Electric piano plugins have a specific problem: they're either so faithful to the original hardware that they're boring, or so processed that you lose what made the source instrument special in the first place. AVANT Modern Keys by Heavyocity solves that tension by making it the whole point. Built from a sampled Mark II electric piano with 4,026 samples across 8.12GB uncompressed, AVANT pushes the source instrument through bowed, twine-wrapped, e-bowed, and pick-plucked articulations before you've touched a single effect. At $119, it's aimed squarely at composers scoring to picture and producers building hybrid sounds who find standard electric piano libraries frustratingly one-dimensional.
Why Standard Electric Piano Libraries Fall Short
Most electric piano plugins give you velocity layers, a bit of tine noise, maybe a wooble effect, and call it done. That's fine for a retro R&B track. It's useless when you need a sound that reads as "electric piano" but lives inside a cinematic cue alongside strings and processed percussion.
The real frustration isn't the source instrument. The Mark II electric piano sounds brilliant. The frustration is that most libraries treat it as a museum piece. They preserve it instead of using it.
AVANT takes the opposite position. Heavyocity isolated the inner components of the Mark II and captured them through what they describe as "pristinely prepared performances" using hammers, e-bows, twine, and picks. The result is 16 sound sources that range from the expected (Pure, Tines, Tone Bars) to the genuinely strange (Drilled, Rattle Screws, Grain Decay, Breathing Ambient Keys).
That's the gap AVANT fills. Not "better electric piano." A different instrument that remembers where it came from.
How It Performs in Practice
The Ascend engine sits at the centre of everything here. It lets you layer up to three of the 16 sound sources simultaneously, blend them with the Three Point Mixer, and modulate the result in real time. That's where AVANT gets interesting fast.
We loaded the "Bowed" source against "Pure" and brought in a thread of "Grain Decay" at about 30% on the third point. What came back was something that started as a recognisable electric piano attack and spread into a slow, granular shimmer. The tonal identity stayed intact. The tail became something else entirely. That combination alone justified loading the plugin.
The 109 presets are organized well: 15 All-Stars for quick wins, 14 Core Keys for traditional use, 29 Extended, 21 Rhythmic, and 29 Rhythmic Melodic. Reviewers consistently note the Rhythmic Melodic category as the strongest section for hybrid scoring work, and we'd agree with that read. Those presets use the ARP and Echoes features together in ways that produce useful, production-ready results rather than showcase sounds that don't translate to real sessions.
The Echoes feature adds what Heavyocity calls "musical randomness." In practice, it layers ghost repeats that follow the harmonic content of what you're playing rather than strict time divisions. It can sound brilliant on slow, evolving pads. On tighter rhythmic material, you'll want to dial it back or turn it off.
CPU load is medium. Not alarming. We didn't hit stutters running three sources with the convolution engine active, but we also weren't stacking multiple instances on a session that was already taxing the CPU. Worth keeping in mind if you run large templates.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The strongest thing about AVANT is that it commits. Heavyocity didn't try to make it the most accurate electric piano emulation and also the most experimental. They chose experimental and built the traditional sounds in as one category among many. That decision produces a library with a clear identity.
The "Dusty Tape" and "Rusty Tubes" sources in the Processed category are the kind of sounds you'd normally build yourself using a clean piano sample and a chain of tape saturation and filtering. Having them baked in at the sampling stage means they respond to velocity and expression more naturally than processing can produce.
The weakness is the learning curve. With 16 sources, 109 presets, and the Ascend engine layering three at once, the interface asks something of you before it gives anything back. Producers who open a plugin expecting to play a preset and move on will find AVANT frustrating. It rewards time. Not everyone has that time on a deadline.
Users also report that the effects depth can be overwhelming if you're coming in wanting a clean, simple electric piano. That's a fair complaint. The Core Keys category exists exactly for that case, but it's easy to miss if you're not reading the preset organization carefully.
Value for the Price
At $119, AVANT sits in a competitive position. You're getting 4,026 samples, 16 sources across four categories, a layering engine, a convolution engine, an ARP, and 109 organized presets. Sound on Sound rated it 5/5. Equipboard users have it at 4.8/5 across 19 reviews. Those numbers reflect a library that lands with the people it's built for.
If you're a cinematic composer or hybrid producer, $119 is easy to justify. If you just want a clean electric piano for pop sessions, it's the wrong tool for the money. See how AVANT fits into the wider Heavyocity catalog before committing.
