Pianoteq comes with a handful of basic but useful add-ons.

The plugin comes with a series of wonderful emulations of popular brands such as Steinway & Sons, Pertof, and Bechstein - all of which sounds quite close to the real thing. The use of a modeling system means that you’ll save precious hard drive space on hefty sample libraries. The VST works with an instrument modeling system to create extremely lifelike recreations of some classic pianos. Pianoteq offers users amazing versatility for such a compact plugin. Most of the essential mechanical piano expressions are available within Addictive Keys, although anyone that needs absolute precision with their compositions might need to test a more expensive option. Each respective instrument carries a humble handful of dials and knobs relative to their actual design, which you can adjust with a simple click of the mouse. The user interface takes a few minutes of fiddling to get used to, but shouldn’t be too much trouble for the average person to navigate. The Addictive Keys is incredibly light on your PC’s ram, which is very handy if you wish to run large sessions with lots of tracks or instruments. Each of these instrument bundles has a distinct richness about them that’s not common for plugins at this price point. The plugin serves as a platform for 4 primary Addictive Keys instrument bundles - a grand piano, an upright, an electric piano, and a final collection of warmer toned Rhodes MK1 Stage Piano. Many producers enjoy and recommend Addictive Keys for its affordability and its highly CPU-friendly processing. As there are so many of these VSTs to shop through, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some of the best piano and keyboard plugins for your DAW. Thankfully, there are a ton of amazing VSTs that give you studio-quality piano sounds and save you considerable money. With this in mind, it’s also fair to acknowledge that not everyone has the resources or space to bring a piano into their studio setup. Pianos and keyboards are some of the most useful tools to utilize for creating and developing arrangements. It’s safe to say that any aspiring composer or producer should have quick access to their own piano.

Arturia keyboards and piano collection