Each instrument has been sampled with up to 32 velocity layers, and uses multiple round-robins per layer for 'human' variation between notes. Spectrasonics endeavoured to capture all the noise, imperfection and quirks of the original keyboards, as well as the full spread of their tonality. It breaks our rules by offering both multisampling and modelling but you'll care not, as the results are stunning. Keyscape is the ultimate keyboard instrument in that it features 36 separately modelled keyboards ranging from Wurlitzers to Fenders, toy pianos to Rhodes with a huge number of pianos. We also have to mention Synthogy Ivory II Studio Grands here as you get two pianos for the price of many other options, both of which sound incredible. Similarly, Garritan's Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand delivers a legendary grand in a legendary setting – an older title but one that still delivers an amazing sound. In this respect, it's hard to overlook Spitfire Audio's Hans Zimmer Grand Piano that delivers all the sound of the super-composer's favourite grand, with meticulous recordings at many different microphone positions. If you are a singer/songwriter with the piano as your main song focus, go for one of the larger multisampled instruments that focus on all of the detail of famous – and expensive – grand pianos. Your choice of piano really comes down to the music you make. If you'd rather get to the products, then keep scrolling. If you'd like to read some in depth buying advice about the best piano VSTs, it's included at the bottom of this guide. And with your DAW as a host, you don't even need to play like a concert pianist to sound like one. But the best thing is that you have access to models of pianos that can costs tens of thousands of dollars/pounds at a tiny fraction of the price. What you can expect from both kinds of instrument are exceptional piano sounds as developers have been perfecting these instruments for many years. Many piano instruments – modelled or sampled – feature effects and can have a number of tweakable parameters like other virtual instruments.

We'll discuss more on these in our buying advice section. Software virtual pianos use either modelling algorithms or samples of real instruments to create beautiful emulations.

Kontakt 5 player vs kontakt 6 player 5