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Best cinematic and emtional piano libraries

darkneo57

Member
Hi,

I'm french, 34 yo, piano teacher, I am a beginner in computer music. I'm looking for good cinematic and emotional piano libraries.
It would be to make rather cinematic music( film scoring, video games music...) . Could you advice me please.
thank you so much.
 
Try this thread:

Keep in mind that most good pianos can be made "emotional" (I assume you mean a Thomas Newman Shawshank Redemption sound) by rolling out some of the high end frequencies, and adding a splash of reverb.

My go-to piano these days for "emotional" is the one in Berlin Inspire 2. It has a ton of reverb though.
 
Hello, there.

I have Soundiron's Emotional Piano, Native Instruments Una Corda, The Giant, The Grandeur, Orange Tree Samples Rosewood Grand, along with some others.

The one I am currently in love with but don't own is Native Instruments NOIRE. It sounds amazing.

If you have the money for it you should also check out Spectrasonics keyscape but for what it costs I don't know if you wouldn't be better off buying a few piano libraries like the ones I mentioned and save some money.

A few others people mention alot but I also don't own:

Piano in blue, Pearl, Ravenscroft (seems to be alot of people's favorite), Pianoteq.

Would also take a look at cinematic studio piano. Although it´s a bit limited in terms of tweaking options, it sounds great and it´s cheap.

Since you are new to vst´s, the best advice i can give you is to ask yourself what you really need and what you don´t (you already seem to know) and take a very good and extensive look(listen) at demos, but most importantly live demonstrations/walkthroughs on youtube for the specific library that interests you so you don´t regret buying something that you will have to stick with( in case the developer doesnt allow license transfers). If only i had done this a couple of years when i started buying vst´s i could have saved alot of money and bought the right stuff, instead of falling for hype or developers that don´t fix/support their products.

P. S. I would also suggest some patience and wait for black Friday. Since it's just around the corner you can save alot of money and buy several libraries instead of one.

Best of luck.
 
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I can't recommend Piano in Blue though it's a fan favorite. I found the sound OK but there's a lot of noise buildup.
 
I can't recommend Piano in Blue though it's a fan favorite. I found the sound OK but there's a lot of noise buildup.

I have seen many people speak great about it but i never liked it much either. It is decent but didn´t wow me. Plus, it´s been released long ago so i think there are better options right now for the price. I would even rather pay a bit more and get something more recent like NOIRE or Ravenscroft.
 
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I can't recommend Piano in Blue though it's a fan favorite. I found the sound OK but there's a lot of noise buildup.
Try its “successor” CinePiano (also from Cinesamples). Quite emotional indeed. But I also suggest Bechstein Digital for its tweakability, as well as ImpactSoundworks’ Pearl and the Mercury Grand from Wavesfactory, both sweet as can be. Add that encompassing Walker grand from Embertone, plus WholeSounds’ unique Baldwin, and you’re pretty much set.
 
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thank you so much for your replies.

by the way , i'm going to spend about 400 $ for one or few piano libraries ( it will be certainly 200 $ for the BF ). For now i really like emotional piano and una corda, and i'm interested by keyscape. I've heard that HZ was not so great, was it ?

thank you
have a nice weekend
 
Noire and Cinepiano are both wonderful. I'd also highly advise looking at Fluffy Audio's Scoring Piano, which I bought recently on @CGR's recommendation (he has been costing me a lot of money lately). ;)
 
And certainly get Keyscape if you already have Omnisphere. Both play very well together. In fact, Keyscape is amazing on its own, though not particularly for acoustic pianos. You won’t find discounts as such, but shops like Musicians’ Friend may allow for a global 15% coupon rebate.
 
And certainly get Keyscape if you already have Omnisphere. Both play very well together. In fact, Keyscape is amazing on its own, though not particularly for acoustic pianos. You won’t find discounts as such, but shops like Musicians’ Friend may allow for a global 15% coupon rebate.
Like most of us, I have a lot of piano VIs. I recently got Keyscape for the electric pianos, but was really impressed with the quality of the sampled Yamaha C7. Spectrasonics really did a superb job and that VI's expressive ability is as good as any I've played.
 
Here's my favorite "emotional cinematic piano" demo. It will knock your socks off.



But I do not recommend this piano. I've played with it and it's a memory hog and the sound, out of the box, is much dryer than you hear in this demo.
 
Here's my favorite "emotional cinematic piano" demo. It will knock your socks off.



But I do not recommend this piano. I've played with it and it's a memory hog and the sound, out of the box, is much dryer than you hear in this demo.


I also have the 8Dio 1928 but I have never used it. I did not like the sound of it once I bought it and compared it to other pianos. But I am also a bit lazy when it comes to tweaking stuff.
May I ask what settings for reverb, tone, etc you tipically use to get that sound? I love the demos but could never quite achieve the same cinematic sound out of it.
 
I don't recommend Piano in blue. It has a decent sound but it's nearly unplayable in terms of dynamics. Never used it in a production. The same applies for the 8dio pianos I have tested. They might be nice for cinematic purposes but it's really hard to adapt their dynamic curve to a MIDI keyboard...

My current favorites are Best Service's Vintage D and NOIRE:





Both are really versatile and tweakable. If you're looking for a cinematic sound you might like the felt patches in NOIRE.
 
I don't recommend Piano in blue. It has a decent sound but it's nearly unplayable in terms of dynamics. Never used it in a production. The same applies for the 8dio pianos I have tested. They might be nice for cinematic purposes but it's really hard to adapt their dynamic curve to a MIDI keyboard...

My current favorites are Best Service's Vintage D and NOIRE:





Both are really versatile and tweakable. If you're looking for a cinematic sound you might like the felt patches in NOIRE.


Forgot how to suggest the vintage D as well.
I'm so in love with NOIRE. I don't need another piano but I have to get it :)
 
The 8dio 1928 Steinway is a very raw sounding smaller grand piano (the personal piano of 8dio founder Troels Folmann I believe) and in my opinion requires considerable "production massaging" to extract its best qualities, but as you can hear in the above demo, it delivers a stunning, resonant piano tone. It often proves to be the best choice for me in a number of tracks I've composed and produced. Piano manufacturers really hit their straps in the 20s and 30s (often referred to as the "Golden Era" of Piano Manufacturing) - the craftsmanship and materials of that era produced some truly stunning instruments.
 
Thank you very much,

I just watched a lot of walkthrough about NOIRE, the sound is beautiful sound and seems very playable.
Is Emotional piano soundiron as good as NOIRE ? is it playable?
Could you give me some informations about una corda and the giant. Giant seems to be an old piano VI that everyone owns.

Thank you very much for your advice and experience...
Have a nice weekend
 
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