Native Instruments Vertikal is a Kontakt instrument built around Nils Frahm's vertical piano, a handcrafted, one-of-a-kind upright that stands 4.5 metres (14.7 ft) tall. Its 3.9-metre strings give it an unusually long resonance and deep bass, and it is at its best played softly. NI recorded it in Saal 3 of Berlin's Funkhaus, with the piano on a balcony at the top of the room, and produced it with Galaxy Instruments, the team behind Noire and The Giant. It is $149 at Plugin Boutique and runs in the free Kontakt Player.
The piano comes as two instruments. Pure is warm, clear and expressive, with a wide dynamic range and a defined attack. Felt is softer, mellower and darker, with a gentler felt attack and a more atmospheric tone. More than 150 snapshots cover the two, so you can play straight away before touching the engine.
The other half of Vertikal is Particles 2.0, the successor to the Noire engine. It adds notes that vary by chance in pitch, timing, dynamics and stereo position, turning a held chord into a shifting cloud. Rhythm Mode makes those patterns tempo-synced and reproducible, Play Mode puts the Particles sources under your fingers, four effect slots shape the layer, and the new Motion system maps LFOs, mod wheel and polyphonic aftertouch across almost every parameter. There are more than 100 Particles presets. The limits are clear: it is one deliberately soft piano rather than a collection, the download is 29 GB, and macOS 14 or later is required. Keyscape and Pianoteq 9 are broader piano options.
Our Native Instruments Vertikal first look covers both voicings, Particles 2.0, the full specs and how it compares with Noire, Keyscape, Pianoteq 9 and Addictive Keys.