Last Updated on December 15, 2020 by
A piano VST instrument can be an extraordinary thing and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy playing. Virtual pianos appear in all sorts of workstation style VST Instruments but for this roundup, I’m looking for those pianos that are deliberately crafted to be exemplary.
Here is a list of the best free piano VST plugins that not only sound great, but which are also both suitable for beginners and experienced producers, be it to create extremely realistic piano sounds or to add some ambiance to a film.
Let’s get right into it…
Versilian Upright No.1 (Win/Mac)
Recorded at the Berklee College of Music and featuring over 250MB of piano sounds, the Upright No. 1 is a clean sampling of an upright piano that sounds quite realistic.
You can choose between 3 different velocity layers and this piano has been recorded with two wide and two close mics, plus it offers reverb, panning and volume controls, as well as attack, decay, Sustain and Release.
Download: Upright No.1 Piano.
4front piano (Win/Mac)
This plugin sounds terrific!
If used properly, it will certainly be a great addition toyour VST library.
One con though, it doesn’t have any settings.
On the other hand, since it’s so simple, it won’t overloadyour PC at all!
When I first heard it, I was actually blown away, it reallyis that good…
So, check it out, since it’s free!
Download: 4Front Piano.
Related: If you’re also interested in actually learning to play the piano, then here’s a post I wrote on that topic where I tell you which websites you should consider taking a look at to get high-quality piano courses.
PrismAudio Atmos Piano (Win/Mac)
If you’re looking for a dreamy and soft-sounding piano that is also free, then give Atmos Piano a try!
It’s ideal for creating an intimate ambiance, or cinematic bed.
Contrary to most other free piano plugins, this one is over 2.4GB with a total of 241 different samples.
There are two different microphone sounds that you can blend together to your liking with decay and release parameters.
It’s simple and easy to use, plus it’s the ideal piano plugin to get for creating atmospheric sounds.
Download: Atmos Piano.
Spitfire Audio Soft Piano (Win/Mac)
Spitfire Audio has launched LABS which is a freeinstrument-sample library in VST and AU formats.
All of the plugins sound terrific and it comes as nosurprise that their Soft Piano Plugin also does.
All of the samples were recorded at Air Edel Studios usingar array of microphones and they achieved the “soft” sound by placing a thinstrip of felt between the hammers and the strings.
It’s free, it sounds fantastic and it’s extremely easy touse…
Download: Spitfire Soft Piano.
Looking for free Delay VSTs? Here’s a post I wrote about the best ones.
DSK AkoustiK KeyZ (Windows)
DSK created a lot of free VST plugins ranging from brass, toorchestral, synth, piano, acoustic and classical guitar, and more.
With Akoustik KeyZ you get three piano types;
- Grand Piano
- Concert Piano P
- Concert Piano F
All of these pianos sound incredibly realistic, plus theplugin has some good controls which should allow you to get the desired soundeasily.
Features
- 3 Piano Types
- Velocity response
- Amp. Envelope and micro-detuner
- HP/LP Filter
- 2 FX (Flanger and Reverb)
Download: DSK’s official website.
If you’re looking for the best free VST plugins in the world, I have a list of 225 of them.
SampleScience Room Piano (Win/Mac)
The Room Piano plugin is based on a Kawai Upright acousticpiano recording.
It is a light piano plugin for musicians who want to add alo-fi touch to their tracks.
The instrument comes with a series of on-board lo-fi and modulation effects to help you shape your own rustic piano sound.
It’s compatible both with Windows and Mac and works both in32-bit and 64-bit formats.
Of course, it can be loaded on-to any DAW…
Lastly, it sounds great… very retro!
Doanload: SampleScience.ca.
Interested in free Synth vst plugins? Here’s an entire post on that topic.
Keyzone Classic (Win/Mac)
Keyzone Classic features a multitude of different pianoswhich all sound amazing.
If you’re looking for a sampled piano which also offers a lot of different ones…
Then this plugin might be the one for you.
It also works both on Windows and Mac.
Features
- Piano from Keyzone 1
- Yamaha Grand Piano
- Steinway Grand Piano
- Basic Electric Piano
- Rhodes Piano
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Download: Bitsonic Website.
99Sounds Upright Piano (Win/Mac)
These piano samples were recorded by Rudi Fiasco, who is an accomplished pianist and sound engineer, and Upright piano runs with six different velocity layers to give you as much realism as possible.
