Waves Electric Grand 80 Piano

What is the Waves Electric Grand 80 Piano For?

Electric Grand 80 is a virtual instrument designed to recreate the sonic identity of an electro-acoustic piano like the CP, halfway between an acoustic piano and a tine electric piano. It excels at wide, reverberant chords, bright leads, and the "polished" keyboard parts typical of the 80s, while remaining highly effective in modern productions.

Whether you produce pop, R&B, rock, synthwave, film music, or live arrangements, this piano easily fits into the mix thanks to its focused spectrum and rich harmonic character. It is also an ideal solution for quickly achieving a "premium retro" tone without stacking multiple external effects.

Main Features

A Faithfully Captured CP-80, Designed for Production

Based on a carefully sampled CP-80 model, Electric Grand 80 delivers a clear attack, controlled brightness, and a more present low end, perfect for supporting an arrangement without masking vocals or guitars. Its timbre sits exactly in the "touring piano" zone: more direct than a grand acoustic, but more complex and singing than a tine electric piano.

Playing Realism: Mechanics, Sustain, and Dynamics

To avoid the "frozen sample" effect, the plug-in adds essential realism details: key release noises and sustain pedal noises, adjustable depending on the context (studio, live, intimate ballad, or percussive playing). The velocity response is adjustable via a variable curve to adapt the instrument to your master keyboard, your touch, and your style (soft accompaniment, funk, pop arpeggios, etc.).

The sustain can also simulate sympathetic resonance of unplayed strings, adding depth and coherence, especially on wide voicings, open chords, and long sustain passages.

Sound Shaping and Built-in Effects

The sound is quickly sculpted with bass, mid, and treble controls to find the ideal place in the mix. The formant control allows the piano's personality to evolve from a mellow, round tone to a more brash, biting character, useful for cutting through a dense production.

The integrated multi-effects section includes tremolo, autopan, chorus, phaser, and reverb: perfect for recreating typical 80s textures (stereo width, movement, modulation) or designing more contemporary sounds. Finally, you can fine-tune the dynamics with limiting and compression to stabilize attacks and even out levels, a real advantage for live performance or modern pop mixes.

Technical specifications

Type

Full software

Downloadable

Yes

Mac	macOS Catalina 10.15, Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14	Addition of realistic mechanical sounds	key up and sustain pedal
Windows	Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 11	Formant control	from mellow to brash
Memory	8 GB	Multi-effects section	tremolo, autopan, chorus, phaser, reverb
Disk Space	16 GB	Dynamic tools	limiting and compression