Looking for the right virtual electric piano to add some sweet vintage goodness to your song? First and foremost, you need an instrument that sounds authentic, but you’ll also want a thorough plug-in that lets you tweak and customize to your ears’ desire. You might feel overwhelmed by the large number of options out there. Don’t worry! We won’t let you get in a fender bender. We’ve got a list of 9 electric piano plug-ins that will have you feeling tined, sealed, and delivered!
In this article, we’ll walk you through the main features of each plug-in listed below and offer two sound examples from each electric piano — one with the full track and another soloed.
- Applied Acoustics Systems Lounge Lizard EP-4 Electric Piano Virtual Instrument
- Arturia Stage-73 V Electric Piano
- IK Multimedia Electric Piano – SampleTank 4 MAX
- MODARTT Electric Pianos Instrument Pack for Pianoteq
- Native Instruments Scarbee Mark I – Komplete 13
- Toontrack EZkeys Virtual Electric Piano
- UVI Key Suite Electric Virtual Instrument
- Waves Electric 88
- XLN Audio Addictive Keys Mark One
Applied Acoustics Systems Lounge Lizard EP-4 Electric Piano Virtual Instrument
You’ll love the killer electric-piano sounds of Lounge Lizard EP-4. It’s like having an entire studio of vintage electric pianos at your fingertips in a low-profile VST. Instead of relying on samples and wavetables, Lounge Lizard EP-4 generates sounds on the fly using accurate modeling of the various acoustic components involved in re-creating instruments, calculating their interactions as well as the control signals it receives as you play. You have control over the smallest details like the tines, pickups, EQ, and character/tone. Start with one of the 200 performance-ready presets or dial in your own sound.
Arturia Stage-73 V Electric Piano
Arturia Stage-73 V captures three classic mid-’70s Rhodes models in stunning detail. Its seven sound modes encapsulate a range of Rhodes piano models — from Stage to Suitcase, ’73 or ’74, Classic to Modern — putting a huge range of hearty sounds at your disposal. The Stage-73 V uses physical modeling (as opposed to sample-based virtual instruments), so you can alter the character of individual components to create an extended array of tones. This means you can edit characteristics such as hammer hardness, tone bar resonance, pickup alignment, and the harmonic profile. The Stage-73 V also includes a vintage amp and a newly integrated pedal rig so that you can add emulated stompboxes to your chain from fiery distortion to vibrant tape echo.
IK Multimedia Electric Piano – SampleTank 4 MAX
With a cutting-edge sound engine, SampleTank 4 MAX is a powerful music-creation tool. It has some excellent vintage electric pianos, but it doesn’t stop there. It includes a whopping 250GB of sounds with 8,000 instrument presets! Think you’ll ever run out of sounds? The built-in groove-production tools include an Arpeggiator, Strummer, Pattern Player, and Loop Manager. SampleTank MAX has a total of 60 effects such as tube saturation, analog pedal effects, and pro studio processors, which you can control from SampleTank’s DAW-style mixer interface. You can also use SampleTank as a third-party plug-in with your favorite DAW.
MODARTT Electric Pianos Instrument Pack for Pianoteq
Modartt Pianoteq Electric Pianos gives you two stunning EPs from the ’70s — the Rhody R2 and the Wurly. Both instruments come with several variations. Customizable parameters include tuning, voicing, design, action, mallet bounce, equalizer, and effects such as amp, chorus, tremolo, and tine noise parameters. Pianoteq 7 also has built-in velocity-curve calibration. This setup process asks you to play at different volumes. The velocities are recorded and added as points to the velocity line graph. This optimizes Pianoteq’s velocity-curve setting to properly respond to your playing style and MIDI keyboard.
Native Instruments Scarbee Mark I – Komplete 13
The Native Instruments Scarbee Mark I was derived from Scarbee’s legendary “Classic Electric Piano.” You’ll hear the great care that was taken by instrument designer Thomas Skarbye to meticulously sample this legendary instrument. As part of the Komplete 13 bundle, the Scarbee Mark I works with the free Kontakt Player and in Kontakt. Komplete also includes other vintage keyboards such as the Scarbee A200 and Clavinet/Pianet. Each of the Mark I’s 73 keys were sampled at 12 different velocities, including both key-on and key-off sounds. It also includes a full effects section with reverb, chorus, phaser, amp simulation, distortion, autowah, pan, compression, delay, and EQ.
Toontrack EZkeys Virtual Electric Piano
EZkeys Classic Electrics includes premium sampled Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos. These samples were captured by top-of-the-line microphones and preamps and were edited by Toontrack’s veteran engineers. Toontrack EZkeys software has tools designed with songwriters, arrangers, and performers in mind. Features include cutting, adding, moving, analyzing, and randomizing your chords and song structure, simple drag-and-drop MIDI file functionality, customizable velocity-curve settings, and Music Theory Basics with playable examples. Not a keyboardist? No problem. EZkeys’ powerful yet intuitive tools allow you to put together a keyboard part regardless of your playing ability. EZkeys works inside your DAW or in standalone mode.
UVI Key Suite Electric Virtual Instrument
UVI’s Key Suite features a 14.5GB sound library with 476 expertly crafted presets and 63 instruments ranging from electric pianos to analog-synth keys, electro-acoustic hybrids, basses, and more — seven categories in all! The samples were recorded with world-class microphones, converters, and processing for exceptional sonic detail and production versatility. Personalizing your sound is a breeze with studio-quality effects like impulse-response control, multiband EQ, delay, modulation, and reverb.
Waves Electric 88
To make their Electric 88 instrument, Waves sampled a road-worn yet well-maintained electric piano in striking detail. The result is an expressive software instrument that reveals the nuances and beautiful character of a seasoned keyboard. The Mix section allows you to balance the sound of the internal mechanisms, tines, and key-release sounds or to add classic effects like compression or amplifier modeling. Built-in effects include tremolo, autopan, phaser, chorus, and reverb.
XLN Audio Addictive Keys Mark One
XLN Audio Addictive Keys Mark One gives you a Fender Rhodes Mark I sound that you can craft to fit any musical context, whether you need it to be smooth and enthralling or searing and crunchy. This king of electric pianos is played through a vintage tube combo amp and captured by rare vintage mics for a sublime sound. The Mark One features six selectable mic perspectives, allowing you to mix and match recording setups for endless sound-design options. Features and effects include pitch, filter, volume, tremolo, EQ, phaser, and delay/reverb.
In Conclusion
Thank you for reading and listening! Hopefully, you found this article interesting and informative. If you want to learn more about the virtual electric pianos in this article, then feel free to contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700.
How We Created the Samples
All the electric pianos were loaded into a DAW as plug-ins. The playing example was recorded with a Native Instruments S88 MIDI controller. Each instrument was set on a basic Rhodes preset. Unique settings like reverb, EQ, or amp simulation were disabled to create a more equal comparison between each plug-in.
