Top 10 Best Free Piano VST Plugins in 2023!

Having a selection of great sounding pianos is essential for any composer and producer in today’s music business and your next client might just demand it. Furthermore, finding the right piano sound can be challenging at times and many plugins cost a lot of money. This is due to the fact that it has the widest expressive range of any instrument. Capturing the sound in digital audio samples, combined with an engine to play back these samples compellingly is really hard to achieve for plugin developers. However, that’s why we put together this guide for you with a Top 10 list of the best sounding free Piano VST plugins! Having a selection of different and high quality piano sounds in your library comes in handy and it’s even better if they are FREE! Whether you just want to pull up a simple sound that works straight away, or if you’re looking to create complex melodies with a concert grand baked into a complex production… there are a many great free piano VST and AU instruments out there that can help you out.

However, there’s a diverse selection of both good and bad plugins out there. We’ve checked them all to bring you a selection of the very best free piano plugins right now! Most of them do work cross-platform on PC and Mac.

Thanks to today’s technology and technical possibilities even Free Piano VST plugins in the right hands can offer great opportunities! These plugins can help music producers at all skill levels to create a professional piano sound for their productions. 

 

 

Here’s a Top 10 list of the best Free Piano VST plugins of 2023

There’s a diverse selection of Piano VST plugins available online that you can choose from. However, we did the research and collected our favorite FREE Piano plugins available in 2023 for you! Below you can find a list of our top 10 favorite Piano VST Plugins, with grand piano and electric piano sounds included, in no particular order. All of them can be used 100% free in any of your commercial productions!
We really hope you’ll find this guide helpful. Feel free to browse the list and choose your favorite piano sound for your next project! These plugins also work really well with some of MIDI Packs here on Beats24-7.com.

 

1. Spitfire Soft Piano

The LABS – Soft Piano from Spitfire Audio is an essential piano plugin for composers and the best is – it’s free! It has a gorgeous, delightful soft sound and the character of a low-key, dampened piano. Recorded on a stage at Air Edel Studios in London, this plugin has become a favorite of musicians and composers across the globe and been widely used, even in top-charting songs and films. They achieved the soft tone of this piano by placing a thin strip of felt between the hammers and the strings. There are three controls on the GUI and that’s all you’ll need. The expression (far-left) can be thought of as a volume/velocity control, the middle slider determines the dynamic response, and the circular slider changes the reverb.

This piano sound can be highly effective within just about any production requiring a soft piano sound. Whether it’s a ballad, a drama movie theme, a rock song with a playful intro, a R&B song, or even a folk tune for some texture and color, this piano does it all.

Overall, this free Piano VST plugin is a really powerful workhorse! You can download the Soft Piano, for free, from the Spitfire Audio website. It runs in your DAW as a VST/AU/AAX plugin.

 

2. Keyzone Classic

‘Keyzone Classic’ is a sampled VST piano and electric piano instrument with more controls than most of the other free Piano VST plugins. The extensive user interface feature ADSR envelope controls – Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release – which change the sound’s character either slightly or wildly, depending on your preference.
Furthermore, this VST and AU instrument gives you a choice of five sampled piano presets, ranging from a Steinway Grand, to a Yamaha, Fender and more. You can tell that the presets are sample based but still offer you more than you might expect. The Yamaha and Steinway Pianos are the best sounding presets of all four with a warm and rich sound, without lacking much depth and dynamics from a real grand piano. The interface also offers a Reverb mix knob, a Detune control, Velocity Curve settings, LFO Rate and Depth, and a Pan control.

Due to the success of ‘Keyzone Classic’, BitSonic relaunched the plugin as Keyzone Classic 2 and removed the download option from their website, unfortunately. However, you can still download ‘Keyzone classic’ for Win 32/64 bit and Mac here.

 

3. Versilian Upright Piano No. 1

This lightweight Piano plugin for Mac/PC and for Kontakt could very well set a standard in realistic piano VST instruments. ‘Versilian Upright’ features 3 velocity layers and is sampled using multiple samples for the same notes to reduce repetition. Despite the many layers of sampling in this plugin, it won’t take up much space on your hard drive. It requires only about 250 – 500 MB.
The guys at the Versilian Studios recorded this particular piano in the basement of a Berklee College of Music dorm. It offers Reverb, Panning and Volume controls, alongside with ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release) envelope settings.

You can download the VST and AU plugin on the website of Versilian Studios.

 

 

4. SampleScience 1960s Piano

Having released multiple plugins in the past, SampleScience is known for their quality. The “1960s Piano” plugin instrument is based on the recordings of an early 1960s Kawai Model 600 studio/semi-grand. The sound of this piano can be described as intimate, warm, and lo-fi. It’s the perfect piano if you’re looking to make Hip Hop and Lo-Fi, Indie rock tunes, and Lo-Fi ambient tracks. It’s one multi-sampled instrument but includes 4 velocity layers, Multi-LFO, Room Reverb and even a lowpass / highpass filter. This VST makes only minor demands of your system resources with low CPU usage. It even comes with amplitude range controls and three voice modes, including polyphonic, monophonic, and legato.

