audiolatry has released Grand Piano XXL, a free virtual piano instrument plugin (ROMpler) based on a sampled Yamaha C5 6'7" Grand Piano.
The original samples (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license) were recorded by Alexander Holm with two AKG c414 condenser microphones placed in an AB position at around 12 centimeters above the strings.
All the samples were captured in 48kHz 24-bit audio quality with 16 velocity layers which are all present in this virtual plugin, hence the 1.19 GB size on disk. The keys release samples are also added in Grand Piano XXL.
There's also a smaller version (319 MB) with only 4 velocity layers, simply called Grand Piano.
The GUI contains typical controls such as attack & release, gain, "Tremolo" section with LFO rate & depth for pitch, expression and pan, plus filter cutoff with selectable lowpass/highpass. The "Key" knob is the gain for piano keys release. For more sound depth, a simple reverb module was added.
Video demo: YouTube/uBwyBRH6Z_8
Features:
- Sampled Yamaha C5 Grand Piano.
- 16 velocity layers.
- Keys release.
- 48kHz 24-bit audio quality.
- 1.19 GB size on disk.
- Attack & release.
- LFO with rate & depth.
- Filter cutoff (lowpass & highpass).
- Reverb module.
- Volume knob.
Grand Piano XXL is available in VST & VST3 64-bit plugin formats for Windows.
Price: Free/Pay-What-You-Want.
