Monastery Grand

0/10 MeldaProduction recorded Monastery Grand inside a concert hall in a monastery near Pilsen, Czech Republic, capturing a stage grand with more than a dozen microphones over several days. 5 GB instrument, resulting in a free piano that sounds warm and natural. Three blendable microphone signals let you move between a direct, present tone and a more ambient hall sound. Melda also provided built-in effects (compressor, delay, enhancer, reverb) and a chord-generating HARMONY feature on the front panel.

I also like the included Creative variant, which loops the samples for infinite sustain and adds resonators. It turns the piano into a surprisingly capable ambient instrument. The only catch is the installation. Monastery Grand runs inside MSoundFactory Player, and the path to the free player is unintuitive because you install the MSoundFactory trial and let it revert to the free Player. A free MeldaProduction account is required, and the Player tier locks the deeper synthesis editing behind the paid versions, so you shape the sound with the front-panel controls only.

Once it’s running, the CPU load is very low for a library of this depth. If you want a realistic grand without touching the Kontakt ecosystem, this is the best one. Verdict: The best free grand piano outside Kontakt, as long as you tolerate a clumsy installer.