Musical Arts School: Piano VST-Plugins

Fazioli Concert Grand - Remastered

Imperfect Samples released this sample library in 2010. It stands out due to its very high recording quality, earning it second place out of over 50 products tested for the construction of the Musical Arts Schools - Grand Piano Simulator.

During the recording process, small imperfections in the sound were retained, which naturally occur in acoustic pianos over time. This gives the electronic grand piano a particularly authentic sound, making it acoustically very close to its acoustic counterpart.

The Musical Arts School team has brought the software up to the latest state of the art and added optimizations needed for live playing and practicing. These include, in particular, speed optimisations for playing with low latency without dropouts and an exact (measured) calibration of the recommended keyboards to the software. A detailed listing can be found here

Steinway Concert Grand - Remastered

Steinway Concert Grand by Imperfect Samples was released in 2011. This virtual piano library is based on a Steinway & Sons 1908 Walnut Concert Grand. As you can clearly hear the grand piano's age due to numerous imperfections, the MAS team does not recommend the software as an all-rounder, unlike the Fazioli. However, it delivers a very realistic and organic sound of a vintage instrument, which was not found in any other piano library during the tests for the construction of the music school grand piano.

The recording quality even exceeds that of the Fazioli library. The MAS team therefore awarded the library first place in the tests.

The MAS team also brought this software up to the state of the art and added optimisations for live playing and practising. A detailed listing can be found here