Long story short: Your PC has way more storage and processing power than any digital piano can muster. Why is a piano VST better than the sounds in my digital piano? Having a piano sound you truly enjoy can be the difference between being inspired to make great music and leaving your piano to collect dust, so I hope this list will help you lean towards the former.

In this article, I wanted to expand on some of my earlier suggestions, while providing several more options to consider. Instead, you let your PC handle the heavy lifting using software colloquially called a piano VST (virtual studio technology), also known as a piano library or simply a virtual piano. The trick is you don’t use the sounds built into your digital piano. Unfortunately, the best of them are usually prohibitively expensive and short of spending several thousands of dollars, you’re usually left with something that falls well short of the real thing.īut at the risk of sounding like a clickbait generator, there’s one thing piano makers probably don’t want you to know: You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get amazing sound and solid playability out of a digital piano.Īs I wrote a few months ago, even the most basic keyboards can achieve a sound that would fool listeners into thinking they’re listening to the real thing. There’s nothing quite like the sound of a real grand piano - but these days, digital pianos can get pretty darn close.

Arturia piano