Last updated on December 31st, 2023 at 08:05 pm
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 something like a film.
Let’s get right into it…
Note: These are just some of the pianos on this list (The ones I like the best), but there’s also an Honorable Mentions section later on where I include a couple more:
| Plugin Name | Format | Features | Operating System |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monastery Grand | Requires the MSoundFactoryPlayer | Wide array of tone-shaping controls. Can sound like a piano or like something completely different. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Spitfire Soft Piano | VST2, VST3, AAX, AU | Extremely simple to use. Warm and sweet-sounding. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Atmos Piano | VST, AU | 2 blendable microphones, few controls, warm and sweet sound. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Atmos 2 | VST, VST3, AU | Lightweight. Only 56 samples and really simple controls. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Piano in 162 | SFZ, KONTAKT (Pro) | Few controls and really easy to use (Requires Kontakt Pro or the Sforzando Player). | Windows, Mac OS |
| Room Piano V3 | VST3, AU | Super Lightweight (60MB). Onboard lo-fi and modulation effects. Lo-Fi sound. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Upright Piano | VST, VST3, AU | 6 velocity layers, envelope, tremolo, dampen and reverb effects. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Piano One | VST, AU | Sampled Yamaha C7. Loads of tone-shaping controls (harmonics, perspective, and more). | Windows, Mac OS |
| RDG Piano | VST, VST3, AU | 3 Layers of Samples with Individual Gain Controllers. Staccato and auto sustain presets. Not the best looking interface. | Windows, Mac OS |
| Keyzone Classic | VST, VST2 | 4 different sampled pianos. Hard to make it sound realistic fast. | Windows, Mac OS |
| 4Front Piano | VST, AU | No controls. So, extremely easy to use. | Windows, Mac OS |
Monastery Grand by MeldaProduction (Win/Mac)
Spitfire Audio Soft Piano (Win/Mac)
Spitfire Audio has launched LABS which is a free instrument-sample library in VST, AU and AAX formats available for all Operating Systems.
All of the plugins sound terrific and it comes as no surprise that their Soft Piano Plugin also does sound that way.
All of the samples were recorded at Air Edel Studios using an array of high-quality microphones and they achieved the “soft” sound by placing a thin strip of felt between the hammers and the strings, which is what also makes it sound extremely warm.
What stands out about this plugin, which could also be considered a bad thing, is its limited number of controls; It has two sliders for expression and attack, as well as an additional knob for reverb.
If you’re looking for a bright-sounding piano, or one that allows you to fine-tune its sound, then I think you should go with the previous one on this list. But if a soft and warm sound is what you’re going for, the Soft Piano may be the best one on this list at that.
Download: Spitfire Soft Piano.
Important Note: They also feature an Electric piano, Synth Pads, and many other free instruments that you can download for free, so check them out!
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 that only feature a handful of samples, 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 similar to the Spitfire Soft Piano as well, in the sense that it’s simple and easy to use, plus it’s the ideal piano plugin to get for creating soft, warm & atmospheric sounds.
Download: Atmos Piano.
Atmos 2 by Electronik Sound (Win/Mac)
Atmos 2 is a FREE Ambient Piano Plugin instrument that features samples recorded using a Yamaha C3 Grand Piano as a source.
56 samples in total were recorded using a Zoom H6 portable recorder, and if there’s one thing that defines this piano, is that it’s extremely capable of creating nice atmospheric sounds.
It features built-in LFOs which allow you to modulate the pitch, as well as ADSR controls, HP and LP filters.
It’s definitely not the most realistic-sounding piano on this list, but it’s certainly an interesting plugin.
Lastly, there are a bunch of additional freeware plugins on the website that you could check out as well.
Download: Atmos 2.
Piano in 162 by IVY Audio (Win/Mac)
This is a sampled library of the Steinway Model B grand piano that features two round robins (number of samples per note), five dynamic levels, and separate pedal on/off samples.
Piano in 162 was recorded at 96kHz through two pairs of Rode NT5 cardioid microphones, an ambient pair in the hall and a close pair inside the piano.
In order to run Piano 162 you will either need Plogue Sforzando (free), or the Full version of KONTAKT.
Note: It doesn’t work on KONTAKT Player, the free version of KONTAKT.
It’s a fairly realistic-sounding sample library and the fact that it’s free is simply amazing.
If you want an even better-sounding grand piano sample library, then check out the Studio Grand Piano by addictive keys.
Download: Piano in 162.
SampleScience Room Piano V3 (Win/Mac)
The Room Piano V3 is a sampled instrument created from with the samples from an upright piano, featuring 3 voice modes (polyphonic, monophonic, and legato), that sounds incredibly well on its own (it’s got a nice lo-fi vibe to it) as well as in a full production, and it’s especially good if you’re looking for a retro-sounding piano.
It is a light-weight piano plugin (60Mb), which means that it only offers two-note velocities every 3 semitones. This is meant to keep the CPU from overloading, but it also means that you won’t have as much control over the sound.
The instrument comes with a series of on-board lo-fi and modulation effects to help you shape your own piano sound, as well as the typical ADSR controls and low- and high pass filters.
It’s compatible both with Windows and Mac and works both in 32-bit and 64-bit formats.
Hear how Room Piano V3 sounds here:
Now, if you’re looking for an extremely good-sounding upright piano, then may I recommend that you check out the Modern Upright Piano? This is a lightweight and affordable upright piano sample library that sounds absolutely fantastic.
Download: SampleScience.info.
