Best Piano VST Libraries (Top List)

[Mikael (Mikael Baggström)]

Best Piano VST Library?

Are you looking for a new Piano VST plugin or sample library? Anything from soft and ambient to big and cinematic. While “Best” is of course always subjective, here is a complete top list (based on input from fellow composers):

Best Piano VST Libraries

• Keyscape (Spectrasonics)
• Ravenscroft 275 (VI Labs)
• Pianotec Pro (Pianotec)
• Addictive Keys (XLN Audio)
• Walker 1955 Concert D (Embertone)
• Piano V (Arturia)
• CinePiano (Cinesamples)
• Cinematic Studio Piano (Cinematic Sampling)
• Emotional Piano (Soundiron)
• Una Corda (Native Instruments)
• Ascend (Heavyocity)
• The Gentleman (Native Instruments)
• The Giant (Native Instruments)
• The Grandeur (Native Instruments)
• Alicia’s Keys (Native Instruments)
• Ivory 2 (Synthogy)
• CFX Concert Grand (Garritan)

Things You should Consider

• Sound Character & Tone
• Sound Quality & Consistency
• Dynamic Levels & Round Robins
• Presets & Variation
• User Interface & Features
• Playability & Performance
• Microphone & Mixing

Your Input is Wanted!

Do you have experience on any of these products? Do you have suggestions on products you think could make this top list?

Share your thoughts, perspective, and join the discussion in the thread below!

Sincerely,
Mikael Baggström
Founder of Professional Composers

[Geoffers (Geoffrey Evans)]

I have most of those NI libraries and my favourites are the grandeur and the Gentleman which are simply beautiful. The Giant is really nice as a layer thoughts more too end heavy so I mainly use it for cutting through the mix… it has a lovely fx patch though which I sometimes use.

I also use the grand piano from spitfire which is stunning in large pieces but doesn’t do soft articulations.

Other notables would be the piano book website. Hundreds of composers have uploaded their own sample piano libraries for free and a lot of them sound absolutely stunning!

[florent83 (Florent)]

i like the giant from NI i use quite a lot in my composition and sometime i make a layer with other library to get a different color and with my korg oasys that has a great old acoustic piano
i have tried the eastwest piano but not convinced by the quality of the sound

[Geoffers (Geoffrey Evans)]

Yes EW pianos sound quite forced and a little brittle I find though I guess that might be fine in a larger piece as a layer. I’d quite like to get the Noir, that looks very interesting. Think that’s by NI too. They do pianos very well!

[Fredrik (Fredrik Danielsson)]

The gentleman
The giant
The grandeur

And I like the sound of 8dio 1990 studio grand but it hasn’t got the same nice feeling to play as the others in my opinion.

[Geoffers (Geoffrey Evans)]

Haven’t tried that one tbh but that basically describes the spitfire one too. Has the sound which is fantastic, but because they’ve developed it to be just the higher velocities it doesn’t have to piano feel.