Looking for dark and warm piano

[zenophilix]

Darker/warmer sounding pianos, I usually reach for Addictive Keys or Alicia's Keys. Maybe not as dark as what you have in mind, but that's what I've found to work.

[Delta Sign]

You could install the Spitfire Labs plugin and then go to this website and scroll down to Soft Piano to add to the library (free):

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/labs/

Thanks for pointing this out! I did not know about the whole labs thing. It seems really interesting!

As someone else said, for a warm and intimate sound, I like to go with a classic Steinway. I really like like the Steinway Model D in Pianoteq. The Blüthner and Ant. Petrof could also work really well.

Here is a very small thing I did with a custom Steinway D sound in Pianoteq some time ago. I find the sound of it always tends to inspire me to do those Philip Glass/Max Richter like things

https://soundcloud.com/deltasign/pianoteq-test-01

[Aloysius]

Dark and warm 'eh? Try 'Imperfect Samples - Braunschweig Upright' (for Kontakt)

[deastman]

Definitely go with a Steinway grand.

[Hardock]

You could install the Spitfire Labs plugin and then go to this website and scroll down to Soft Piano to add to the library (free):

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/labs/

This is the best sounding piano plugin i've ever used, but i'm not really into 'normal' piano sounds. i'm a big fan of Nils Frahm's 'Felt' album and desperately craved this sound, as well as the tones on the 'Still' record by NIN. It's specific, but absolutely gorgeous. i can't recommend it enough. And it's free.

Did you know that Native Instruments made a Kontakt Instrument from Nils Frahm Una Corda?! The beautiful light sound is really tempting me to upgrade my Komplete:

https://www.native-instruments.com/de/p ... una-corda/

Listen to the sound of the audio demos!

Imperfect Samples - Braunschweig Upright Piano
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.imperfectsamples.com/website ... .php</span>

Dark, warm and full of character.

Wow! I thought i dont like Schimmel. What a nice, imperfect, yet musical piano sound!

[zenophilix]

You could install the Spitfire Labs plugin and then go to this website and scroll down to Soft Piano to add to the library (free):

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/labs/

This is the best sounding piano plugin i've ever used, but i'm not really into 'normal' piano sounds. i'm a big fan of Nils Frahm's 'Felt' album and desperately craved this sound, as well as the tones on the 'Still' record by NIN. It's specific, but absolutely gorgeous. i can't recommend it enough. And it's free.

Did you know that Native Instruments made a Kontakt Instrument from Nils Frahm Una Corda?! The beautiful light sound is really tempting me to upgrade my Komplete:

https://www.native-instruments.com/de/p ... una-corda/

Listen to the sound of the audio demos!

Imperfect Samples - Braunschweig Upright Piano
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.imperfectsamples.com/website ... .php</span>

Dark, warm and full of character.

Wow! I thought i dont like Schimmel. What a nice, imperfect, yet musical piano sound!

Una Corda is 100% worth it. Also Odesza's piano of choice.

[Kinh]

Una Corda is dark asf

[Echoes in the Attic]

Aside from what’s in komplete and keyscape, the Braunschweig upright is the only other piano I own, and it’s lovely. I also love the una corda from NI. Those would probably be my favorite characterful pianos, plus pretty much everything in keyscape, which has some amazing processed piano patches that are very dark and warm. I actually think it’s good to get a full sounding piano, with lots of velocity levels, that can be used for processing into very different sounding patches. The keyscape pianos are good examples. Something like the emotional piano is just not very versatile. Sounds nice enough but I like the dark patches in keyscape just as much or more and there are also lots of other sounds to be had from them.

[voidhead23]

Did you know that Native Instruments made a Kontakt Instrument from Nils Frahm Una Corda?! The beautiful light sound is really tempting me to upgrade my Komplete:

https://www.native-instruments.com/de/p ... una-corda/

Listen to the sound of the audio demos!

That's just gorgeous sounding. Very tempting, though i don't really use piano sounds much, am not a keyboard player, and don't have a 'proper' controller. Not sure i'd really get to use it to its fullest. i really like these 'hybrid' kind of sounds, where i can tell it's a piano but it blurs it enough to shove it into alien territory...Echo Sound Works released a fantastic Serum library called Coda that blends orchestral samples/wavetables with synthetic timbres and it's probably my favorite sounds i've ever heard come out of a synthesizer.

[ThePresent]

Before buying anything you could try and just take a decent piano vst/sampler you already own and run it through Variety Of Sound’s free Thrillseeker VBL vst. Especially piano can benefit from the coloration this plug-in gives.
https://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/vst-effects/

[martinjuenke]

A shit piano is going to sound like a shit piano even with processing.

Sometime shit is dark and warm...
To be honest: Una Corda has been mentioned already and that‘s been done completely justified.

[borisky]

Looking for recommendations for a dark and warm sounding piano. Doesn't matter if it's sample or vst. Mac compatible if possible.

As you mentioned using a Mac and if you're using Logic I'd suggest trying the Track Stack feature and layer whichever pianos you have and adjusting levels until you find the "perfect" sound for you. I don't know if any of the other DAWs have a similar feature but if not I guess you could copy the performance to other tracks and insert different VSTi's.

Just last night I was looking for a warm & dark piano sound and so I layered Una Corda (very lovely & unique sounding with a large range of additional "interesting" parameters), Imperfect Samples' Braunschweig (just incredibly beautiful and my personal go-to), Addictive Keys Modern Upright (very nice but might be a little too "bright" out of the box but has lots of adjustable parameters), Spitfire Labs Soft Piano (fantastic freebie) and Christian Henson's Triple Felt (also free and plays within EXS24 or Kontakt but you might have to search through some of his YouTube videos from about 12-18 months ago for the link).

I recorded a quick take and while it was looping I solo'd, muted and adjusted levels until I found the sound I wanted for that style. In the end what I used was the Spitfire Labs Soft Piano layered with the CH Triple Felt. The Labs piano gave me the soft, warm clarity I wanted and the CH Triple Felt gave me the dusty darkness. I didn't feel the need to add any plugins. It just sounded gorgeous, to my ears.

Ok, hope that helps.

[tapiodmitriyevich]

Pianoteq Stage (99 EUR, there is a trial version) plus maybe some effect processing and you are done.

[Winstontaneous]

Boscomac's Air Piano for Reaktor is dark and warm.

[mtelesha]

I recommend TruePiano by 4front http://www.truepianos.com. They have 5 different modeled pianos and they are by far my favorite vst piano I have played. I feel like when I use sampled piano the expression is limited. These pianos have a tone of character. The only thing I really wish it did was the felt sound.