The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Guys, please recommend the best free piano VSTs you know of. Other keyed instruments (harpsichord, clav, etc.) welcome as well.

This one is awesome: http://www.yohng.com/piano.html
I used it in City In Fog (direct mp3 link, skip forward to about 2:30 for most of the piano action).

I like the MDA epiano if you just want a decent Rhodes type sound.

What is the description of "Rhodes" style? I know they make mics and I'm pretty sure that my next mic(s) purchase will be Rhodes. I have a vocal VST called "fat on Rhodes" by kjaerhus Audio. It's a bit much for voice, but it could work good for a wild vocal sound. But it's great for instruments. I found it while looking for a certain sound I was looking for on Steve's horns. It's so perfect (in my opinion) for a solo trumpet or clean guitar solo.

Oh, by the way. I think I got that VST from one of your posts, Ken. LOVE that company's VSTs.

A Rhodes is probably the most commonly heard electric piano sound that is not an attempt at a straight emulation of an acoustic piano. You've probably heard it a million times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_piano

Billy's Little Trip wrote:What is the description of "Rhodes" style? I know they make mics and I'm pretty sure that my next mic(s) purchase will be Rhodes.

Rode makes microphones.
http://www.rodemic.com

Rhodes makes piano stuff.
http://www.rhodespiano.com/

Here are a couple of sites with free piano plugins.

http://smatni.tripod.com/safwanmatnivstplugins/

http://rekkerd.org/dsk-vsti/

The pianos at the Safwa Matni site do not have any controls to adjust their parameters, but I got around that by setting my vsti host programs randomization control to randomize the vsti controls and just kept hitting randomize until I got sounds I liked.

I like the plugins that they put up at the DSK site. The have several different keyboard plugins and a bunch of other cool stuff.

jb wrote:

Billy's Little Trip wrote:What is the description of "Rhodes" style? I know they make mics and I'm pretty sure that my next mic(s) purchase will be Rhodes.

Rode makes microphones.
http://www.rodemic.com

Rhodes makes piano stuff.
http://www.rhodespiano.com/

Ah ha. There's my confusion. Thanks, John.
My vst plugin I was referring to is spelled Rhodes, so there we go.

Well, when you go to buy a mic, you definitely want a Rode. Everybody should want a Rode. But that's another topic.