Best Free VSTs: Pianos, Organs & Keyboards
Pianos… can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. But did you know there’s another way? That’s right. You can replace them with robots.
Standard pianos
Piano character is a bit “to taste,” so if you’re not satisfied with these choices, especially for classic and intimate pianos, Pianobook has many more options (account).
- Classic/grand piano
- bigcat Instruments’ The Iowa Piano NKISFZVSTAU
- Splendid Grand Piano is a lightweight option around at 80 MB. SFZ (Github)
- Production Voices Estate Grand LE is a fully fledged bank for Plogue Sforzando. SFZ (Woocommerce)
- Dance piano
- mda Piano (or the less buggy but Windows-exclusive Dead Duck Software DPiano-A version) VSTWin VST
- Yingchun Soul’s 4th House Piano SF2
- Honky-tonk piano
- FreePats Old Piano FB SFZSF2
- Baklu’s Paters Piano dspreset (account)
- Sample Modern Detuned Upright NKI
- “Ice” piano
- Christian Henson’s Triple Felt Experiment EXSdspreset (account)
- Spitfire LABS Modular Piano‘s “06 Tank Piano,” “07 Pipe Piano,” and “11 Tape Piano” patches VSTAUAAX (Spitfire)
- Nami Audio Midnight Upright has layered octaves and noise texture… perfect for that “single haunting piano note” moment in your next generic epic trailer. NKI6dspreset (account)
- Intimate piano
- Spitfire LABS Soft Piano, my one and only! Confound you, Soft Piano! You make keeping that awful Spitfire download manager and LABS plugin just barely worth it! VSTAUAAX (Spitfire)
- Ted Kocher’s The Lounge Piano NKIdspreset (account)
- Sonic Atoms Novel Piano vstpreset (FastSpring)
- Toy/baby piano
- Audio Brewers Piano Toy Mini NKI (newsletter)
- G Guevara’s Toy Piano dspreset (account)
- Precisionsound Red Grand SF2
- Upright piano
- Rudi Fiasco’s K18 Upright Piano as a SFZ instrument or plug-in SFZVSTAU (none or email)
- VCSL‘s “Upright Piano, Knight” patch (SFZ and samples) SFZ (Github)
Prepared/extended pianos
Prepared pianos and extended playing techniques.
- Prepared toy piano
- Synchrotones Prepared Toy Piano has a “felt” toy piano patch and two prepared patches with some sustains, glissandos (up/down), tremolos, key noises, and a whole lot of processed sounds. NKI (account)
- Solo prepared + sustains/tremelos
- Xperimenta Project Preparato Piano – Free Edition includes some sustains played by hitting a brush against the strings. NKI (FastSpring)
- Solo prepared + sustains
- Andreas Busk-Jepsen’s Are You Prepared as a sample instrument or Blofeld soundset NKIEXSALPBlofeld
- POL Echorda is a limited-range piano that sounds like it hates you. dspreset (account)
- Piano Petit – Chupi’s Piano is a more playable piano, gently prepared by putting tape on the strings. dspreset (account)
- Solo prepared + staccatos
- Billy Palmer’s The Sneaky Piano NKIdspreset (account)
- Solo muted
- Christopher Scullion’s Tatak – Felt Piano is muted with a thumb on the strings, adding a little punch to the traditional “felt” piano sound. NKIdspreset (account)
- Solo harmonics/body percussion
- Matteo Pagamici’s The Quiet Piano for Decent Sampler or Kontakt has some natural harmonics and interesting piano hits in the “FX” patch. At 4-6 GB, it’s a pretty large download just for those two things, but, y’know, art. NKIdspreset (account or none)
- Solo bowed sustains
- Wandering Artist’s Ebow Piano sounds more like a synth pad. NKIdspreset (account)
- Solo slams
- HandHeldSound PianoBoom is made from the sounds of hitting piano strings with a gong mallet. It’s very dissonant and piano-slammy. NKI (Woocommerce + Pulse)
- Solo slams/glissandos
- RSSD01 FREE Dark Piano Sample Pack has some really excellent horror movie-style scrapes. WAV (newsletter)
Electric pianos
In case of emergency, break glass organ: hear the difference between a Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and Yamaha DX7 e-piano patch.
