Sympiano is a FREE reverb plugin that explores the inside of a grand piano

Sympiano is a reverb plugin that explores the inside of a grand piano, and it is free on macOS and Windows.

We come across lots of reverb plugins that offer the acoustic character of specific places or objects, like NoiseRverb by NoiseRoom.

NoiseRverb offers the acoustic character of historic churches in Quito, Ecuador.

Airspace from Mode Audio is another favorite of mine.

This time, Sympiano is bringing us the acoustic character of the inside of a grand piano.

However, unlike many such plugins, Sympiano isn’t a convolution reverb; it uses no samples or impulse responses.

Instead, it’s a real-time digital-waveguide physical model.

The benefit is that each of the 230 strings responds to every source and every note organically, rather than offering any predetermined response.

Sympiano offers two models: Grand and Upright.

The first demo on the product page showcases a piano reverberating in a piano, and it’s not just piano overkill.

In some cases, we might have piano instruments, even hardware keyboards, that have a nice sound, but something about the decay or sustain just doesn’t ring true. In those cases, removing all those elements from the source and replacing them with Sympiano might be a viable option.

While the resonance decay time and overall sympathetic resonance profile might not match a particular piano perfectly, it could offer greater general realism.

That said, my instinct with this plugin is to throw everything but a piano at it and see what interesting results come back.

Sympiano offers a few ways to tweak the character, which makes it a more interesting prospect for use with various instruments.

For example, you can move the pickup along the strings or select a root note and scale for scale-aware resonance (21 scales available).

With scale-aware resonance, only in-key strings will ring.

One of the most interesting features, especially if you’re looking to experiment beyond the inside of an acoustic piano, is the Freeze function.

Freeze lets you lock the strings, making the current resonance a constant that you can use to create pads and drones from any source.

Sympiano is available in AU and VST3 formats for macOS (11.0 or later) and Windows (10/11).

Sympiano also functions as a standalone application.