🎹Best Piano VST Plugins: Keyscape, Addictive Keys, Pianoteq, Vienna Symphonic Library & More🎹

Most Comprehensive and Editable: 2:31
Best All-Around: 6:47
Best Piano for a Large Hall Sound: 9:01
Best for a Close, Intimate Sound: 12:13
Best Value: 15:52
Most Fun: 18:05

#VST #Plugin #Piano

Hello and welcome to another piano review at the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. In today’s video, we’ll be taking all of our impressions from our ongoing VST series and determining our favorites in a variety of categories.

There is no absolute best VST as it’s going to come down to what you’re using a VST for, and of course, your own personal musical preferences.

Please like the video below, and if it’s your first time on the channel, subscribe and hit that notification bell!

Overview:

It’s important to note right away that there’s no one, single criteria by which every VST can be judged as all of them are geared towards different applications. The more we’ve gotten familiar with various VST’s, the more we’ve been able to come up with our own internal rating system based on different factors. Here they are:

The Most Comprehensive and Editable: Winner - Pianoteq

For folks ready to go down the VST rabbit hole with deep customization of a plethora of parameters, the winner here is Pianoteq and its modeling-based VST. The standard version is middle of the road as far as pricing goes, and should suit approx 80-90% of users.

Once you dive in, you’ll find an essentially endless universe to explore. There are many different instrument packs including various Steinways, a C. Bechstein, Bluthner, Yamaha’s, etc, not to mention a whole bunch of keyboard instruments as well. Since it’s a modeling-based engine, for each instrument pack, the range of editable options is nothing short of staggering.

Why would anyone need anything else? Well, Pianoteq doesn’t have the most realistic ambiance, nor does it accurately recreate all of the imperfections we get with a real acoustic instrument. If those aspects are important to you, you may want to look elsewhere.

Best All-Around: Winner - Keyscape

If you were looking for the dynamic all-around VST, Keyscape is our winner here. The library is absolutely massive, and every single instrument has been captured beautifully - including authentic recreations of all of the imperfections

This is a one-size-fits-all that should work for just about any project, from Classical projects to, 70’s fusion, pop etc.

Best Piano for a Large Hall Sound: Winner - Vienna Symphonic Library Synchron. Honorable Mention - Cinepiano

For those times when you need a faithful recreation of a concert grand in a large concert hall, nothing tops the VSL Synchron VST. This is a stunningly beautiful room capture, and more importantly, the piano sounds marvelous in the space.

For a dry, close, intimate sound, there are other VST’s that are better. But for orchestral recordings and film music applications, the VSL engine is a triumph.

An honorable mention for this category goes to Cinepiano. It’s not as complex or expensive, but it does boast a very nice room and piano capture. It’s also less expensive, so it’s definitely a great value option.

Best for a Close, Intimate Sound: Winner - Ravenscroft 275, Honourable Mention - Garritan CFX

There are times you need a VST for highly exposed, solo piano playing. The Ravenscroft 275 is the winner here, with a nod going to the Garritan CFX. Both of these plugins are exactly the same price, but use different pianos with different approaches.

The 275 is simple to use and offers a truly stellar VST experience for solo piano. Is it the most versatile? No, but if you’re looking for a close, dry sound, this is a gorgeous engine.

The Garritan CFX pulls this off very well too, and there’s a beautiful array of presets.

Best Value: Winner - Addictive Keys

This was a really tough one to pick, but when factoring everything in, the Addictive Keys VST for a mere $130 is tough to beat. It’s a surprisingly comprehensive plugin with great editability, versatility, and an easy-to-use interface. Stunning value all around.

Most Fun: Winner - Noir

For us, this was the funnest plugin to just mess around with and have some fun. There’s something really exciting and entertaining with this plugin, and the range of presets and effects engines are a blast.

That’s it for our roundup of our favourite VST’s currently on the market. Thank you for watching!

Connect with Merriam Music:

[leighgoldstein]

The amazing thing about all of these products is the super high quality sound. I am old, and I go back to pre-midi and pre plug in days. I have fond memories when a sampler had a new piano set of disks that was even barely decent.... It took quite a while until even the hardware synths had great onboard piano samples....Kurzweil was the first really, and they were worshipped for their great sounding presets...We are so spoiled now....They are all so good. Great video!

