Chordz is a VST plugin that allows you to trigger full chords by playing single notes. Each trigger note is associated with a separate chord. Each chord may consist of any number of notes. Play complicated chord progressions with one finger, with a MIDI keyboard or a drum-pad, or trigger chords from single notes added in your DAW’s piano roll.
A chord can be set up to include individual notes spread out over several octaves (two octaves both below and above the octave of the trigger note). This means you can easily create chord inversions and other custom chord voicings, for example double certain notes, both above and below the root note. The chord suggestion feature suggests diatonic chords based on the selected scale and root note.
When “easy mode” is enabled, you can play the chords in any scale using only the white keys, with “C” always being the I chord. The black keys can then be used for chord variations (for example “C#” to trigger a major seventh or ninth chord, while “C” triggers a regular major chord).
The keyboard can be divided into three zones, one for playing chords, the other two (one below, and one above, the chord trigger zone) for playing single notes. Each zone can be independently transposed up or down by any number of octaves. This allows you to play chords with your left hand, while your right hand plays the melody.
Neo Piano one of Soundmagic has just one free sound in it but you can buy extra sound packages for this vst. The one sound is a simple but good sampled piano with just one layer. But the controls are great. You can edit the Harmonics, Tone control, choose a Perspective, change the dynamics and it has a great reverb built in. Relatively lightweight, this free VST should run smoothly on most computers without any hassles. With a firm fixation on the massive Baldwin baby grand piano sound, City Piano works like a charm on both Windows and Mac OS and features core settings such as attack, sustain, decay, volume and panning.
Optionally, single notes outside the chord trigger zone can be forced to stay within the selected scale. When easy mode is enabled, it will follow the chord trigger setup (for example, if scale is set to F minor and a C note will produce a F minor chord, a C note outside the chord trigger zone will play a F note). This will ensure that you will always stay in key, and never hit a wrong note.
The plugin supports optional velocity scaling and randomization for each note of the chord. Another feature is the start and end delay (this can also be randomized), which can be used to, for example, emulate strumming or to create more unpredictable results (works great with sounds with a long attack and/or decay, such as pads or strings).
Chordz comes with more than 40 scale/chord templates, and a chord library with more than 50 chord types. You can add your own custom templates, and new chord types by editing the relevant text file. And you can, of course, customize the chords directly in the GUI.
Chordz can also work as an educational tool. You can use Chordz to better understand the various musical scales and corresponding chords, as well as to learn those scales and chords by following the visual guides on the plugin’s virtual keyboards display.
Are you looking for an amazing piano plugin? Are you not sure which one to get?
Well, do not worry as today we are here to guide you about the best piano plugins available. We will talk about their features in detail and by the end of this article, we are sure that you will know which piano plugin suits your needs the best. All the plugins that we will talk about today are available for free on our website. So, when you are done reading this article, go check them out!
Now let’s start, these are the 6 of the best Piano Plugins along that you can get your hands on:
Piano One
This particular plugin is copies of the sound and tune of the famous ‘Yamaha C7 Concert Grand’, which has been used by famous musicians and bands during many esteemed events or concerts and performances in local as well as international competitions. Piano One also contains the award-winning Hybrid Modeling Technology from Sound Magic that offers both: authentic sampling sound as well as the Physical Modelling’s playability. Moreover, with the presence of an Add on System, the VST software application is enhanced, which means the plugin will run in a better way.
The plugin also contains the model of soft pedals, which are on a real piano as thus enhances the user experience significantly. The presence of the pedal also means the user is able to create three different types of vivid sounds. Built-in professional Reverberation Engine helps bring reality to the sound of the piano. The reverberation technology is used to bring fullness and depth to the sound. So, that the user can feel the genuineness and the perfection of each tune created and does not feel the lack of quality of the music.
This plugin has a swift loading time, with just a blink of an eye, the user can have access to one of the most premium audio instruments available and create vibrant and vivid sounds of unmatched quality. As this plugin is not very big, so a minimal amount of disk size is required to install it, and because it does not consume a lot of RAM and CPU so using such plugin for a long time will not create any problems or make the computer lag. Most importantly, since this plugin does not need a huge disk space or consumes a significant amount of RAM or CPU, this can be used on an average low-end computer as well.
Keyzone Classic 1.0
This plugin does not have one but qualities of five different professional pianos that include Keyzone 1, Yamaha Grand Piano, Steinway Grand Piano, Basic Electric Piano, and Rhodes Piano. All of these are of premium quality and are made for professionals.
The interface of this plugin includes the controls of many different things, which can help the user in creating a unique and original sound according to the user’s requirements. For example, LFO Rate and Depth, which allows the user to create a rhythmic curve. The user interface is also clearly laid out and it will only take you a few minutes to get the hang of it. Furthermore, the velocity curve, volume control, and many other different slots are present on the keyboard interface to enable the user to create different types of sound outputs with varying types of tunes and bend the output of the piano according to what is required.
