I had to sell my beloved Nord Stage 2 EX 76HP due to bills and legal fees from an extremely problematic roommate I'm in the process of evicting (she won't budge and won't pay rent). Just wondering what everyone's favorite grand/upright piano VSTs are. Kontakt is pretty common.
![]()
I love the Nord Piano Library. But, I had to part with this baby.I like the EZKeys and Keyscape stuff but looking to save a little money by picking up a library or two.
I really prefer uprights.Thanks for any tips! I recently swapped my WD Black HDD in my ten year old DAW with a Samsung SSD and that made a MASSIVE difference to load times with Kontakt. All the pianos now load in seconds.Yep, I also did that, but I only have a small one just for my operating system and some major programs.I also noticed that in my style of music the Addictive Keys fits better. Some sounds can be very impressive when played solo, but are too present when mixed in a composition.I think acoustic piano and B3 organ are the instruments keyboard players are most picky of. What one keyboard player thinks is a brilliant piano, is for the other player the ultimate trash. Yep, I also did that, but I only have a small one just for my operating system and some major programs.I also noticed that in my style of music the Addictive Keys fits better.
Some sounds can be very impressive when played solo, but are too present when mixed in a composition.I think acoustic piano and B3 organ are the instruments keyboard players are most picky of. What one keyboard player thinks is a brilliant piano, is for the other player the ultimate trash.Yep. Certainly agree with you there.
Simple Sam Samples Vintage Upright Kontakt-0Th3Rside download full online. Yamaha Yamaha Vocaloid4Fe 4.3.0 download full online Html Code, Yamaha. Magix Spectralayers Pro 5.0.129 Free download full online Free Free. JUMP TO: Written Review of Vintage Upright Videos of Vintage Upright. Sample Library Review Patreon Page. Vintage Upright featured in 5 UNDER Peculiar Pianos. Simple Sam Samples Offical Website. Vintage Upright is available from Simple Sam Samples for $49.99. At time of writing was on sale for $29.95 and included a free vintage toy piano.
It is very much a taste thing for sure.I've never tried Addictive Keys so can't comment on that.For Hammond, my favourite VST is GSi VB3. IMHO, serious players will never be happy with mediocre VSTi. BUT so much personal taste in many respects.Synthogy IvoryII Italian is tops for me, but always trying new and different offerings.They usually sound great at first try, and always backs to IvoryII.Also have all NI Komplete11 Ultimate pianos, all Addictive Keys, Orange Tree Samples Rosewood Grand, Waves Grand Rhapsody Piano.Next will be IvoryII Studio Grands. No question., and Synthogy / IvoryII offer a great 'Upright Pianos' Library if that is specific requirement.
![]()
Ilio (Los Angeles ) offers extraordinary 'toll free' telephone support which may be helpful as you choose.Good luck!! Pianoteq is my favourite Piano VST. That Pianoteq stuff sounds brilliant. Price isn't bad. Wish the bundles gave you a different option for the included pianos, though. Same two unless you go all the way up to the top. HahaAt least all the instrument packs are the same price.
The K2 is a great piano, every bit as good as those modelled on real pianos like the D2, Grotrian, Bluethner (probably my personal favourite), B and so on, it's just a different realistic sound.I would like to see more idealized models like that, along with more official models too.Frankly the Stage D2/K2 pack with the extra freebies already covers most or everything of what many will need. The rest is nice to have of course.The B and the Grotrian are regarded by some as the most advanced, since they have been developed way after version 5 was released. TBH I mostly just hear the character of what they are modelling, even in the older packs. I have favourites based on tonality, not how advanced the models have become. They even have a side-by-side comparison:On my system the EWQL sounded much better. The Pianoteq had a low end that was a little muddy and over all it sounded kind of synthy, at least compared to the EWOL.I'm not an EWQL fan at all but in that comparison they definitely sounded better.I've got all NI stuff and it works for me, but I rarely have anything as intimate as in that test.
