted then pressed down again quickly. A crucial feature to most pianists, this enables subtle blurring mostly in the bass and responds like a real piano without the sound fully stopping when the pedal is lifted.

• Una Corda: The soft (or shift) pedal on a grand piano making the hammers shift over not only to play one less string on most keys, but a softer part of the hammer meets the strings which results in a mellow tone with a different character. Load this discrete sample set for soft pedal which include hundreds of detailed release samples.

• True Pedal Action: Emulates the way an acoustic piano"s pedal down resonance responds along with the sustain pedal being used. A chord played with the pedal down will cause other strings to resonate, but if the sustain pedal is lifted but pressed again quickly, all strings will resonate but with lower volume. In a real piano, the resonance occurs if the pedal is down when a chord is played but also if a chord is played followed by the pedal going down. The Pedal Resonance comes on when the sustain pedal is pressed and is muted when the pedal is lifted, exactly as on a real piano.

• Timbre Shift brightens or darkens the piano sound by shifting the root pitch of the samples. The effect can be quite dramatic and yields many tonal possibilities similar to adjusting the scale of the acoustic grand.

Multi-velocity sampled strikes of each note with the strings muted creates this wonderful percussive effect that can be switched in real time while playing using your mod wheel, button or pedal. Resonance is also heard when the sustain pedal is used. Load these samples, then set the CC value to your controller of choice. Set the value to 1 and use the UVI graphic mod wheel as your controller if no physical controller is available.

The resonance that trails on after you release the keys and the dampers mute the vibrating strings is an integral part to the feel of the piano and how the artist connects. This sound is most noticeable during staccato play and is precisely reproduced in Ravenscroft 275. Over 1,000 release samples per microphone are used and respond to velocity as well as time. True staccato release samples create a precise effect with more string energy in bass notes and more treble and duplex ring in higher notes. The Release Trails also respond properly with the sustain pedal and will be heard on a sustained chord when the pedal is released, just like a real piano. Adjust the Release Volume for more or less of these trails as well as adjust the amount of crossfade between the sustain and release samples. Typically if you increase the Volume, you increase the crossfade (Xfade) time.

A premium virtual grand piano library would not be complete without discrete Una Corda soft pedal samples as classical and other demanding pianists use it not only to lower the volume of a soft passage but also for its unique variation in tonal color. Una Corda, or the shift pedal of a grand piano actually shifts the entire action to the right so a hammer normally hitting three strings only hits two, etc. Plus the strings are struck by a part of the hammer that"s voiced differently giving a softer muted tone.

Load the Una Corda samples and set the CC value to your controller of choice. The default for soft pedal is 67. If no extra pedal is available, you can set any MIDI controller such as the mod wheel to any pedal function. Experience the velvety softer side of the Ravenscroft with these special samples.

Ravenscroft 275 is designed to feel great with any keyboard right out of the box. For custom control, you can adjust the MIDI velocity response and volume curve independently. The acoustic Ravenscroft grand has an incredibly deep response in voicing and volume which you"ll feel in Ravenscroft 275 and can be customized for a variety of controllers. The MIDI panel also shows incoming and outgoing MIDI velocity values and offers Bend to control the overall response curve, in and out min and max points to limit velocity response, and the ability to draw any custom curve you want.

The Tuning panel offers the ability to set Base tune for the entire piano as well as creating your own tunings key by key, in Cents or Ratio. Micro-tunings are supported and several tuning presets are included.

• Pedal Noise: Sound of the damper pedal action on the real acoustic grand causing a slight swish when raised and a small thump when dampers are lowered onto the strings. The Pedal Noise is deeply sampled and responds to pedal speed when using a continuous piano-style sustain pedal and has full volume control.

• Repetition Strikes emulates the natural variation heard when repeating single notes on an acoustic piano, mostly heard when the sustain pedal is down. Some repeated notes will be brighter or darker depending on playing speed and velocity.

• Dynamics and Sensitivity allow fine control of the volume envelope of the Ravenscroft without affecting MIDI response. Used in conjunction with the MIDI panel settings, an enormous range of response is possible. Increasing Dynamics makes the softest samples lower in volume whereas decreasing this value limits the volume range with soft samples being louder with 0% having same volume at all velocities. The Sensitivity curve affects the slope in volume from softest to loudest. Click and drag the curve to increase or decrease the slope in the curve.

• The total number of allowed voices can be controlled with the Polyphony setting. The default value works for most playing situations on systems meeting the requirements even when all 4 mics are in use. To reduce CPU and disk load especially for older systems, use Medium or Minimum to limit the polyphony. Setting polyphony to Full or Max can be done on fast systems or for offline bounces to allow more voices during heavy playing.

Control every component of the sound including sampled Key and Pedal noises, Silent Strikes as well as control of the dynamics along with pedal assignments and polyphony.

