Keyscape by Spectrasonis is good with a good reverb. addictive key XLN audio and EZKey Toontrack are good. you must chose the good piano for the style of your song. classic or rock are not same sounds. (sorry for my english...I'm french)

 

My goto is Alicia Keys Yamaha C6 for Kontakt. Not that it is especially indistinguishable from a real one, (and that depends on how you play too), but it sits really good in my mixes.

 

well for free ones that I see quite good than other free pianos:
Soundpaint/8Dio's 1928 Steinway (if you tweak the settings carefully)
Creative X Steinway from Strezov (Kontakt)
Autograph Piano (Labs)
Orchestral Tools' Free Felt Piano and Piano (Sine Player)
Hammersmith Free (Kontakt)
Westwood Felt (Kontakt)

for paid ones that balance:
Noire (This thing is pretty good overall)
Gentlemen
Pianoteq
Hammersmith Pro

for big spender ones or aim for realism:
Hans Zimmer Piano or Olafur's

 

I have that one too. It does have some anomalous stuff going on in the lowest octaves. Some kind of slap-back sounding effect. At first I thought it was one of the built in effects like the reverb/echo or something causing it. But I ended up turning off ALL effects and it's still there. Only really present in the lower 1.5 octaves or so, but it's definitely audible. Outside of that, overall it's a good lib...

 

For me, my go to piano when I just want to play is always Soundiron's Emotional Piano, that was previously one of the Tonehammer libraries. It runs in Kontakt and is super light on resources but sounds great, super expressive, and always gets me into the feel of whatever is played and having fun.

 

I like several that have already been mentioned so I wont reiterate those, but my absolute favorite piano is Hammers + Waves - Acoustic. The Modern Grand in particular but all three that come in their acoustic collection sound great.

 

Hands down the most realistic would be VSL Synchron Steinway. Not my favorite tho.

 

If my experience with every other product i've tried from Impact Soundworks is anything to go by, i'm sure that piano sounds fantastic, their Shreddage series has some of the most realistic sounding guitar sample libraries i've ever heard. They make some damn fine tools

 

As mentioned above, each person will have their favourites. I dont like Pianoteq myself, to me it sounds very artificial. I like keyscape for certain things, but I use quite a few Kontakt piano libraries now, depending on what i'm playing. I quite like Piano in blue and CinePiano, plus many others, the gentleman, maverick,Grandeur, MKSensation etc. I also mix some together to get the tone I want. I dont really like samples that have reverb/room already mixed in that you cannot remove. For a close piano setting I like it dry so I can add reverb to taste.
I'm just downloading a trial of the Ravel Grand to try.

 

We're not at that level yet..

But I'd say some of the best are: Ravenscroft, Piano in Blue, Noire, Keyscape.

For a low memory piano: EZ Keys, Pianoteq

 

Last edited: Jul 17, 2023

Art Vista VIrtual Grand 3
sympathetic resonance is most important to me and this is the best ive found

 

For realism, Synthogy's Ivory is virtually unparalleled.

 

If a VST is a sampled instrument then it's going to sound realistic by default

 

i go with arturia piano v3

 

and if you need something to do with your "piano" you could do worse than Bill Evans

 

I've been using it a lot recently. I really like the upright models. I'm still not convinced for solo piano pieces but it sits great in a mix.

 

With today's advance in recording technologies, I don't think we can distinguish any VST piano from the real deal in a mix.

If it's not in a mix (meaning in a dry recording), I would go with Pianoteq, like many others already mentioned.

 

Throw some room ambiance, key noise, and player breaths... with most plugins, you will fool most people. It will sound realistic, but it maybe wasn't playable when recording, so doesn't reflect the player's intentions as much.

As I recently set up a studio for film scoring, I did a BIG piano VI shootout, looking for the best pianos for classical/orchestral music. Testing on my Kawai VPC1, here are the libraries that I personally find the best in terms of playability and sound :

• Garritan CFX : It's one of the all-time favorites from the piano community, and there's a good reason for it. It is very heavy on the hard drive, but the playbility and recording quality are second to none. I find the bass a bit too bright for my taste, but it's the spirit of the piano. The CFX isn't as "thin" as the C7, but it remains a Yamaha, with its familiar crystal clear tone.
• VI Labs Pianos : With the exception of the sustain pedal not being fully continuous (except for the upright), they play perfectly. Their NY Steinway is simply my favorite VI piano to play, the velocity response is extremely natural. The Fazioli is also nice, but being able to play a real Fazioli grand at my teacher's house, I simply find their action too dynamic for me. It reflects in the VI Labs plugin as well. Some pianists may like this, but I have trouble keeping it under control (and I'm not alone). It's simply a beast you need to tame. The Ravenscroft is also nice and very playable, but I simply don't enjoy the tone as much as the Steinway and Fazioli.
• (Modded) Production Voices 300 Grand : Production Voices make some very nice libraries, but are a bit inconsistent in terms of velocity response, and get noisy when maxing the polyphony. However, some modded versions of the 300 Grand are being shared on the VI Control forum, and I must say that it fixes all problems I had with it. It's like the Garritan CFX, but with a more versatile choice of mic positions.
• Premier Sound Factory Kawai : One mic position for 250$ (???), but boy do I understand the official Kawai stamp on this. Playbility is perfect, and the dry recording makes it very nice to blend with external reverb. The dev is currently working on adding side microphones, and can't wait to play with it. To be honest, I think that it's all that's needed as the recording is dry. Close mics for more modern productions, with more a more percussive sound, and side mics for to better capture the "air" of the piano, useful for a classical sound, and the best to blend with reverb.

Some notes about other good options, but that I wouldn't consider for recording the more technical pieces, or when the tone isn't enjoyable for me :

• Pianoteq 8 : The playbility is incredible, but the tone isn't there yet for me. The midrange still has that distinct "Pianoteq" timbre. It works well when playing softly, but as soon as your playing makes the piano brighter, it reveals an unrealistic tone IMO.
• Simple Sam Signature Grand : Amazing tone and pedal action, but the velocity response is inconsistent and not smooth enough.
• Synthogy Ivory 3 : The playability is great but I simply can't get it to sound as good as the VI Labs Steinway. The lack of close mic surely doesn't help.
• IK Multimedia Pianoverse Pianos : Some issues with bad samples and inconsistent velocity. Could maybe be fixed in an update tho.
• VSL Synchron Pianos (I don't have them anymore, so this is from memory. I tested these a year ago) : Great mic choice but the pedal action isn't the best, and I don't think that the pianos I've tested (F308 and Imperial) sound the best in the Synchron stage. Couldn't get it to blend with external reverb as nice as with other libraries.
• Galaxy Instruments/Native Instruments : Like the VSL pianos, the pedal action is not good enough imo.
  
• Embertone Walker D : Amazing vintage tone, but the pedal catch is buggy. I simply can't play more technical pieces with it.
• Wavesfactory Mercury : Some very nice mic positions, but it gets too noisy unfortunately. Pedal action is also not the most realistic.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2024

Yeah I liked it a lot back in the day. That, and The Maverick.