Interested in free Synth vst plugins? Here’s an entire post on that topic.
99Sounds Upright Piano (Win/Mac)
These piano samples were recorded by Rudi Fiasco, who is an accomplished Italian pianist and sound engineer.
The Upright Piano sample Library runs with six different velocity layers to give you as much realism as possible, and it features some simple envelope controls like attack and release, as well as a low-pass filter (Dampen Control) and reverb.
You can also adjust the tremolo intensity and speed, global volume and key release volume.
Just like Room Piano, I’d recommend this one if you want to be able to create lo-fi sounding piano tracks.
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.
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).
Piano One 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 sustain instrument presets.
It also features three layers of sounds; Piano+Strings+Pad with gain controllers.
The Piano has been recorded with 4 Mic positions and provides the usual controls like Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release as well as a low pass filter, tuning, reverb, amp and level meter.
This is one of the more complete and fully featured piano plugins on this list and it’s definitely worth checking out.
Download: RDG Audio Piano.
Keyzone Classic (Win/Mac)
Keyzone Classic is one of those plugins that can certainly do it all since it features not just Yamaha and Steinway samples, but also an Electric Piano- and even a Rhodes piano samples.
In addition to this, it features in-depth sound shaping parameters such as ADSR, LFO, Panning, and more.
The thing is that, at least when I used it, getting a full piano performance to sound realistic wasn’t as easy as with the Soft Piano by Spitfire, or the Monastery Grand by MeldaProduction, but those are also much newer releases.
Hear for yourself how it sounds (all 4 included pianos are playing at the same time):
Download: Keyzone Classic.
4front Piano (Win/Mac)
This plugin sounds terrific considering how lightweight and easy it is to use! One con though, is that it doesn’t have any sound-adjustment settings, so what you see is what you get.
If you’re a beginner who doesn’t want to have to deal with a bunch of knobs and controls, then 4Front Piano is for you.
Now, even though as you can hear in the video it does sound great, getting there is not that easy since you need to know how to properly set up a MIDI track with the right velocity for each note, etc., since otherwise it will sound extremely unnatural and robotic.
Download: 4Front Piano.
Honorable Mentions
Most of these didn’t make the primary list because they are a bit dated now and either don’t sound that realistic, or don’t have a lot features. Still, they are definitely worth checking out since some of them don’t even sound like pianos, which may be exactly what you’re looking for.
Versilian Upright No.1 (Win/Mac)
This is a lightweight- yet realistic sampled library of an upright piano recorded using two wide and two close mics.
You can choose between 3 different velocity layers plus it offers reverb, panning and volume controls, as well as attack, decay, Sustain and Release.
It features a total of 250mb worth of samples, and if you’re looking for a classic upright piano sound, the Upright No.1 Piano is a must-have.
Download: Upright No.1 Piano.
DSK AkoustiK KeyZ (Windows)
DSK created a lot of free VST plugins ranging from brass, to orchestral, synth, piano, acoustic and classical guitar, and more.
None of their plugins really sound all that “realistic”, but they are free and really easy to use, and if you have patience and dial in all of the parameters correctly, you should be able to get a pretty decent piano sound out of this plugin.
With Akoustik KeyZ you get three piano types;
- Grand Piano
- Concert Piano P
- Concert Piano F
This sample library might already be quite dated, but like I just mentioned, the sound quality is still very usable and I especially like the way the Grand Piano sounds.
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 right here.
Skerratt London Piano (Win/Mac)
The Skerrat London Piano is a sampled upright piano that 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, so make 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 with 3 velocity layers.
The cursory parameters include envelope settings; Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release as well as volume and panning.
It features a natural and warm sound; however, it has a larger file size than some other plugins on this list. Still nothing too worrying.
Download: Big Cat Website.
4Front R-Piano (Win/Mac)
The 4Front R-Piano is a vintage module which reproduces the classic sound similar to RSP73 pianos.
The sound generation is not entirely based upon samples, and therefore there are 127 continuous layers provided with a vintage Rhodes smooth overdrive.
Unlike many other software modules and samplers, this module will never overload CPU. It will never stick notes, and never interrupt the sound during live performances.
It doesn’t sound at all like a real piano, which is good since 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 may love while some others may not…
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 a small single sound instrument without any settings whatsoever.
Since it’s such a small plugin, it ends up not being at all taxing on the CPU, plus it’s also very easy to use… that’s what happens when a plugin doesn’t have any settings.
One the one hand, not having setting is kind of bad, but on the other hand it’s actually great for anyone who just needs this specific sound and be done with it, or who is a complete beginner.
Download: 4Front E-Piano.
DSK Music The Grand (Win/Mac)
This is a pretty cool grand piano by DSK Music that not only sound like a real grand piano, but it also features 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!
Download: DSK Music Website.
Premium Recommendation
I didn’t include this plugin on this list because, well, it’s not free! However, it’s extremely affordable and not your traditional-sounding piano (it’s called Death Piano, so you can imagine how it sounds.
If you like dark and sinister piano sounds, definitely check it out!
Conclusion
The Monastery Grand and Soft Piano are by far my favorite plugins on this entire list.
The Monastery Grand gives you dozens of tonal shaping options, it can sound like a piano or like something else entirely, and it just works, plus it sounds realistic, which is hard to achieve sometimes on other plugins.
Soft Piano by Spitfire is simply outstanding. It sounds extremely warm and sweet, and it’s super simple to use.
The other plugins are still great, even the ones in the Honorable Mentions section, but these two definitely stand out!
