LABS Autograph Grand

9/10 Autograph Grand captures a Yamaha C6 grand piano at Woodshed Recording Studios in Malibu, a room used by Lady Gaga, Paul Simon, Metallica, and many other artists. The Yamaha C6 is an expressive instrument, and I think Spitfire Audio did a great job of capturing that character. The sound has a dreamy quality that enhances whatever mood you’re going for, whether light or dark. One thing that surprised me while testing it is that Autograph Grand uses expression (CC1/CC11) rather than velocity to control dynamics.

Playing softly or loudly on your keyboard changes less than you’d expect because the mod wheel does the heavy lifting. That makes it less natural for traditional piano performance and excellent for shaping cinematic swells with automation. It’s also worth noting that LABS instruments are becoming part of Splice INSTRUMENT, a free plugin built by the LABS team, and downloads now go through a free Splice account. Existing LABS installations continue to work, while new free instruments land in INSTRUMENT going forward.

At around 870 MB, it is light on disk space and loads quickly. For a beginner, I still recommend it as the fastest route to a beautiful grand piano sound, which is why it keeps the beginner award despite the account shuffle. Verdict: The prettiest free grand for producers, with dynamics that pianists will need to get used to.