Sonixinema is offering the Piano Textures sound library for Native Instruments Kontakt as a free download.
If you own the full version of the Kontakt sampler by Native Instruments, it’s quite likely that you already sorted out most of your piano sounds. After all, the company includes some excellent pianos with the flagship Komplete product line.
See also: Free Piano SamplesBut free is free, and a quality freebie like Piano Textures is not one you should miss!
Coming from soundware maker Sonixinema, this free Kontakt instrument (full version of Kontakt 5 or later required) showcases the sounds of an “intimately recorded” Upright Piano.
It’s not a raw piano that we’re dealing with, however. All the sounds went through elaborate processing, giving them that modern cinematic mood. The sampled sounds are organized into eight presets that start at warm, delicate upright piano and end at creatively mangled textures where the instrument is rendered barely recognizable.
The instrument also includes a custom user interface for Kontakt. It lets you adjust the amount of detuning and expressiveness, the velocity curve, and the ADSR envelope for pitch and amplitude. Also worth noting are the Blur and Gloss controls for adjusting the piano’s tone.
Cool freebie aside, Piano Textures is an interesting showcase for developer Sonixinema’s paid Kontakt instruments. You should probably check them out, too.
However, keep in mind that the library will only work for fifteen minutes in the free Kontakt Player plugin. Read more about this limitation in our article about the Kontakt Player demo mode.
A valid email address is required to complete the checkout process for Piano Textures. The checkout is free can optionally submit a tip for the developers. All users get five free downloads for the library.
Some Sonixinema product libraries are on sale, and the quality is clearly there! You will also land on an older freebie called Medicine Man. This one captures the sounds of a one-off, hand-crafted Tongue Drum.
And if you need more piano sounds for your studio, be sure to check out the free Upright Piano by 99Sounds. It works as a VST and AU plugin in your digital audio workstation (no Kontakt required). Also, the free Upright Piano plugin can sound both clean and lo-fi. You can add some simulated tape wobble for that lo-fi hip-hop vibe.
More info: Piano Textures (842 MB download size, ZIP archive, requires the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt)
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