Omnes Sonos releases Piano Forte, a free (open-source) virtual piano instrument in VST3 plugin format for Windows.
You’ll inevitably gather an abundance of pianos, compressors, and equalizers when you get deep into music production. After all, these are the bread-and-butter tools for playing and producing music.
Usually, virtual pianos are sample-based instruments, but a collective known as Omnes Sonos has done something different with Piano Forte. Similarly to Pianoteq and Piano One, Piano Forte utilizes physical modeling techniques to generate sounds.
Piano Forte is a fairly lightweight package, as you might expect from something with zero samples. Its interface is equally streamlined and straight to the point.
You’ll find a virtual set of keys, a banner, and a dropdown menu for your desired MIDI input device if you use the standalone application.
The core sound of Piano Forte is close enough to a piano by my own ears. It doesn’t sound quite like a real piano, but with a touch of reverb and a little processing sounds quite a sight better than most generic piano plugins.
Piano Forte is velocity-sensitive, so it does respond quite well to touch. I use a Novation LaunchKey, which is probably the least ideal MIDI controller, given the somewhat odd velocity curve. However, I found it responded fairly well to my lackluster playing.
I won’t pretend to understand the mathematics behind the development of Piano Forte, but the documentation provided by Omnes Sonos provides a fairly decent overview of things. It is a marvel, especially since it is an open-source instrument.
It isn’t quite a realistic piano simulation, but it is quite close. You get a fair approximation of a grand piano, modeled from Yamaha and Steinway pianos. It utilizes AI, particularly smaller neural networks trained on a limited amount of samples.
I’m not a key player, as I’ve repeated time and time again in my Bedroom Producers Blog articles, but I think this is a wonderful instrument for the low cost of nothing.
Piano Forte might not be painstakingly accurate, but it is wonderful if you just want to add a little key flavor to your compositions.
Piano Forte is currently Windows-only and comes as a standalone application or a VST3 plugin. You will need a 64-bit host to properly utilize it.
Download: Piano Forte (Free)
More:
- SoundMagic Releases FREE Piano One Special Edition
- Audiolatry Updates Their FREE Grand Piano ROMpler
Last Updated on June 27, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