![]()
It would be interesting to have a test like that, that included NI along with others considered to be good.Heh heh, I'd even like to hear a test like that just between all of NI's pianos, I think I've got them all. Heh heh, I'd even like to hear a test like that just between all of NI's pianos, I think I've got them all.Now that sounds like a great idea. As mentioned earlier, I just upgraded from Komplete 8 standard to Komplete 11 ultimate so I have pretty much all their pianos now too.Perhaps we could put together some demos using the same performance but with each of the pianos.I'd really find that worthwhile even for my own purposes now that I have all these new choices and it could be a good thing to share for others too. Now that sounds like a great idea. As mentioned earlier, I just upgraded from Komplete 8 standard to Komplete 11 ultimate so I have pretty much all their pianos now too.Perhaps we could put together some demos using the same performance but with each of the pianos.I'd really find that worthwhile even for my own purposes now that I have all these new choices and it could be a good thing to share for others too.I upgraded 8 standard to 11 standard.
If it is mainly the synths and pianos you want from Komplete then the standard package is better VFM IMHO. Of course if you want all those extra sample libraries then Ultimate could be good value.Ultimate package has more plugin FX and much more sample libraries (the extra sample libraries are really big too so do not suit small SSDs - at least for full install).I have Komplete 11. That has all but one of the sampled pianos in Ultimate. That being 'ALICIA'S KEYS' which was co-developed by Scarbee. Best I heard are Pianoteq U1(I think it was called), an upright piano.A bit mellow and soft, gentle kind.But don't fancy the price policy, so never got one. You cannot choose U1 and a Grand at purchase, you only got some other choice.I turned most stuff to external gear, piano, synths, organ - since I like just pushing a button and sit and play for a while.Starting up computers and loading plugins etc is a hinderance for the creative part. Push power button, just sit and fool around a bit - in seconds you think about doing it.
Best I heard are Pianoteq U1(I think it was called), an upright piano.A bit mellow and soft, gentle kind.But don't fancy the price policy, so never got one. You cannot choose U1 and a Grand at purchase, you only got some other choice.I turned most stuff to external gear, piano, synths, organ - since I like just pushing a button and sit and play for a while.Starting up computers and loading plugins etc is a hinderance for the creative part. Push power button, just sit and fool around a bit - in seconds you think about doing it.Hi Nip,I can understand the desire to have physical controllers that are dedicated to one purpose, not programmed e.g with classic analog synths. However speed or reliability isn't a logical reason anymore.Win 10 here with SSDs. Start up is as close to instant as makes no difference.
Sample free synth programs like Pianoteq open instantly. Sample programs are so quick anyway - bar the odd (and truly exceptional) enormous piano mentioned in this thread by Peter.I have owned audio Hi-Fi hardware that literally takes longer to start (due to delayed internal warm up procedure) than Win10 with SSD.An LED backlit monitor is also instantly at full brightness. All modern monitors have these now. So unless you have shorter memory than a Goldfish.
I upgraded 8 standard to 11 standard. If it is mainly the synths and pianos you want from Komplete then the standard package is better VFM IMHO. Of course if you want all those extra sample libraries then Ultimate could be good value.Ultimate package has more plugin FX and much more sample libraries (the extra sample libraries are really big too so do not suit small SSDs - at least for full install).I have Komplete 11. That has all but one of the sampled pianos in Ultimate. That being 'ALICIA'S KEYS' which was co-developed by Scarbee.I've been using NI since I purchased K8 a few years ago and have had my eye on many things that are in K11u and not standard.
When they announced the half price sale, I figured I'd jump on it.My new rig (should be here next week hopefully) has three 500 GB Samsung SSDs and one will be specifically for all my sample libraries.The extra stuff in Ultimate will get plenty of use here so definitely worth it for me. I've been using NI since I purchased K8 a few years ago and have had my eye on many things that are in K11u and not standard. When they announced the half price sale, I figured I'd jump on it.My new rig (should be here next week hopefully) has three 500 GB Samsung SSDs and one will be specifically for all my sample libraries.The extra stuff in Ultimate will get plenty of use here so definitely worth it for me.Cool.I still have the option of half price upgrade to Ultimate 11 from 11 but I will wait this one out. I don't want to get on the Ultimate bandwagon anyway.I was merely framing my answer based on the specific requirements of the OP. That being value for money pianos. So if he was looking for pianos only buying Ultimate over standard version would be really poor VFM.Those sample packages look good.I have the missing synths and some of the extra FX bought separately anyway so for me it would come down to the value of those extra sample libraries. I have over half a dozen different piano plugins, but the one that I love the most is the PianoTeq modeled piano, of which I only have the demo.