SampleScience also offered their “Room Piano” plugin for free in the past, but that version has been discontinued. However, the successor “Room Piano 3” can also be found for as little as $1 USD over on their Gumroad page.

 

 

5. Piano In 162

This free Piano VST plugin is a hidden treasure for sure! Sampled from a Steinway Model B it has crazy depth and almost sounds like an expensive Piano preset from Keyscape. Important to note though is that “Piano In 162” is closer to being a sample library than a VST, as it mainly comes as a Kontakt library and you need the full version of Kontakt to run it. Fortunately, you can also download a free SFZ version to load it in a free sampler and then use it in any DAW (FL Studio, Logic, etc.) The UI is held simple but allows for mixing, loading and purging the close and ambient mics to make it sit nicely in any mix or genre.

This Piano plugin is a must-have as its sound is simply breathtaking being clear and dynamic with a realistic sympathetic resonance! You can download ‘Piano In 162’ for the SFZ Sampler or Kontakt on the website of Ivy Audio.

 

 

6. Claustrophobic Piano

If you’re a fan of soft Pianos this is your best pick! Christian Henson who also recorded the LABS Soft Piano at SpitfireAudio also worked his magic on this free piano VST plugin. The piano has a magical and beautiful sound, and is really great for all different types of music production. It’s very intimate, warm and characterful sound can be further optimized with am amazing GUI, including features like mic blending options, release triggers and FX. It’s available as Kontakt library but if you don’t own the full version of Kontakt you can still use it with the free Decent Sampler.

In order to get this Piano completely for free and enjoy its glory sound you simply need to download the free Decent Sampler on the Decent Samples website. Afterwards, you to head over to the PianoBooks website and download the Claustrophobic Piano (you need to create an account to download it, but that is also free). You can then simply load up the Decent Sampler VST in your favorite DAW, add the Claustrophobic Libary and play this magic Piano!

 

 

7. Sound Magic Piano One

‘Piano One’ from Sound Magic samples the Yamaha C7 concert grand, a real workhorse in the professional piano world. This Piano has appeared on the most famous concert stages, in international competitions and in prestigious music events around the globe. Out of the box, Piano One sounds quite amazing by utilizing the Sound Magic Hybrid Modelling Engine. It offers a realistic sound with only a few minor flaws, such as missing some details in the midrange. The hybrid modelling technique provides an instantaneous feeling – no delay – and a truer and richer sound than can be created with either sampling or modelling alone. If you like to tweak your sounds, the interface offers controls for Reverb, Noises, Style, Damping, Harmonics, Perspective, Tuning System and Key Dynamics.

To download this extensive plugin, simply head over to Sound Magic’s website for ‘Piano One’ and follow the download instructions.

 

 

8. BigCat Instruments Iowa Piano

Iowa Piano from BigCat Instruments samples a Steinway Grand Piano and each note is sampled in 3 velocity layers. This gives the plugin a great quality sound. The samples were provided from the University of Iowa for free. This plugin supports both Windows and macOS alongside a library for Kontakt. One minor downside of this plugin is the GUI, which is not the best looking and is missing some more tweaking options. However, the sound output and the quality of the piano is really remarkable. The main features of this plugin are a Volume input gain, Panning Features, Piano Attack, Decay Settings, Sustain Features and a Release module.

The download for this plugin can be found on the BigCat Instruments Blog. This site even offers another free download, the Skerrat London Piano VST plugin.

 

 

9. 99Sounds Upright Piano

Based on Piano samples recorded by Rudi Fiasco, ‘Upright Piano’ comes as VST, VST3, and AU plugin. Rudi Fiasco is an Italian pianist and audio engineer with lots of experience. The plugin features four sampled notes per octave and six velocity layers to make things as realistic as possible. You get enveloping controls with Attack and Release times, a Tremolo effect (more like a chorus at times, with Intensity and Speed controls), Dampen (low-pass filter) and Reverb controls too. There’s also global control over the master Volume. Moreover, you’ll have a separate knob that defines the loudness of the keys being released at the end of notes.

You can download the ‘Upright Piano’ plugin on the 99Sounds website.

 

 

10. Spitfire Audio Electric Piano

To conclude this list of the best free Piano VST plugins, we will finish with a crazy good sounding Electric Piano. So if you’re searching for an electric Piano with amazing sound – look no further! Spitfire Audio brings you this classic Audio Electric Piano, a legendary vintage electric piano, recorded and engineered at Spitfire Studios. You can use it to write jazz melodies, or to add warm, mellow tones to your music.
This plugin really fills a niche with it’s classic, vintage sound that’s very convincing and a bit retro. Even its brightest modes have a certain warmth to them. Like most of Spitfire’s offerings, the interface is a minimalist’s dream, very clean and functional. This means you won’t have the range or flexibility offered by commercial electric pianos. However, with a solid and authentic main instrument like this, you can do worse than the Spitfire EP.

 

You can download this plugin on Spitfire Audio’s website. You just need to sign up for a free account to be able to access the download option.