Jump to content

Good Piano VSTi?


Recommended Posts

I've been working on getting my home studio up and running, and while I've got all the hardware I need now, I need to find some good software.

I've already got FL Studio, and I'll probably keep using that DAW for a long time since I'm most comfortable with it, but what I need now is a good quality piano VST that can interface with FL Studio. I've heard some good VSTs for piano (Such as Sampletekk's VSTi) but they only interface with Gigastudio or Kontakt.

Does anyone have any experience with M-Audio's Keyrig piano? Or is there some other VSTi pack that has a good piano sound?

I've been looking at Steinberg's The Grand 2, but it's a little pricy and I haven't been able to find a demo or anything like that for it. If it's really fucking awesome though, and works with FL Studio, I might drop the money on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haven't really heard any of SampleTank's pianos except the free HQ, but imho the free Clavinova 2 soundfont (either the 120mb OR the 24mb version) sounds better and is more expressive than it. The larger version is reasonably bright and boasts 7 velocity layers while the smaller version is a little darker with 6 layers. Hey, it never hurts to give the free route a try before dropping the cash :)

The 24mb Clavinova can be found at sf2midi and the 120mb version is one of the soundfonts in Compy's Piano and Harpsichord Collection torrent:

http://www.studio-compyfox.de/torrent/index.php

EDIT: Oops, I read "SampleTank" instead of "SampleTekk" in the original post. I haven't heard any SampleTekk pianos, but I'll still stand by my Clavinova suggestion. Good (free) stuffs is good (free) stuffs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I say go with Ivory. I recently upgraded from Steinberg's "The Grand 2" to Ivory and I'm not looking back. The sound is incredible, but more importantly, it uses very little in the way of resources (other than ram, that is...).

Do keep in mind that it's 40 DVDs in size (10 DVDs) and a tad on the expensive side. I only installed one of the pianos (7gb) and I don't see myself needing anything more than that (though I do feel like the rest of the package is going to waste). The sampler itself is very clean, doesn't use much CPU at all, and everything is laid out very simply on one window with every option you could want.

I think that if you're serious about getting a fantastic sounding piano in your recordings, then this is for you. If you have the HDD space to install all of them, then go for it, otherwise you can swap them in and out of your setup through install/uninstall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TASCAM's Giga Continuous Velocity Piano is doing an amazing job for me right now, especially since it's free!

Once I get some extra cash and become more familiar with FL Studio and midi I'll look into some of the more hardcore virtual pianos.

I suppose if I win the lottery or something, I could just get a bunch of recording equipment for my acoustic piano instead ;)

Thanks again guys!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...