The plugin costs about $500 for the top of the line version and that's too steep for me, so I'll probably wind up getting the stage version which is only about $130. It's very light on the CPU and plays wonderfully.That said, I also have GPO 5 (I bought GPO a decade ago and recently updated), and while many of the instruments are not great sounding, the grand piano and intimate piano are a couple of the most beautiful I've ever used. Those, and the SAM horns are the only thing I use from the library, except for layering.So for $150 you can get a very beautiful piano and quite a few other instruments to use for layering. I think the Synthogy Ivory II pianos are hard to beat. Pianoteq is nice but no matter how you modify it to my ears it just sounds slightly metallic.
It responds really well but I just can't accept the sound.There are two new Ivory II pianos recently released Studio Grands which consist of a Steinway Model B and Bosendorfer 225. Both are beautiful sounding pianos. The 2.5 version of the software also means that you no longer have to have an iLok key which I think plenty of people will welcome. The other piano favourite of mine is the Garritan Abbey Road CFX.
I can't get enough of Addictive Keys. Whenever I start talking about it, the communication very rapidly devolves into pure gushing.
So, I'll just stop there.I think it's good.The only issue was that no timbre change with velocity as default on the upright.I fiddled quite a bit to simulate softer touch by filter driven by velocity, but that was not easy to understand how those parts really worked. I managed a little bit, but not quite how I wanted it.And no documentation that I found, and talking to their support they were not interested in providing a preset that sort of could be used as a base for what I wanted to do.GUI seems to contain plenty things, but no way to really get to know it rather than just experimenting.Really clever dialog for handling tunings though. I wish every digital piano had such an editor to adjust tunings a bit from equal temperament.I had to learn how to sent sysex to my Yamaha with alternate tunings. Not very userfriendly. +1 for Keyscape.
It isn't cheap but also not really expensive, considering you get 36 keyboard instruments. The Yamaha C7 Grand is an exceptional piano. The sound is very well balanced and never shrill or cold. Spectrasonics spent ten (10!) years working on this and I am not disappointed. The Wing Upright Piano is also great. Really, the whole library is going to fill lots of gaps in sampled keyboard instruments.As a bonus to anyone who owns Omnisphere v2, you can download the FREE 'Keyscape Creative' patch library which combines patches and soundsources from Keyscape and Omnisphere into a 1,200 patch library!I'd like to see them sample a Hammond B3 organ as well as some other grand pianos with tonal colors which vary from the C7, but aside from that, I am VERY impressed with Keyscape.
The demos speak for themselves.
38 Best Free Kontakt Libraries – Table of Contents:.Pianos & keyboardsJerry’s Pianoreleased by Cinesamples is a sample library for Kontakt featuring a dual Steinway Grand Pianos setup which was recorded at the Sony Scoring Stage in Culver City, California. This piano instrument mainly concentrates on the lower range, with sustains and staccatos, which make it perfect for dramatic passages or experimental productions.is a sampled Yamaha grand piano “close-miked in stereo”. The samples were compressed to have a total size of under 200MB. Amore Grand Piano sports an intuitive 3-page GUI with controls for decay, EQ, IR reverb, delay and keyboard response. RMI RocksichordSoniccouture’s is the virtual emulation of the Rock-Si-Chord (“Rocksichord”) electric harpsichord, a prog-rock icon used by The Beach Boys, Genesis, Dr.
John, John Lennon, Terry Riley, and other similar artists. RMI Rocksichord brings all the 12 original stops and the KSP stops mix module straight into your DAW.by Versilian Studios was designed as a light-weight sketching piano.
This instrument (VST/AU and Kontakt) is a beautiful example of clean sampling of an upright piano, offering a dynamic range and a bright, clear tone. Zvenigorodis a small USSR toy piano with a unique sound that resembles a xylophone. You can use it in the main melody or in the background of your tracks.
It contains 1 instrument with 10 presets.is one of the best free Kontakt libraries on the internet. Piano in 162 is a sample library featuring a Steinway Model B grand piano and comes in various formats including Kontakt and SFZ.
You get high-quality recordings and deep sampling (five dynamic levels, two round robins, and separate pedal on and off samples) packed in a simple and intuitive GUI. OrchestraEnsembliais just one of the free Kontakt libraries by Cinematique Instruments, bringing the sound of a modern chamber orchestra.
