XLN Audio Addictive Keys

Verdict
For Amazingly detailed grand piano
Surprisingly varied sound
Loads of microphone options
Lovely Lyndhurst hall sound from
Air Studios
Against Large drive space required
You won’t ind a much more detailed grand
piano, without spending well into six igures
on the real thing
9 / 1 0
> reviews / virtual pianos roundup
74 / COMPUTER MUSIC / October 2022
Spitfi re Audio
Hans Zimmer Grand
Piano
£349
Spitire set out to produce the ultimate
sampled grand piano with this, and who
better at the helm of the project than
the soundtrack genius Hans Zimmer?
The piano used is one of Zimmer’s
favourites – the in-house Steinway
Model D grand piano at the Lyndhurst
Hall at AIR Studios – which has also
inspired many of his soundtracks.
The collection is set out with folders
with diferent sounds – Warm And
Rounded, or Low And Weighted, for
example. You also get microphone
positions to help guide you through the
surprisingly varied sound and an
amazing 60 diferent ones were
employed during the recording. There
are, for example, close, mid, room and
surround options with the close and
mid options giving you a slightly
brighter sound.
The further you move out, the more
you get mixed in of the wonderful room
where the piano was recorded. You get
all sorts of blending options to get a
more detailed sound that mixes all of
the diferent positions, or home in on a
very speciic sound, tailored to your mix.
While HZP only features one piano,
the detail and the amazingly balanced
sound is second to none. With multiple
velocity options, and an incredible
88,000 samples capturing every
nuance of the piano in question, you
can expect to be able to reproduce just
about every aspect of a Steinway Model
D – and there’s even a folder of piano
efects to take things of road should
TYPE: Multisampled grand piano | PRICE: £349 | KEY FEATURES: 88352 samples; choose from 16 di erent mic positions including Tree for larger orchestral arrangements;
musical and percussive e ects folder; 60 di erent microphones used; close, mid, room and surround options; folders listed by piano tone | SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Requires Kontakt or Kontakt Player 5.6.8 or higher (runs on the free supplied Player), AU, VST 2.4 or AAX-capable host (64-bit); macOS 10.10 or later, Intel i5; Windows 7,
Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit) Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen; 211.2 GB hard drive space (64-bit)
you wish. While expensive compared to
other options here, you won’t ind a
much more detailed grand piano,
without spending well into six igures on
the real thing.
spitireaudio.com
CMU312.rev_pianos_roundup.indd 74CMU312.rev_pianos_roundup.indd 74 21/07/2022 17:5621/07/2022 17:56