Serving up a vast range of painstakingy physically modelled acoustic and electric pianos, as well as a range of supplementary instruments such as harpsichord, harp and pans, Modartt's Pianoteq has been at the summit of our picks for the best virtual piano software for over a decade now. While we've heartily recommended it whenever the opportunity has presented itself, this weekend we're imploring you to pick up either the Standard or Pro iterations of Pianoteq, as they're currently (and for a limited time over the Black Friday weekend) reduced in price, with $54 and $80 off respectively.
While each piano and keyboard instrument has a plethora of editing controls to tune the sound to taste - including Velocity, Note Effects, Dynamics and and Equaliser - other new instruments, including classical guitar and chromatic percussion packs, really make this less of simply a virtual piano plugin, and more a wide-spanning, virtual band that you can really build out and use at the heart of an arrangement. It's certainly up there with our favourite Black Friday deals.
But it's at its core, it's thos piano simulations that shine brightest of all. With many virtual models endorsed by the companies that made the original pianos themselves: Steinway, Bechstein, Petrof and more, the resulting levels of tonal class and realism that they will bring to your piano sounds is nothing short of sublime. Also, the surrounding acoustics elevate even the most basic of piano parts, imparting emotion and evoking the sense of real space to every note.
Version 8's classical guitar component stands among the finest modelled classical guitars that we've played, applying the 'realism' manifesto to the guitar universse, and incorporating features such as emulated gestures and natural instrument noises has resulted in some impressive results.
You might naturally be thinking that this all sounds like it will take a pretty massive amount of space on your hard drive. But think again, as all the processing to render the sounds are done in real-time, meaning that the installation size is a spit-your-tea out and say 'whaat!' 50MB.
The CPU drain which was an occasional bugbear in early versions of the software has now been rectified, making Pianoteq (now at version 8) a near-miraculous feat of getting something really quite massive in scope compiled into a small package.
In our review of the latest version, big Pianoteq-head Andy Jones said "This is, surprise, surprise, as good as it ever has been, and with the guitar inclusion, we could add ‘and always will be’. This is as near-perfect a collection of piano (and more) instruments as you’ll find. Brilliant-oteq!"
With this offer in place, there's never been a better time to get your hands on it. But hurry up, as the deal ends in a few days time from now
So, grab either Standard or Pro now for a cheap price, and check out some of our other favourite Black Friday deals here