Ensemblia is suitable for any musical project that requires organic and truly natural music, for example, pop, RnB, but also orchestral hip-hop and cinematic. It features a selected range of classical instruments combined with a fine mix of unique sounds.Next on our list is orchestra by Xtant Audio, a sample library constructed with orchestral sounds from public domain only. It was the first to offer such a library exclusively for the Kontakt format. There are over 1,500 samples in this library totaling more than 1.5GB, but due to Kontakt’s lossless compression, the size goes less than 500MB. Sonatina Symphony Orchestrafor Kontakt is another Kontakt library project based on public domain samples. It contains the samples recorded by Mattias Westlund plus some extra sounds by the same author.
Each instrument has all articulations included in a single Kontakt patch.If you look instead for that warm and massive sound of a full symphonic orchestra but you can’t recreate it with regular plugins, then is for you. The chords were recorded with Genuin – multiple winners of the German Music Prize, The Klassik Echo, and remind you of big Hollywood blockbusters such as “The Lord Of The Rings”. String instrumentsThe Stroh Violin – sequencer viewis a self-amplified variation on the classic violin design with a resonating metal body and horn. Impact Soundworks have sampled it with three custom-mapped articulations and a rhythmic sequencer. The Kontakt instrument looks and sounds amazing.(free) is a sampled Les Paul model electronic ukulele from Epiphone.
Started as a personal project, now is available to the public for free download. All the samples in E-Ukulele are mixed totally dry, so you have total freedom of spatial placement and the role E-Ukulele plays in your production (like a melodic or background instrument). Etherealwinds Harpfree Kontakt instrument is the virtual replica of a diatonic, 22-string lap harp recorded by the Newgrounds musician Etherealwinds. The main characteristic of this type of instrument is the Lap harps, which are smaller and have approximately half the strings of a standard concert harp.by Pettinhouse features a stereo steel-string acoustic guitar recorded in 16-bit 48Khz audio quality.
Like the full libraries, it is recorded stereo with microphones and it has round-robin for alternate notes, full sustain, natural decay.The consists of two instrument patches – a legato for long sustained notes and a spiccato for short notes. The sounds were recorded dry so you can add your own reverb to give the cello your feel.
Mute&Slapis a cool guitar instrument for playing muted guitar grooves combined with slap notes. It is perfect for funky, also for rock – you can play power chords with a bit of distortion. You can combine muted passages with slapped notes just by playing harder on your keyboard in order to introduce a slapped note. The amp and the FX section is fully activated. You can use the distortion, the EQ, Reverb, Delay, Phaser, play notes with the Wah-Wah effect moving up and down your modulation wheel.by Atom Hub is a strange but beautiful experiment, some kind of guitar and piano instrument with “omnipresent sound defects”.
It is based on acoustic guitar samples with 3 fake round robins. There are 11 NKI files, each with its own character and feel.is a stripped-down version of a much bigger instrument, but is fully playable and very useful. It features 4 virtuoso string players, 3 round robins, true legato and a natural tone. Perfect for orchestral, pop, urban etc. For more free Kontakt libraries, just browse our with over 200 of articles! Wind instrumentsSimple FluteAt the base of stay 130 samples recorded in 24-bit 44 kHz audio quality. There are 3 round robins but only for short articulations, the legatos being virtually generated.
Simple Flute’s GUI sports 3 smooth dynamic layers that can be controlled by the modulation wheel. Also, the convolution reverb module has 16 unique IR’s.by Mihai Sorohan is a sample library for Kontakt, Mu.Lab and SFZ featuring the sound of a Yamaha Soprano Recorder.
All the samples were captured at 32-bit float, 44.1 kHz sample rate, then converted at 24-bit. The Kontakt patch has a fake round robin script coded by SzcZ aka Fairly Confusing. FreelodicaAs the name suggests, is based on samples recorded from a Melodica. Wavesfactory used 2 microphone positions with stereo and width controls. You get 3 optional round robins and extended playable range, plus the dynamics are controlled by the selected CC number. A great feature is that you can select between original tuning or perfectly tuned samples.by The Alpine Project is a simple Kontakt instrument based on samples from Sam Gossner’s VSCO CE.