It features some simple envelope controls like attack and release, as well as a low-pass filter (Dampen Control) and a reverb control.
You can also adjust the tremolo intensity and speed, global volume and key release volume.
99Sounds Upright Piano works on both Windows and Mac OS (Not on catalina Mac OS), and comes in VST/VST3 and AU formats.
Download: Upright Piano.
Looking for free guitar VST plugins? Here are the 15 best ones.
Skerratt London Piano (Win/Mac)
The Skerrat London Piano is a sampled upright piano.
It sounds a lot like the piano music from the old cartoons,which is just great… if you like that kind of sound.
The cursory parameters include envelope settings; Attack,Decay, Sustain and Release as well as volume and panning.
It’s a fairly good sounding and easy to use piano plugin, somake sure to give it a try.
Download: Big Cat Website.
Interested in free reverb VST plugins? Here’s a post about the 15 best ones.
Iowa Piano (Win/Mac)
The Iowa Piano is a sampled Steinway grand piano with 3velocity layers.
The cursoryparameters include envelope settings; Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release aswell as volume and panning.
It sounds absolutely amazing and warm; however, it has alarger file size than some other plugins on this list… Still nothing tooworrying.
Download: Big Cat Website.
4Front R-Piano (Win/Mac)
The 4Front R-Piano is a vintage module which reproduces theclassic sound similar to RSP73 pianos.
The sound generation is not entirely based upon samples,thus there are 127 continuous layers provided with a vintage Rhodes smoothoverdrive.
Unlike many other software modules and samplers, this modulewill never overload CPU. It will never stick notes, and never interrupt thesound during live performances.
It doesn’t sound at all like a real piano, which is goodsince until now all of the ones I listed were sampled versions or real pianos.
It has a very distinct and unique sound to it which some maylove while some others may not…
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Anyway, I think that it’s totally worth checking out.
Download: 4Front R-Piano.
Looking for free Arpeggiator VST plugins? Here are the best ones.
4Front E-Piano (Win/Mac)
The E-Piano is similar to DX-7 type e-pianos and it’s asmall single sound instrument without any settings whatsoever.
Since it’s such a small plugin, it ends up not being at alltaxing on the CPU, plus it’s also very easy to use… since it’s just plug n’play.
One the one hand, not having setting is kind of bad…
On the other, it’s actually great for anyone who just needsthis specific sound and be done with it.
It’s also great for beginners.
Download: 4Front E-Piano.
DSK Music The Grand (Win/Mac)
This is a pretty cool grand piano by DSK Music which justsound great.
You get the typical envelope parameters; Attack, Decay,Sustain and Release, plus Reverb and Level.
It is, at its core, a very basic sampled grand piano plugin,which is why it’s only about 50mb.
Make sure to give it a try and see how you like it!
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Features
- 4 velocity layers, 4-6 samples / note
- ADSR envelope control
- Reverb FX included
- Available for Windows and Mac (32 and 64 bits)
Download: DSK Music Website.
Soundmagic Piano One (Win/Mac)
Piano One is a sampled version of the Yamaha C7 concert grand, which is one of the best-known pianos ever created.
One thing that instantly surprised me about this plugin is the sheer number of controls it provides you with, letting you tweak almost anything you’d like; like the tone, Harmonics, and even the perspective (from the player’s side or the audience’s side).
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Piano works on both Windows and MacOS, both 32- and 64-bit.
Download: Piano One.
RDG Audio Free Piano (Win, Mac)
The Free Piano plugin comes with staccato and auto sustaininstrument presets.
It also features three layers of sounds; Piano+Strings+Padwith gain controllers.
The Piano has been recorded with 4 Mic positions andprovides the usual controls like Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release as well asa low pass filter, tuning, reverb, amp and level meter.
This is one of the more complete and fully features pianoplugins on this list and it’s definitely worth checking out.
Features
- 100 % Free Sample based multi platform VST, VST3, Mac and AU Plugins.
- 3 Layers of Samples with Individual Gain Controllers.
- Piano+ String+Pad.
- Staccato and Auto Sustain Instruments presets.
- and more.
Download: RDG Audio Piano.
Conclusion
All of the plugins on this list are awesome.
I would personally recommend Free Piano by RDG Audio, whichis the last one on this list, if you need one that provides loads of features.
Best Free Piano Vst
For the simpler ones I’d recommend 4Front Piano.
Still, any of them sound terrific and should make a great addition to your plugin list.