Who Should (and Shouldn't) Buy This
- ✅ Buy if you score to picture and need an electric piano that lives in hybrid and cinematic contexts without sounding like a stock preset.
- ✅ Buy if you already own Ascend Modern Grand or Aspire Modern Mallets and want to complete the trilogy with a consistent engine and workflow.
- ✅ Buy if you enjoy building layered sounds from scratch and want 16 unusual starting points rooted in a real, distinctive source instrument.
- ❌ Skip if you need a straightforward, clean electric piano for R&B, pop, or soul sessions. There are better tools at lower cost for that job.
- ❌ Skip if you don't have Kontakt 6.7.1 or later. Full Kontakt or the free Kontakt Player are both required. No exceptions.
- ❌ Skip if you're on a deadline-heavy schedule and can't afford the learning time. This plugin rewards exploration, not speed.
Specs & Technical Details
| Developer | Heavyocity |
| Price | $119 |
| Plugin Format | VST / AU / AAX (Kontakt-based) |
| OS Support | Mac (macOS 10.14–12) / Windows 10–11 |
| Activation | Native Instruments / Native Access |
| CPU Usage | Medium |
| Trial Available | No |
| Version Reviewed | Kontakt 6 Engine (Kontakt 6.7.1+ required) |
Score Breakdown
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sound Quality | 4.5/5 | The extended techniques (bowed, twine, grain decay) are genuinely distinctive at the sample level |
| Value for Money | 4.5/5 | Strong for cinematic composers; hard to justify if you only need clean electric piano tones |
| Ease of Use | 3.5/5 | Preset organization is logical but the engine depth demands time investment before it pays off |
| Features | 4.5/5 | Three-point layering, ARP, convolution engine, and Echoes give you serious sound design range |
| CPU Efficiency | 4.0/5 | Medium load; stable running three simultaneous sources but not template-friendly at scale |
| Overall | 4.4/5 | A committed, well-built cinematic instrument let down only by its steeper learning curve |
Alternatives to Consider
If you want the Heavyocity sound design approach applied to pitched percussion, Aspire Modern Mallets is worth a look. It shares the same Ascend engine lineage and sits in the same trilogy alongside AVANT.
For something different in the prepared and extended piano space, Loot Audio's Palm Mute Piano takes a comparable "break the instrument" approach on a conventional piano body. Narrower in scope than AVANT but more focused for specific textures.
If you're newer to Kontakt instruments and unsure whether AVANT's depth suits your workflow yet, our Kontakt instruments guide covers what to look for before buying so you don't end up with a library that sits unused.
And if you're considering AVANT as part of a wider Heavyocity purchase, the Keys and Synth Bundle review lays out whether the bundle or individual licenses make more sense.
AVANT Modern Keys earns its place in a cinematic or hybrid production toolkit. It's a love letter to the Mark II written in a language the Mark II's inventors never spoke. At $119, it's easy to recommend to the right buyer. But that buyer is specific. If you're scoring strings and strange textures to picture, buy it without hesitation. If you're making funk records, save your money and look elsewhere. The plugin won't apologize for not being something it never tried to be.
Related reviews: Wavesynth GLOW
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need the full version of Kontakt to run AVANT Modern Keys?
No. AVANT works with both the full version of Kontakt and the free Kontakt Player. You do need version 6.7.1 or later of either. Older versions of Kontakt won't load it correctly, so check your version before buying.
How many sources can I layer at once in AVANT?
The Ascend engine lets you layer up to three of the 16 sound sources simultaneously using the Three Point Mixer. You can blend them in real time and modulate each source independently, which is where most of AVANT's sound design power lives.
Is AVANT Modern Keys useful for traditional electric piano sounds, or is it only for experimental use?
It does both, but it's built for the experimental side. The 14 Core Keys presets cover clean and traditional Mark II tones well enough for most contexts. If that's all you need, though, you're paying for a lot of capability you won't touch. For pure vintage electric piano work, a more focused library might serve you better.
How does AVANT Modern Keys relate to Ascend Modern Grand and Aspire Modern Mallets?
AVANT is the third instrument in a trilogy that started with Ascend Modern Grand in 2019 and continued with Aspire Modern Mallets in 2022. All three share the Ascend engine and a similar design philosophy of using extended techniques to push acoustic instruments into cinematic territory. They're designed to work alongside each other in a session, not as alternatives to each other.