It sounds very good and is fully playable, making it suitable for orchestral, cinematic, game music, ambient etc.Embertone’s is based on an 80-year old wooden/ivory instrument and manages to transmit its distinctive and rich tone, as well as the true legato. It features a 3 round set of samples and mod wheel controls for vibrato. SynthesizersShortnoiseby Prodyon is a huge 6GB electronic sample library with over 300 Kontakt instruments. It was previously sold for $199, but now is completely free.
Expect electronic grooves, arpeggiated sequences, manipulated synths, cinematic FX etc – making it perfect for electronic music, film scores and experimental sound design.SampleScience offers a free set of, including retro analog basses, FM synthesis keys, early sixties computer-generated sounds and chiptune tones. These free Kontakt libraries are taken from previous and upcoming projects.
SIGNAL FreeThe free version of highly-acclaimed by Output comes packed with 2GB of content. That’s 25 pulse instruments taken from the full library. Signal Free is fully functional, the only difference being that it works only in full version of NI Kontakt and, of course, there are fewer patches. Drums, percussion & SFXHandclap Bossis Sample Katra’s interpretation of Boss HC2 hand clapper device from 1984. It includes the same original controls but adds some enhanced tone-shaping features to bring it in line with modern music production and workflows.
Besides claps, Handclap Boss also contains whistles, pops, clicks and whooshes. Each sample has eleven round-robins to capture plenty of nuances.is an amazing free virtual drum kit for Kontakt by Ivi Audio. At its base is a sampled medium-sized drum kit with high-quality microphones on every piece. In addition to the usual drum sounds found in every sampled kit, Scott Drums also includes snare rolls, stick clicks, cymbal scrapes etc.
The sounds were recorded in a world-class studio, with many dynamic levels and round robins for every piece of the kit. Egyptian Darabuka Liteis a superb sample library of a Darabuka percussion instrument and contains sampled articulations that Mahmoud Altaf, the author, mostly uses.
He recorded the instrument with 4 dynamic layers per articulation and with 2 dynamic layers for the rolls. There are enough articulations and velocity layers to create a fairly realistic performance with it.by Wave Alchemy consists of 380 drum samples from a vintage Vermona DRM drum machine. All samples have been recorded through an API pre-amp with every sound boasting eight round-robin variations and four velocity layers. Available for Kontakt 5+ and Battery 3. DrumMic’a!I continue the free Kontakt libraries roundup with, a great instrument featuring a direct comparison of different microphone positions on a complete drum kit.
Maybe it sounds too technical, but believe me, this freebie is amazingly useful, especially you’re looking for a “real” drum kit that costs nothing.Atom Hub’s is an experimental percussion instrument based on the recorded sounds from metal and wooden parts of a candlestick, played by fingers and nails. It brings 21 patches from 90 samples.Audio Imperia offers, a freebie produced by Australian composer and sound designer Joshua Crispin (aka Generdyn). It includes atmospheres, braaams, effects, hits, risers, pulses and other patches suitable for cinematic productions. The Hipster’s BongosRattly & Raw brings, a “multisampled pair of the most terribly authentic-sounding Hipster’s bongos”. It is a fun instrument, with “Annoyingness” and “Mistakes” controls – first increases the frequency of “fully authentic Hipster comments”, the second sets the frequency of missed hits, duff notes, scrapes and accidents.With, bigcat Instruments took the drum samples recorded by Nathan Sheeran and packed them into 8 Kontakt patches, perfect for low RAM situations.
There are eight drum kits – 7 acoustic and 1 electronic. Sync 3 LEby Audio modern contains 4 of the 28 patches included in the full release. “Intelligent polyrhythms” such glitch grooves, ambient sounds, IDM sequences, minimal loops, percussions, drum hits and more. All the sounds are royalty-free. VoiceClare Soloby Ivy Audio is a highly advanced solo vocal library featuring the voice of Clare Demer, an undergraduate vocal performance major at The University of Arizona.
Suitable for orchestral, cinematic, ambient, but also pop and EDM. The aim of Ivy Audio was to create one of the most playable and inspiring vocal library. You decide if they succeeded.is a free sample library of high-quality background vocals featuring 5 world-class singers.
Expect stacked background vocals, as well as different vowels across each singer’s range. 1.2 GB of compressed samples.
![]() Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |