THE BEST PIANO PLUGINS 🎹 (FREE & PAID)

What's the best Piano Plugin? What's the best FREE Piano Plugin? What qualities does a good Piano Plugin or library have, that might be missing from some options? Join me on this deeeeep dive into Piano VST Instruments!

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00:00 - 0 INTRODUCTION
02:10 - 1 WHAT MAKES A ‘GOOD’ PIANO PLUGIN?  5 TESTS
05:43 - 2 COMPARISON GROUP A: Melda, UVI, XLN & IK
Melda Production - Monastery Grand
Melda Production - Meldway Grand
UVI Model D
XLN Audio - Addictive Keys
IK Multimeida - SampleTank 4 CS - Berlin Grand

06:38 - 2.1 Price, Size & understanding the Chart
07:00 - 2.2 Mic Positions
09:00 - 2.3 Velocity Layers
11:05 - 2.4 Velocity Curves and Volume
15:45 - 2.5 High/ Low Keys Balance
16:50 - 2.6 Release
18:03 - 2.7 Resynthesis in SampleTank
20:19 - 2.8 RECAP: a closer comparison
22:29 - 3 COMPARISON GROUP B: ruling out some options
Bitsonic - Keyzone Classic
AIR Music Tech - Mini Grand
Spitfire LABS - Glass Piano
Orchestral Tools - SINE Factory Ratio
Muze - Mirage
8dio - New 1928 Piano
Soundpaint - 1928 Steinway

23:30 - 3.1 The surprisingly good ‘Mini Grand’
24:53 - 3.2 Cautionary Tale About Muze
27:02 - 3.3 Spitfire LABS
28:27 - 3.4 SINE Factory
29:18 - 3.5 Cool tech without results in Soundpaint
32:17 - 4 COMPARISON GROUP C: Native Instruments & Kontakt
Native Instruments - Noire Pure
Native Instruments - Alicia's Keys
Native Instruments - The Grandeur
Sterzov Sampling - The creative Toolbox: Steinway Grand Piano for Kontakt Player
Ivy Audio - Piano in 162 for full Kontakt or Sforzando
Soniccouture - Hammersmith Free for Kontakt Player

32:20 - 4.1 Demo
35:22 - 4.2 Discussion
37:08 - 5 COMPARISON GROUP D: boz, UJAM, Mixcraft
boz digital labs - Master Keys New York L 1991
UJAM - Virtual Pianist VOGUE
Mixcraft - Pianissimo
Studiologic - NUMA Player

37:18 - 5.1 Key Shift
39:03 - 5.2 UJAM’s Player
40:24 - 5.3 Pianissimo
41:03 - 5.4 Numa Player
42:12 - 6 COMPARISON GROUP E: Physical Modelling
Sampleson - Meta Piano
Soundmagic - Neo Piano Piano One
Modartt - Pianoteq
Arturia - Analog Lab Play American Home Grand

42:29 - 6.1 Meta Piano
44:12 - 6.2 Digression about Layering
45:08 - 6.3 Piano One
46:09 - 6.4 Pianoteq
49:19 - 6.5 Bass Register Comparison
50:31 - 6.6 The best Free Piano?
52:13 - 7 FINAL COMPARISON
55:50 - 8 Conclusion