Hey guys, in this video we’re going to go over some of the best free piano VST instrument
plugins you can use to create piano tracks in a digital audio workstation.
We’ve picked 5 VST plugins can be used with a bunch of different programs including those
for both windows and mac, and we’ll compare the sound quality we get out of all of them
using a few MIDI tracks.
For all these tracks we’re comparing them with the same MIDI performance so there’s
no difference there.
These MIDI performances were creating using a combination of the Akai MPK249 MIDI controller
and the piano roll in Reaper.
The first MIDI clip doesn’t have sustain, and the second one has the sustain pedal on,
so we can hear how the plugins respond to that as well.
Number 5, Iowa Grand Piano.
This is a fairly dark sounding piano, with a bit of a detuned sound, that becomes especially
evident in the lower range.
This isn’t exactly one of my favorite piano plugins.
The sound quality out of it is ok, but it gets a little messy, especially with some
of low chords.
It can be a little crackly at time as well, which is surprising since this is setup with
an ASIO driver that isn’t causing any problems with any of the other plugins.
There’s also an audible hiss when working with the sustain pedal that comes on part
was through that we can hear very clearly at the end.
As far as controls, it has typical volume, pan, attack, decay, release, and sustain controls
that we’ll see on a lot of the free piano plugins.
Number 4, DSK The Grand.
This plugin is a little better than our previous plugin.
Overall though, this piano sounds very electronic and unnatural, but it’s a lot cleaner sounding
and it can be used as a lightweight piano plugin to practice with or compose music,
and it can be swapped out for a final track if necessary.
Once again, we get the attack, decay, sustain, and release controls.
There is a volume level, but there is no panning.
In addition, we also get a reverb level control, but we can’t adjust anything other than
how much reverb, so for more control we can always add reverb on the track or on a send
after.
Number 3, Versilian Upright Piano.
This is another clean sounding piano plugin, and it’s a lot more natural sounding than
The Grand that we just looked at.
Like the others, this plugin does respond to the sustain pedal, but the sustain knob
kind of overpowers it.
We once again have our typical attack, sustain, decay and release controls, and they work
really well on this plugin to dial in the sound we want.
We’ve also got the pan and volume, and reverb to add just a little bit of space, which I
like a little more on this plugin than the previous one.
Number 2, 4Front Piano.
This is the most basic of the piano VST instrument plugins we’re looking at, since it has absolutely
no controls.
You just put it on the track and that’s the sound you get.
Obviously after that things like reverb, volume, panning, and compression can be adjusted with
other plugins, but nothing within the plugin itself.
This plugin sounds pretty decent on its own, and has a pretty full sound to it.
I was especially impressed with the lower notes compared to the other plugins we’ve
used.
The one problem I have with it is the way it responds to sustain.
If the pedal remains pressed down, it keeps sustaining long after a normal piano would
have decayed out, leaving a bit of a synth sound until the MIDI resets.
So if you’re using it, it may be helpful to add a sustain off MIDI event at the end.
Number 1, Keyzone Classic.
Keyzone Classic by Bitsonic, is the best free piano VST plugin we’ve come across, and
if you’re going to use any plugins from this video, it should be this one.
This is the most natural sounding of free piano plugins, and it gives a really nice
full sound, with multiple different pianos actually available within it.
We get access to 3 acoustic pianos and 2 electric pianos.
For controls, we get attack, decay, sustain and release.
We also get a reverb and volume control.
The controls that are different on this piano are the detune and LFO controls.
LFO allows us to change pitch, expression and panning, and we can vary the rate and
depth that these controls change at.
Thanks for checking out this video on free piano VST instrument plugins for digital audio
workstations and MIDI production.
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