I use a similar technique, I remember back when I started I was like "bruh piano preset don't sound like piano dumb personpeople who did this preset". Now after five years on AT I realize how stupid I was and it ain't too hard making your own piano sounding heisen
I'd suggest using samples. Infyuthsion has a great collection of panned piano samples. Just open the sample library panel and search one shots with the text "Inf_Piano".
If you mean to set up, maybe. A Machiniste has nine slots. That gives you more than an octave. Unless you have a melody with a contour that looks like a rollercoaster, or extremely dense chords, you should be OK with one if you just pick the notes you need :)
how do you get the piano on the side?