- Hohner Pianet T
- Ritvars Garoza’s Hohner Pianet T NKIdspreset (account)
- Jen Pianotone J-600
- SampleScience Pianotone 600 VSTAU (email)
- Rhodes Mark I
- NoiseAsh Sweetcase VSTAU
- Jeff Learman’s jRhodes3c SFZ
- Learjeff’s jRhodes 1977 Mark I SF2 (account)
- wavements Rose&Rhodes Free vstpreset (email)
- Rhodes Mark II
- Studiologic Numa Player‘s “EP-Mark II” preset VSTAU
- Rhodes Piano Bass
- Ken Harrison’s Sparkletop Bass NKI (account)
- Roland JD-800 “Crystal Rhodes”
- Elf of Happy and Love’s Crystal Rhodes SF2
- Siel PX
- Synth Magic Siel PX Electric Piano NKI (direct link)
- Yamaha CP
- Studiologic Numa Player‘s “CP E-Grand” preset (under Acoustic Pianos) VSTAU
- Greg Sullivan’s The Y Piano as a Kontakt instrument, Gigastudio instrument, or SFZ instrument (Github) is a CP-80. NKIGIG (attribution @ Greg Sullivan)
- Yamaha DX7 E-Piano 1/FM Piano
- 4Front E-Piano VSTAURTAS
- Dexed is a Yamaha DX7-based synth. You can find a number of FM pianos for it in the Dexed Cart 1.0 collection, compiled by Jacques Prestreau. Select the “CART” button in Dexed, right click → “Open location” to get to the cart folder, and drag the Dexed Cart collection into it. One piano that works is under Godric/piano04.syx, “ElecPian 1.” VSTAULV2 (none, account)
- Studiologic Numa Player has four options ambiguously labeled “FM-EP” 1-4. VSTAU
- Wurlitzer 200(A)
- Daniel Rosenholm’s WörliTzer dspreset (account)
- O’Grady’s Old Dirty Wurli NKI
- Studiologic Numa Player‘s “Wurly 200” preset1 VSTAU
- Spitfire LABS Wurli2 VSTAUAAX (Spitfire)
- boscomac WURLITSAR MK2 ENS
- Wurlitzer 205
- Studiologic Numa Player‘s “Wurly 255” preset is likely a 205. VSTAU
Organs
For more accordion-adjacent pump and reed organs, see Woodwinds: free reeds.
- Barrel organ
- Rossignol-Studios Barbariz 3 NKI
- Sonokinetic Carousel NICNT (Sonokinetic)
- boscomac BARROUSEL ENS
- Clonewheel organ
- Planet Botch Clonewheel VXH Win VST
- Combo organ
- boscomac TRANZISTORG MKII ENS
- Farfisa Compact
- Dean Coyle’s Little Red Organ dspreset (account)
- Farfisa Matador
- Lostin70s Audio Torero has a free version. VSTAU
- Farfisa Mini Deluxe Compact
- Martinic Combo Organ F VSTAU
- Nord organ
- Fanan ScandiClavia 2 Win VST
- Philips Philicorda
- Woodencup’s Grumpy Phili Favourites dspresetEXS (account)
- Vox Continental
- Martinic Combo Model V VSTAU
- Spitfire Labs Rare Groove Piano focuses more on the e-piano/harpsichord sound character. VSTAUAAX (Spitfire)
- Vox Continental II/Super Continental
- Planet Botch The Undercult Win VST
- Pipe organ
- VCSL‘s Pipe Organ patch (SFZ and samples) SFZ (Github)
- Jonas Krug’s Spooky Organ is a washed-out and ethereal version. NKIdspreset (account)
- Jonas Kurg’s Eiersheimer Orgel sounds more “local grandma playing songs for mass” than “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” so it’s good if you want a straight church organ without the drama. NKIdspreset (account)
- Positive organ
- Kalen Smith’s Little Organ NKIdspreset (account)
- Renaissance organ
- VCSL‘s Renaissance Organ patch (SFZ and samples) SFZ (Github)
- Spinet organ
- Michael Picher’s ElecOrg SFZ
- Hammond L-102
- Peter Corbett’s Hammond L102 (does not include rotary emulation) dspresetALP (account)
- Tonewheel/drawbar/traditional Hammond organ
- CollaB3 VSTAU
- Michael Picher’s HamOrg SFZ
- Wrongtools Trapeze Organ can be played straight or turned into an ambient pad. NKI (Woocommerce)
- boscomac OrgamundoENS
- Hammond Extravoice F100
- SynthMagic Extravoice NKI
Other keyboards
- Celesta
- See Idiophones § Celesta.
- Clavichord
- Quilcom Sim-Clav is a good modeled version. Win VST
- Hohner D6 Clavinet
- Studiologic Numa Player‘s Clavinet preset VSTAU
- 2getheraudio Ticky Clav 2 is a physically modeled clav. VSTAUAAX (newsletter)
- SASamples Freeky Free Clav has distortion and auto-wah on by default, but you can turn them off to get a regular clav sound. NKI (Wix)
- Harpsichord
- VCSL‘s “Harpsichord, English” patch as a SFZ (with samples) or a Kontakt instrument SFZNKI
- Studiologic Numa Player‘s “Harpsi” preset VSTAU
- Rock-si-chord (electric harpsichord)
- Soniccouture RMI Rocksichord NICNT (account)
- Spinet
- Jeice’s Spinetta Italiana NKI (account)
Free virtual instrument series
View the main page or learn more about 📕 plug-in formats. licenses and download requirements.
- 🎹 Pianos, organs, & keyboards
- 🎤 Solo vocals, choirs
- 🎻 Orchestral strings
- 🎸 Guitars, harps, lutes, & zithers
- 🎷 Woodwinds & free reeds
- 🎺 Brass & horns
- 🔔 Idiophones
- 🥁 Drums, percussion
- Synths & drum machines – Coming soon! (❛◡˂̵ ̑̑✧)
- DAWs, samplers, & FX – Coming soon! (❛◡˂̵ ̑̑✧)