There is an integrated sampler enabling you to record and play with your own voice or sample. Your performance can also be recorded, saved, exported and played back. Create and save your song ideas while on the go.

Other options include: 2, 4 or 6 octaves on screen, split keyboard mode, velocity, pitch bend, MIDI support, MIDI over WiFi and perfect studio quality sound.

I’ll paint the picture: imagine you want to add a Steinway & Sons sound to your piano recordings, but you only have the budget to spend on a cheaper, more affordable digital piano.

With the help of VST instruments, you can make your keyboard sound like a Steinway grand piano, or perhaps a Rhodes electric piano, or an old-time Hammond organ.

You might not even own a full-length, 88-key digital piano, but may only have a MIDI keyboard with 49 or even25 keys. Yet you will still be able to score that grand piano sound with the power of MIDI editing.

I own an 88-key Roland digital piano, as well as a Miditech 32-key midi keyboard, (and a Korg nanoKEY2 controller) – all of which can achieve the same remarkable sound through VST plugins.

For instance, opening the Kontakt player in a DAW will open a window where you can select the sound your piano will produce on a certain track. Selecting a trumpet sound will output your piano to sound like a trumpet.

Note that the instrument stays true to its range, so if you press the low keys on your piano, you won’t hear anything since a trumpet’s range doesn’t extend that low!

The sampled sounds are prepared by real people who devote hours recording a single note on an instrument in several different ways (such as staccato, legato, lower attacks, higher attacks, with a mute, etc.).

Most samplers can work as a standalone function on your computer (without the use of a DAW), so you’ll be able to play and hear the different samples.

GarageBandis an outstanding DAW for beginners (and comes installed with every Apple computer and device), and Ableton Live is a well-known DAW for producing electronic dance music (EDM).

When you connect your digital keyboard to your computer and use sampled piano sounds through a sample library, you are transferring the note you play on your keyboard into aMIDI format.

VST instruments offer a range of options for your recording needs. You may not like the preset sounds in your digital keyboard, or you may want to broaden your sound palette with different piano samples or to experiment with other instruments.

This may seem confusing, but you can use your digital piano as a MIDI controller, allowing you to play notes in a piano fashion, while your computer will output them as other instruments, such as a guitar or a violin, via VSTs.

Vocalists often ask me for a piano-backing track for a performance, but they need it in a different key. Instead of playing in another key and re-recording the original performance, I can move the MIDI notes in my DAW totranspose the sound.

You have the power to move around, change, and remove notes while experimenting with how they will be played. Is it a staccato passage? Should the pedal lift at the end of the phrase, etc.?

This saves you time by eliminating the need to re-record or ‘punch in’ later (re-recording a passage within the piece). You can change a sample once you’ve recorded in MIDI, so you may audition various sounds, then choose the one you prefer.

—A digital piano or MIDI keyboard with access to either a USB Type B port or a traditional MIDI connection common to older keyboards. Please refer to our Connectivity Guide for connecting your keyboard into a computer.

—A computer or laptop (recommended with at least more than 10% storage space remaining and at least 16GB RAM). This space enables you to download samples that may require sizable storage space, and the RAM empowers you to work quickly and efficiently without lag time in your DAW

— For advanced users: you may also wish to utilize a ‘slave’ computer, which is usually a higher-end desktop PC or Mac Pro from which you can run sample libraries without using your primary PC’s CPU.

The more samples you have, the less efficient and longer it will take to work with your DAW, so many industry composers use a slave PC to save on CPU usage.

If you wish to use a few samples for different sounding pianos, you may work easily from a single computer or laptop and will not need a lot of RAM to do so (at least 16GB is recommended, but 8GB RAM is still workable).

With an audio interface, you will be able to connect other instruments and microphones to record them, so you are not limited to a piano as your controller within your DAW.

—Experimenting and building a new sound palette to your compositions. For example, you may prepare a template that loads as a quirky ensemble of organ, saxophone, and string sounds which you can play around with as an ensemble.

— Learn basic orchestration. By using different sound patches, you’ll familiarize yourself with various instrument ranges, the kinds of articulations they are capable of playing, and the register(s) in which they ‘shine’ best.

—You are limited to your VSTs. If you are composing something in your DAW alone, your violin sample may not have a portamento feature (slide), so you will never choose to write music with this technique.

— The process of learning about VSTs falls into music technology and production. This is a subject in itself, just like mastering the piano or learning to teach music.

It is also why the use of an SSD will make your workflow faster and more efficient. Imagine loading a DAW template with thousands of samples; with an SSD, the load time for samples decreases greatly.

The difference between these terms is that ‘sampled’ sounds are actual audio recorded with microphones, while ‘modeled’ sounds are animitation of an acoustic instrument produced by a synthesizer.

