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TruePiano or Free Piano that sounds good


sadicus

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I quite like it. Bought it about a year ago. It's great for doing quick sketch ideas but also finished records if you will. And with all the flavors it comes it's quite versatile. There are some good free pianos around but they're usually more on a personal side sound-wise and this one sounds very common, if you know what I mean - your ordinary pop/jazz/rock piano that makes the job done quick and good.

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I picked this up when SPlat went splat. It's a good prototyping tool. Modeled, not sampled. Loads fast. Nice pairing with Lounge Lizard. No velocity layers!

Many of the better free piano VIs are Kontakt instruments which require the full version to run. Do you have a full Kontakt license?

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I don't know if 4Front are really still honoring the discount for SONAR owners; you might want to contact them.

TruePianos is still the best-sounding, most expressive and playable,  inexpensive piano I know of.  It's not 100% modeled, like Pianoteq,  but modeling is clearly being used to get smooth timbre change across the dynamic range and to produce a more realistic release sound and sustain behavior. I despise pianos that have a noticeable velocity switching, and TruePianos has none. It also lets you interrupt the release with the sustain pedal which a lot cheaper sampled piano can't do - another feature that makes it more playable if you're used to a real piano.  It makes a slightly unpleasant 'warbling' sound when releasing notes held by sustain , but it's not that noticeable in most situations.

I don't know of anything free that sounds even half as good as a solo instrument.

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Another piano to check out is AIR Mini Grand, which I use a lot, and personally prefer to TruePianos - not that TruePianos is bad, but Mini Grand isn't quite as bright (although it can be if you want it to).

Going for just over $20 at the moment:  https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/1683-Mini-Grand

Getting this will also entitle you to upgrade to the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack 3 upgrade (pretty much all their synths/instruments) for $49

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We piano snobs are quick to dismiss it, but don't write off the piano in the good ol' TTS-1. If you know what you're doing with EQ and compression, you can make it sound pretty darn good.

I often use it as a placeholder, with the intention of replacing it later on with Keyscape or a Kontakt library. Sometimes, though, if in the final mix the piano isn't particularly prominent I may just elect to leave the TTS-1 in place.

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2 hours ago, sadicus said:

Thanks for all the helpful links, I should mention I'm looking to use it outside of Cakewalk, I would have used TruePianos already.

I bought the complete set of TruePianos about a month ago, and they honored a discount I had, I believe for being a Cakewalk X3 Producer owner.   I paid $90.30 for the additional 4 models.  I had Amber from X3 Producer, and just added the other 4.  I'm glad to have them to play around with.  The Amber model tends to be my favorite, but the others (Atlantis, Sapphire, Diamond and Emerald) can be interesting for various reasons.  Amber might be a bit too bright.

For serious piano recording, I still think my Young Chang Grand from Sweetwater (created for my Kurzweil) remains the best.  I just bought Ivory II (American Concert D) and Waves' Grand Rhapsody, too.  The Ivory II should be better than it is (I paid $149 for it).  Pretty good tone, but my Young Chang that I bought 20 years ago, is just so perfectly recorded/sampled, and it utilizes a DSP block in my Kurzweil algorithm so that I can darken the tone using my Mod Wheel (not just a simple filter), I am so glad I have it.

Edited by Toddskins
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My favorite piano Vsti for years. For me, the Diamond module alone is worth the price. Light weight, zero problem with Cakey, and it sounds expressively awesome responding to your play! If I can only have 1 piano vst in my system, it would be TuePiano. I even thought of buying it's Lite version for V-Machine to play live on stage (unfortunately I don't have v-Machine). I think the discount will still apply if you contact their customer support.

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4 hours ago, James Argo said:

For me, the Diamond module alone is worth the price.

I agree, Diamond is my Goto patch.

Addictive Keys was mentioned. I have that as well.  It sits well in a mix with a less complex tone (fewer high harmonics), but is not as responsive to dynamics in terms of timbre change on the attack or the harmonic evolution of the sustain decay on held notes/chords. And you can't interrupt the release when pedaling late, so I use it for more percussive parts that don't require a lot of nuance, and in settings where the piano isn't the star. 

EDIT: Of course, there are plenty of demos out there, but here's an example of what TruePianos can do. The tone on this is minimally EQ'd or otherwise manipulated, using the Diamond  'Jazz' patch:

Dexter's Tune (Cover of a solo piano piece by Randy Newman)

Edited by David Baay
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Wow.  I just discovered by "accident" that TruePianos can be played in Standalone mode.  Clicked the Start button on Windows 7 and did a quick glance at the programs listed and I saw the red "4 TruePianos Standalone" in the list.  I had no idea.

Like a nice early Christmas treat.   🎄

Edited by Toddskins
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Someone at KVR thought "Piano One" was the best free one.

I discovered this yesterday so i can only confirm the download works ok. That 30 sec waiting felt a lot longer.

http://www.supremepiano.com/index.html?piano1.html&fbclid=IwAR2QOzVbF-3u2mqhDAjEP7TktbJZtLB0zbkqa-_-4uit1ASqOV_NorltZ-M

ADDED. I now have installed and played it. Sounds very real.

It says you have to copy over the .ins file but it wasn't clear where it should go. It's the file that holds the sounds.

After install i found the place at users/shared/shared documents/soundmagic/neopiano/instruments.

Edited by Kurre
Addition.
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