[IntuitiveKeysMainStage]

Agree on Noire! Grandeur has a great modern piano sound. Noire is like post-modern piano - amazing to use live and in the studio - and so evocative.

[ral]

IMO, Pianoteq 7 is a beautiful piece of work. I’ve found that the velocity adjustment is critical to achieving good results. Note: Be subtle with the adjustments. Also as for ambiance: I have found that disabling the on board reverb (and delay) then inserting a properly tweaked Valhalla Room works very nicely. I’ve also found it sounds best at 128 samples. Of course you need a robust computer and high quality interface to assure latency is acceptable at 128 samples. I don’t work for them, I just really dig this new version… enjoy your videos and very nice playing

[detomaso_]

A suggestion: some of us are newbies to the world of pianos, synths, etc. For those just entering the hobby, VST might as well be short for Very Strong Tequila! 😁 Could you someday create a "Dummies" video explaining VSTs and the like. Your piano reviews are interesting & thorough & I think you'd do an equally excellent job giving folks like me a 10-20 minute overview on what we can plug into our pianos to improve their sound, & why/when we should consider doing so. Thanks for considering.

[jonnybravo]

I’ve really enjoyed this series of VST comparisons - super useful when considering which to buy, thanks Stu.

[FlorianRachor]

I got the Addictive Keys upright for free with hardware and I have to say, people don't give it enough credit. It's fantastic, I was really suprised of how much I love it. Highly recommended.

[lelouchvibrittania]

Great to have you back! Always a good time watching your videos man. Take care

[MontSutton]

Another great great review. I loved everyone of your VST reviews. I agree for Best Close sound. My final verdict, the same as yours. That surprised me. The Garritan is such a great product, but I kept trying to get it to sound like the Ravenscroft. I still go back and forth, but for classical or jazz or anything where the notes count, the Ravenscroft ends up being my go to VST. (but barely)

[emilegregoire]

Could you add actual sections in the timeline so that we can locate the VST you're talking about in each section please? Thanks.
Great overview by the way!

[thomasschatton]

Real nice wrap up on the category of piano VSTs which is quite helpful as a guideline in terms of "which one fits best to me" and decision which one to get. Of course one could always complain that you did not test all the relevant VSTs (like the VSL Bösendorfer, which sounds phenomenal, or the NI Grandeur - or the Hans Zimmer Piano), but there are so many great VSTs out there that it is really difficult to try them all out within such a short period of time. All in all this is probably the best piano VST comparison I have seen so far, and I have watched quite a number! So great and wonderful job! Both thumbs up! 👍👍

[nigeltdavies]

An excellent summation of the relative strengths of the Virtual Piano's you have chosen and superb playing - as always!

[oliverzoelke]

Thank you very much for your considerate, comprehensive, fair and sympathic presentation. You helped me to decide for the Addictive Keys plugin. All the best.

[newguy]

Wow! Thank you. I've been racking my brains trying to get a good intimate sound out of VSL's Synchron Steinway and just wasn't able to do it. Finally threw in the towel on it and started searching, yet again, for another more intimate sounding piano out there. Will definitely check out the Ravenscroft 275. Don't get me wrong. The VSL Steinway is a great-sounding piano but, like you, I just didn't feel like it was up to par on the intimate setting, which was very important as I record a solo pianist.

[hsn]

Additive Keys is really good. I purchased all instruments on sale for about $40 bucks each and it does good work for me. I am synth / organ guy, not a piano players so I do not want to spend more money on something what I do not use much.

[ikstephan]

I've never liked the sound of any of the Pianoteq versions. Sounds sort of annoyingly tinny in general and the attack has a real unnatural feel to my ears. Just not a fan, but maybe it's me.
When I have to choose from the libraries that I own myself, I'd say:

1. Ravenscroft 275: I like the feel and the way that playing it on my controller is being translated to sound. Very direct and realistic imho), just feels good and fun to play it. Also the soundstage (mic positioning and a mix of those) I like better than most other libraries. I did make my own presets to suit it more to my taste. I also like the una corda samples that come with the Ravenscroft, they are great and have a lovely brittle quality to them. Great for jazz, pop, classical, film music and so on.