The plugin also has controls for Attack Decay, Sustain, Release, Detune, and Reverb that ensures the full control of the user over the output and brings in effects as per the requirements.
Atmos
Atmos is one of those free piano plugins featuring a Grand Piano that has been sampled from C2 to C9 and also has been processed with two types of reverb, distortion, and delay. The presence of these enables the player to edit and bend the music output to his or her choice with many ways and choices of doing that. For instance, the presence of delay control helps the user to set the time to how long it takes for the tune to fade away. This can help them create some tune with a short delay time or a long delay time just by increasing or decreasing the delay through the control provided in the interface.
The plugin also comes with an extra sound layer, which gives the user more grip over the noises in the background of the music, and it also promises a very high-quality sound as well. The plugin includes 86 samples, these are stored in the plugin and can be used and manipulated in or with any other tune the user is creating. Gain, pan, LFO rate, LFO depth, reverb, and pitch bend controls are also included in this UI of the plugin. The availability of these controls helps to add different effects and manipulate the output as per the requirement, and because of these, the user can make various types of music. Like the previous plugins listed, this one also has a low CPU and RAM consumption, which allows the user to have access to this plugin on a low spec computer as well. Since this plugin is 100 percent Royalty Free, the user will not have to pay a single penny for using this.
Free Piano Vst That Sounds Really
VS Upright 1
The VS Upright 1 comes in the category of upright pianos. It can be installed on both Mac OS, and Windows. It has a broad range of tones that can be produced through it, including soft ones when needed. This specific plugin comes with three layers of velocity and 2x RR, which are sampled in tritons that reduce the size on disk. These tools that are available onboard help the player change the quality and effect of the sound he or she is producing.
This piano also has the capability of recording sound decays of up to 30 seconds. This means that the piano will be able to record the sound even if its decay time (time taken for the sound to fade away) is 30 seconds. The stereo present in this plugin is recorded from a close distance for a broad, vivid, and complete sound that feels real and genuine.
The interface of this piano board contains main settings on one side, which are to change the main settings like volume and reverb. The other side of the board contains the envelope settings that can change the decay time, attack, and sustainability of the tune made from the piano. This increases the ability of the user to create music according to his or her own will or requirement and enables them to spray creativity on their projects.
Room Piano
This Piano Plugin offers the features of a physically modeled piano, which is able to create lo-fi and intimate sound. This plugin is based on a minimal sound set; hence it does not have a wide range of sounds that can be created. However, because of its simplicity, its size is tiny, and it requires a low spec CPU to run on the computer. It only takes around 40 MB of Hard Disk space, which is very efficient. You can install it on both Mac OS, and Windows.
Free Piano Vst That Sounds Realistic
Moving forward, even though the keyboard is little in size, it has many different controls to alter the sound made through this. It has attack and release controls on its board with a fully-featured LFO with routing selectors for input and output. Furthermore, the amplitude range can be altered as well and made sure the sound is clean or dirty per user’s taste.
The keyboard gives individual outputs for each sound layer. The availability of Low Pass Filter and High Pass Filter makes the alteration of frequency to the desired range possible. The Piano also has one velocity and three sampled notes. In short, this keyboard is simple and small in size, and it can create only a limited variety of sound. However, the limited variety created can be easily altered in various ways through many controls available onboard.
DSK The Grand
This plugin is almost the same as the other plugins available but has many different and unique features as well, including the availability of 4 velocity layers that makes MIDI performances sound human. MIDI is a file format that helps store music files. So with the velocity layers, the sound generated from the plugin is so rich in quality that it seems as if it is recorded while a human was playing the piano in real life. Along with the velocity layers, 4-6 samples and notes are also present that somewhat helps the user with the music.
With the ASPR Envelope controls, the user can make the music according to what is needed by him or her. Reverb function is also included that adds special effects to the sound output and ensures full control of the user over the output. Furthermore, this plugin, too, is not very large hence does not consume a lot of disk space, CPU, and RAM. This makes this easily useable on low-end systems. It is available on both Mac OS, and Windows. The user interface is also quite simple and easy to use. Moreover, with the black theme and the dials, it gives the plugin a modern and sleek look.
As all of the six plugins are compatible with both, Mac OS as well as the Windows. So, that takes the compatibility question out of the topic. All of these plugins require only a minimal amount of RAM or CPU speed to run smoothly.
If you are looking for a plugin that can play the grand piano then the Piano One, and the DSK The Grand should be your first choices. If you a plugin that can produce a variety of sounds, such as grand and electric piano then the Keyzone Classic, with its several different piano modes, should be at the top of your list.
For a feature rich experience, the Room piano provides excellent control over the sound. Features such as low pass and high pass filters, amplitude range control and fully featured LFO are only available on the Room Piano.
Although if you need something that has a fair amount of controls and also comes with a large number of samples, then take a look at the Atmos.