Any keys players here? Piano VST's

Chewie5150

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
Before I picked up the guitar I was a piano player. Classical style. I still play quite a bit. Started off on an upright piano growing up so have always been used to a full sized weighted keybed. I've gone through a few Yamaha keyboards over the years the MO/MOFX/MODX etc and now have migrated full to just using midi. NI Kontrol Komplete S61..likely will update later this year to the 88 size. So....piano VST's. I have a few which are decent including a few NI Instruments like Maverick, Giant, Grandeur (yet to try Alicia's keys) and also have Steinberg's The Grand. Currently trying out Addictive keys which I'm not overly taken by. Perhaps i need more time with it. Part of the challenge with any of these VST's is adjusting velocity curves and such for your controller to optimize action/feel. Most of these VST's are sample based but Pianoteq which uses physical modeling. has long intrigued me. It's a heftier price tag and wonder if I should go for it. Looking for the best acoustic piano sounds possible
 
Not a keys player but I've been following the progress of piano VSTs over the years just because. Take a look at Pianoteq. It's completely synthesized, physically modeled pianos, so the plugin takes up barely any space, unlike several gigabytes from traditional sampled VSTs.

https://www.modartt.com/pianoteq
 
I use Addictive Keys and whatever comes with Cubase. I play, but not ready to dump $400 on a piano plug-in.

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I also go down the hardware based road. Much of what makes a piano for me is the action of real mechanical keys. I grew up with a real piano. Until you spend the money on a high end controller and then the plug-in I would probably be more inclined to seriously look at something like the Nord.
 
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GitGuy513 said:
I use Addictive Keys and whatever comes with Cubase. I play, but not ready to dump $400 on a piano plug-in.

Edit:
I also go down the hardware based road. Much of what makes a piano for me is the action of real mechanical keys. I grew up with a real piano. Until you spend the money on a high end controller and then the plug-in I would probably be more inclined to seriously look at something like the Nord.
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As much as I'd love that Nord...good lord. Hard to justify dropping that kind of cash right now though local store has it on sale over $1000 less than reg price. I miss weighted hammer action keys mostly. What I'll likely do is upgrade my NI KK to the 88 version or hold off and see if NI comes out with new hardware keyboard in 2023. I've had full sized keyboard workstations and mostly only used them for the onboard acoustic pianos. Keyscapes, for example, sounds beautiful in all the youtube demo's i've been listening to today
 
@GlennO Just purchased Keyscape! Downloading now and looking forward to exploring the VST. My goal is to have this library on my external SS drive. I downloaded the download manager to my SS drive and now doing the next step again asking me for location. Looks like another nearly 80GB allotment of space? The Steam data is now going to the default directory. Hopefully I didn't mess this up ha.
 
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Good topic!
I'm using a free one (NeoPiano) that has a single piano sound but really well done (or at least is very effective for improvising ideas..)
After buying a digital piano (Kawai) and beeing impressed with the tone, I'll have a look at the suggested for a match...

Let us know your impressions on Keyscape!
 
I use East West's Opus/Play for all my synth stuff. It's a subscription service, but it gives you access to all their libraries and it's more than worth it to me. There's a few different pianos available, Steinways and Yamahas, really great sounding pianos. I mostly use it for the string/choir/sound effects libraries. They do a ton of film scoring VST's. Play is their older player/library loader and Opus is the new one (they're both free with the subscription) and Opus is outstanding; being able to demo the sounds before downloading anything (they're huge libraries in some cases) is a lifesaver and the organization/search function is ::chef's kiss::

This newest song I recorded last week uses a shitload of it, strings choirs, sound effects, 808's, I kitchen sinked this song, except piano! :tearsofjoy:
 
I used the NI Giant piano VST on a couple projects and was pretty happy with the results...although in my case the piano parts were sitting in the mixes here and there (sparingly), not the featured instrument. It was pretty resource hungry tho so after tracking with it I uninstalled the software, sold the midi keyboard and will someday just grab a decent digital keyboard/piano.
 
Chewie5150 said:
NI Kontrol Komplete S61..likely will update later this year to the 88 size. So....piano VST's.
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LOL, I just realized that if I was in the market for a top shelf controller keyboard the NI Komplete series would be what I would look for. A professional score writer I subscribe to on YT uses the S88. I just went to confirm what he used (among a ton of other stuff) because I was always impressed with all its features and seems like the key bed is pretty nice and realized we were on the same page. Congrats and glad you’re liking Keyscape. Even though I mentioned the Nord, right now I’m not even in the realm budget wise to spring for something like Keyscape yet alone a Nord of any level. Keyscape does sound really nice!

BTW, @GlennO I also did not know you were involved with Keyscape. It’s an awesome sounding virtual instrument!👍
 
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