I like Arturia, the brand new update is nice. I also find myself using Noire and Piano Colors in Kontakt quite often

 

i have tested almost all of them (keyscape , arturio , pianoteq , native instruments and many more kontakt libraries ) and have fallen in love with these

all poupous - ascend modern grand

the true grand pian sound - Hans Zimmer piano and the grandeur piano

cinematic grand felt - Olafur Arnolds piano or
for a bit brighter sound - midnight grand by fracture sounds

for a upright felt cinematic piano - woodchester piano by fracture sounds

 

what do you mean by dark

 

So, you play piano bar stuff? cool

 

i will qualify this by saying that i have not used it, but this was just posted a little over a week agao, and i thought the demos sounded awesome. check it out: https://audiosex.pro/threads/new-release-the-oeser-piano-library-for-ni-kontakt.64747/#post-643201

 

I was liking Arturia myself but more for weird character pianos that didn't sound very normal. I'll give v3 a go.

Also a 2nd for the Abbey Road pianos for bright pop piano and tack piano.

 

that is a nice sound

To complete some of the mentions here
Soft
The Free Labs emot. Piano
Felt Seiler is cool
modified Pianoteq

for soft Pop/Soul and Jazz
Alicia's keys
always liked the Grand Boesendorfer
The Verve sounds interesting
modified Pianoteq

Loud Bright Pop/ Rock
UVi VLabs Ravencroft
modified Pianoteq
forgot but there was a character Piano from 8dio

Boesendorfer from EW Platinum
If you like that Fatt B! Sound

 

The Garritan CFX Concert Grand is the closest I've ever come to actually playing a piano in vst form. In fact, I've never even found something else that I'd consider close. It's big, ~120 gb, but worth it. Not sure if it's on sister site, but I know there's a version to be found on rutracker. SOS has a 2014 stellar review of it, that IMO still holds true today.

Good luck in your search!

 

Lately I like the East West Bechstein, Bösendorfer & Steinway a lot, mostly for piano practice & playing... The Yamaha from EW sounds really ugly for my taste, just too bright and metallic...

I don't really compose or produce music at the moment, so I don't really know how good they are for this stuff... yet.

For EDM kind of stuff Truepianos is still my fav... It's just really easy to get it in the mix, and for more classical or jazzy stuff I like Noire.

My all time farorite for piano practice is still Pianoteq, but I don't really like it for producing music.

And you should check out pianobook, everything is free and some pianos are as good as some commercial pianos with a 100€+ price tag.

 

It will always depend on the sound you want to get. For example, I am making a song that I want the piano to sound more like a piano that you use at home, half out of tune. I found a site where they publish free libraries recorded by amateur people, and I liked the sound of that piano as it sounded like what I wanted. But if you are looking for something versatile and light, definitely pianoteq is the best, you can achieve any sound with it. And he tried several kontakt libraries and also UVI. But although some sound very good, such as Kawai pro and others. Not the versatile fixtures like Pianoteq. For me the most realistic piano I heard was "The Grand 2" only 2. I don't know why, maybe I got used to that sound, but I never heard another one like it.

 

hay this is a bit out of the topic

so i downloaded keyscape form a torrent and i can not download the whole library (my internet connection is only 40 gb per month

can i get away with only downloading a certen set of files of the pianos i want

thank you if someone know what i should download please let me know because downloading the whole file is a no go for me

 

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/instrument/pianos/

 

It's not easy, I would say difficult to answer to the OP.
Dark or light are vague terms in audio, because pianos sound dark at low keys ad light at high key, unless you mean creepy, in this case a bit of detuning is fine (a property mostly found in physmod VSTs).

At the present day, VSTs (physmod or sampled) evolved to a point that it's difficult to tell an ABSOLUTE no go.
Even many small sample libraries reached a relatively good quality.

So, are you recording piano within daw in the mix?
IMO almost anything can go, the number of libraries are hundreds, maybe thousands if we add freeware stuff.

Are you using piano for live/solo jazz or classical performances?
In this case you have to be selective, I would say the already mentioned VSTs above, but I recommend to test them with your (weighted) keyboard, and to calibrate its velocity curve properly, it makes a drastic difference.

When you play, you have not only to hear it, but also to FEEL it, and that depends hardly on the keyboard you're using plus the flexibilty of the VST.

If during playing you forget it's an electronic device coupled with a library or physmod VST, well, it's a good starting point.

 

XLN Audio - Addictive Keys VSTi
- Available since: 2013
- Platforms: Mac OS/Windows; VST, AU, AAX / Standalone
- Special features: Piano sounds, each with multiple recording perspectives

www.xlnaudio.com/products/addictive_keys

 

Piano VST Comparison, Grandeur, Garritan, Addictive Keys, Pianoteq, Ravenscroft & more...

 

I like Noire a lot, it's my actual favorite. Not just for the way it sounds but also for the FX and all the different parameters.

I tried out Addictive Keys yesterday and I was VERY impressed by it's sound too, the presets are great depending on what you're looking for, and the CPU usage is really low!!!

I personally dislike pianoteq, I think it's ugly, not that easy to understand and I don't like the way it sounds.

I also tried out Arturia Piano V3 yesterday and yes it sounds great too but uses too much CPU for my taste.

 

Pianoteq for me

 

Acoustica - Pianissimo VSTi ($19)
https://acoustica.com/products/pianissimo

Studiologic - Numa Player v1.0.3 VSTi - Free Rompler - 210 MB
www.studiologic-music.com/products/numaplayer/

 

i try alot of things, but for recording ive always used the original PMI Emperor (boesendorfer 290)
it has a full sound off the bat without EQ and with the sympathetic resonance preset, can offer almost infinite sustain
granted, the sympathetic resonance thing can cause feedback and has to be controlled, but worth it imho
good luck

 

I suggested Falcon, not just because the pianos are good; but because OP sounds like someone who is trying to keep a low plugin count on the machine. So a few of the pianos have been individually mentioned, but I think a user like this would love Falcon; especially for the file sizes and then all the other things it can do. ( Which make it more like comparing the Arturia bundles). They are almost like "minified" Kontakt libs, without doing anything to them. It should be almost default by now, if Kontakt is too big and hungry for your tastes or your system; use Falcon2.