Hi All

I am curious as to what your favorite or "go to" piano sample set (or VST) is for use within dance tracks, primarily progressive house, trance, and breaks. I have been using the stock logic ones for years but am open to trying some new ones. I am ideally looking for a smaller size sample library with just a few pianos or just one. I like to keep everything simple and am wondering which pianos you all really recommend (with a nice balance between cpu hit and quality). I realize this is very subjective and there are a TON out there, just looking for some suggestions and for the ones that fit nicely within electronic dance music.

Many thanks!


Matt

I struggled with finding a workable piano for a long time, but then happily discovered the "Concert Grand" in the factory library of Kontakt (in the Orchestral section, there are pianos in the 'Band' section that I don't like nearly as much). I use it all the time now as my 'go-to' piano, and it continues to be an effective, inspiring instrument. It plays well by itself as a convincing piano, but fits into the mix very well for the music I do (mostly industrial, but the piano fits nicely into any sort of pop, techno, electro, etc tracks, in my experience).

-M

For my house stuff the Korg M1 samples plus some from Marshall Jeffersons sample library certainly not grand but great for banging house choones

I use an old AKAI Sampleset for Piano.
I have Komplete, but imo all Pianos in there just suck big time.
I don't use Piano very often anyway.

I think about getting me a Workstation this year, I quite possibly think there will be a good piano in there, but I haven't decided yet which WS I wanna buy.

inb4 pianoteq arguments

although pianoteq IS my goto piano

Thanks all for the suggestions, much appreciated!!

I use a Kurzweil MicroPiano. It may be 15 years old, but it still sounds great. You can't beat a classic.

Hrmm... I don't make this kind of music but, at the same time, I'm not sure it's relevant.

I reach first for the Imperfect Samples Upright, and then SoundIron's Emotional Piano.

Matt

Truepianos (Emerald module) = unbeatable

+1

My go-to piano.

It's Pianoteq 4 now

I'm supprised no one mentioned Nexus thats what I use anyway.

'Piano in Blue' Kontakt library by Cinesamples is brilliant. If you use Kontakt, buy this.
(In fairness, there are some excellent suggestions above for your genre choice of music, but I'm sure that you can mould something fitting from 'Piano in Blue' too).

http://cinesamples.com/products/piano-in-blue/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x93hUqPpW4A

If it's supposed to sound "real" I use my Kurzweil but for dance/house/ stuff MDA piano it brilliant and although It won't give you the M1 sound, it's more than sufficient for that particular style of music.

The mda piano is a good suggestion! I used it years ago and then almost forgot it, I think I should try it again the next time I'll need a piano part for a dance track.