2. Garritan CFX: I Like the sound of this one very much and it has a lot of adjustability with many settings. Also feels great to play and offers a well controllable translation from playing to sound. One thing that I did not like too much in the beginning, is that a lot of sound from the room is included in the samples. For classical music or for film scoring this is not a big deal as these are being played on a larger stage in many occasions, but it did not offer any good, nice, close and intimate preset that I liked right away. When you tweak the settings you can however adjust the decay and release of the room sound which helped in getting a more desirable result. Still I love this library very much. The samples are just recorded and and programmed very well, which makes it a very decent and usable addition.

3. Keyscape: Not entirely honest to compare this product to the others. All the extra sounds it offers makes it well worth its price. The quality of all of the individual instruments this package contains is really great. One thing that it does really well is also the feel it has. When you play it, it feels like you are behind a real instrument. Much like the Ravenscroft in that respect. Lots of presets which sound great, but sound very "produced". That's not alway what I'm looking for though. Then again, everything (each effect or processor) can be deactivated or adjusted so it offers a lot of adjustability as well. The grand piano samples in this set are great and very usable. Very easy to fit the sound in a mix and it will remain its presence. It will serve you well in many different music styles.

[mcrafford]

I'm new to this channel. When you played some jazz, it made me want to hear more of your playing. Do you have more of your playing?

[PianoMavs]

You need to review the Embertone Walker. One of the best libraries out there and also the Simple Sam Samples Signature Grand.

[PiotrBarcz]

I think my favorite vsts so far and the most realistic ones have been the Synchron Pianos, the Garritan CFX and maybe even Addictive Keys. I do a lot of midi audio rendering which requires a VST that won't twang at high velocities (something Pianoteq has failed spectacularly at, the bass is also rather metallic on pretty much every preset and is impossible to correct).

I don't have the Synchron VST myself but I do have the Garritan CFX which I finally bought after desperately needing an upgrade from the rather boring tones of Pianoteq. The Garritan so far has been a miracle. The bass is crystal clear and the piano could probably trick people into thinking it was the real thing!
It does have some limitations however, namely a rather bad midi audio rendering system that reacts to midi control events which will screw up the panning and force you to restart the VST which takes hellishly long to load.

Synchron pianos seem to be the best in terms of outright quality and realism. The pianos have been sampled with 4000 plus samples per note, a ridiculous amount of samples! I listened to a few previews and also have heard audio made by a friend of mine who has the Steinway from that set and man is it just about the best all around piano you can get!

[jaigeyer]

Your channel is amazing and has really inspired me. How are you recording this video, because I'm stuck - please, please help. I have a digital piano (Roland HP605) connected to my Mac with a USB cable (MIDI ?), some DAWs (on trial), kontact 7 player and some paid-for piano VSTs 🥴, but no audio interface, yet. Do I need one, what's the difference 🤦🏽‍♂️? I'm missing quality 😢. How do I get the Roland to play the sound of the VST in the DAW back through the digital piano speakers, or some awesome home speakers, or just back through my headphones, in highest quality? At the moment Ive just plugged my headphones into my Mac and I'm listening to it through there (not great). Desperate for some advice and any info, including any useful details. Is it because I'm going Digital piano -> Mac, and not Digital piano -> Audio interface -> Mac? What's the correct chain, where do speakers/headphones come in? 🙏
Thanks so much for all your high quality content and beautiful playing 🙌

[periodinstruments]

Great video and valuable comparison. My only comment would be regarding the qualification of 'best piano VST' when the end user is not categorised. Any advanced classical pianist will not even consider Keyscape or Addictive Keys for the simple reason that these VST don't support half pedalling, soft pedal or sustenato. This is not a problem for people who play pop songs but one shouldn't forget that the only way to change the tone colour on a piano is with this pedals. In my opinion softwares like pianoteq, Garritan CFX and VSL ( a part the una corda) are in a different league as they manage these pedals, pianoteq having the edge here because of the fact that you adjust the behaviour of the half pedalling and you can also add a 4th harmonic pedal which is amazing.
It is funny to see the difference between pianists and electric guitarists the latest being extremely picky about the type of pedal boards they use, while many pianists don't even know what 'una corda' does and how to use it properly.