‘Sampled’ libraries outnumber ‘modeled’ libraries, since modeling instruments require more knowledge than does recording an instrument’s notes with a microphone.

There is no one answer to this question. A good place to start is to identify whichacoustic piano brand produces the sound you prefer, whether a Steinway, Bösendorfer, Yamaha grand piano, etc.

Many of these brands to have been recorded meticulously into sample libraries. You may also wish to have a piano sample for a particular style, such as a solo performance, a piano be blended in with an orchestra, or a recording in a jazz or rock band.

The more samples is recorded per key the more expressive and dynamic the piano sound is going to be, though there are other important factors that can affect that.

Most high-quality piano VST libraries will use lossless audio compression, which preserves the exact copy of the original audio data, as opposed to lossy compression methods such as MP3, AAC, etc.

Some higher-end keyboards (e.g. Roland RD-2000, Yamaha Montage, Yamaha MX series, etc.) as well as Yamaha’s newer digital pianos (P-125, P-515, YDP-144, YDP-164, YDP-S54) can exchange both MIDI and Audio data via their USB type B port (aka “USB Audio Interface” function).

But even then, this is not an optimal solution. The built-in speakers of digital pianos are usually designed to work best with preset sounds andmay not sound great when connected to external audio sources.

Plus, the speakers on portable digital pianos and keyboards are hardly impressive, so it makes sense investing in a pair of good external speakers or headphones to get the most out of your VST plugin in terms of sound quality.

Many libraries allow you to install a Lite version with fewer options for customization and/or fewer sounds, which makes the library much smaller in size.

The Spectrasonics Keyscape library is one of the most versatile libraries available, featuring a collection of upright pianos, electric digital pianos, and grand pianos.

Keyscape is an incredibly large library with over 500 piano sounds and 36 instrument models and hybrid patches. The library can be hosted within Spectrasonics and integrated with the Omnisphere library.

Keyscape requires 77GB of storage space with at least a 2.4GHz Intel dual core processor and at least 8GB of RAM. The library is compatible with both Mac X 10.10 or higher and Windows 7 or higher.

A unique feature of the Yamaha C7 grand piano (the main piano sound) is that it’s embedded with Renner® “Blue Point” hammers using Wicker felt. This delivers sound with a wider tonal spectrum. Renowned LA piano technician, Jim Wilson, made it his mission to create this unique piano sound.

Within the VST editor window, you have the freedom to edit the microphone placement of close mics (great for solos) and room mics (great for ambience and atmospheric textures).

There is no ‘stage noise’ evident in the samples. Not every recording is perfect, but Keyscapes focuses on a clean recording with no noise but the sound of a piano key in each of the samples.

The Yamaha C7 allows you to experiment with mechanical noises and pedal noises for realism, and it features release overtones when a note is held (like a true acoustic piano).

Keyscape offer the hybrid “duo” patches which partners a VST instrument with another to create a new patch. These pairings can include the Yamaha C7 grand with a harpsichord, or a vintage electronic keyboard with a church organ to produce an ‘underwater’ tone.

Without any editing on the user end, Keyscape sounds good by default. More advanced subtleties like half- or quarter-pedaling and modeled sympathetic resonance are not supported.

The library includes various presets that provide immediate inspiration. I am a user of this piano library and rarely build a custom patch. I use a preset with tweaked moderations instead (such as pedal noise and reverb).

I recorded this without a physical sustain pedal and instead drew one in the editor window, while increasing the sound of pedal noise for realism in my performance. A completely MIDI performance now sounds as if it was recorded live!

The library is compatible with Mac OS 10.10 – 10.14 and Windows 7 or later, as well as with a soundcard with ASIO (most computers have this built-in).

The Vienna Imperial virtual grand piano by Vienna Symphonic Library is recorded on the Bösendorfer 290-755 with a huge 1,200 of samples recorded per key applying a large magnitude of pianistic possibilities.

The interface has the option to view inBasic or Advanced View, where you can adjust frequencies, microphone positions (distant/audience position, middle/player position, or close/microphones placed in the body of the piano), convulsion reverb, pedal noises, sympathetic resonances, octave shift, and stereo width.

The Imperial was sampled on theBösendorfer 290-755, meaning it has nine extra notes below the lowest A on a standard piano. These notes turn on in the Advanced View using the octave shift.

However, if you do not own an EQ or Reverb plug-ins, the Imperial’s are fantastic options since the EQ uses a three-band parametric arrangement and the built-in Reverb is a convolution reverb, which is not normally the case with built-in reverbs.

The Imperial fits in nicelywithin an orchestra. In my experience, I’ve found that some piano VSTs stand out like a sore thumb when mixed with an orchestra, but the Imperial blends in nicely.

It is compatible with Mac OS X 10.10 or later and with Windows 7, 8, or 10. To use the l