Tascam's CVPiano: the free piano VST that runs rings round the rest (discontinued though).

[avasopht]

I'm a big fan of Kawaii digital pianos. They are by far the best you can get and because some of them are constructed with backboards and such can sound just like a real piano.

Continuous Velocity Piano is based on spectral morphing. Eliminating the need for many bulky, discrete sample layers, spectral morphing technology produces continuous, spectral variation by processing only a single baseline sample velocity. Using the baseline as a starting point, the spectral morphing filters then dynamically interpolate frequency characteristics, which can then be continuously morphed during and after musical notes are played. The result is far greater musicality with over ten times the amount of dynamic expression. Another benefit is that instruments are much smaller in memory consumption, yet with greater playability and realism.

Continuous Velocity Piano showcases both spectral morphing and convolution modeling, transcending the boundaries imposed by numerous, separate, sample layers, which has been the traditional approach. Spectral morphing provides a much more elegant and powerful solution that players can certainly feel, and virtual instrument developers can now create instruments in a fraction of time by eliminating the majority of laborious multi-sample collection. For example, the new Continuous Velocity Piano is only 180MB compared to the 1.1GB size of the GigaPiano-II, yet the new instrument has effectively Eighteen times the number of sample layers.

The Piano is a KAWAI grand piano, 7'4", residing in Electric LarryLand Studios, Austin, TX. The piano had been recently rebuilt, and is known for it's shimmering, clear tone. It has been used on many recordings made by nine-time Grammy winning engineer, Larry Seyer.

Sadly it has been discontinued, but I find this is the only VST that makes me feel like I'm playing a real piano.

[fieldframe]

Interesting technique, using something in between the traditional sampler approach of layers with crossfading and the less-common approach of physically modeling the entire instrument. I'm a big fan of Arturia's Piano V, which has continuous velocity as it uses the latter, though it is a bit CPU-heavy and perhaps doesn't quite have the same satisfying, hammer-heavy low end that some sample libraries do.

(Although it just occurred to me that with VST in Reason, I could make a Combinator with some key-tracked hammer noise to tack on to Piano V... Hmm.)