Steinberg Groove Agent - 5.0 Operation Manual

Operation Manual

Matthias Klag, Michael Ruf

Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Christina Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Matthias Obrecht, Sabine Pfeifer, Benjamin Schütte, Marita Sladek

This PDF provides improved access for vision-impaired users. Please note that due to the complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions of images.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. For more information, please visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks.

Groove Agent_5.0.0_en-US_2018-11-01

specically allowed in the License Agreement. No

4 Installation and Setup

4 Conventions 5 Installing the Program 5 Activating Your License 5 How You Can Reach Us 5 About the Documentation 6 Setting Up

8 Common Editing Methods

8 Dials and Sliders 8 Multi Selection and Parameter Controls 8 Buttons 9 Value Fields 9 Using Key Commands 10 Presets

12 Getting Started

12 Window Overview 13 Agents, Kits, Presets, and Content Files 14 Loading a Kit 15 Pattern and Instrument Pads 15 Browsing for MIDI Patterns and Styles 16 Playing back Pattern Pads 16 Converting Styles to MIDI Patterns 17 Modifying MIDI Patterns in the Pattern Editor 17 Creating the Different Sections of a Drum Track 18 Recording Trigger Notes for Your Patterns 18 Dragging Patterns into a Project 19 Editing Patterns in the DAW 20 Working with Multiple Agents 21 Recording the MIDI Output 22 Note Repeat 30 Decompose

33 Managing Your Sounds

33 Loading Kits 33 Kit Slot 34 Kit Rack 35 Kit Context Menu 36 Managing and Loading Files

50 Working With Pads

50 Pad Section 52 Renaming Pads 52 Using Different MIDI Channels/Ports for

Instrument Pads and Pattern Pads

53 Instrument Pads 59 Pattern Pads

90 Beat Agent

90 Beat Agent Sound Editing 133 Importing and Exporting Files

136 Acoustic Agent

136 Acoustic Agent Sound Editing

145 Percussion Agent

145 Percussion Agent Sound Editing

148 Mixing and Effect Handling

148 Beat Agent Mixer 149 Acoustic Agent Mixer 153 Percussion Agent Mixer 155 AUX Mixer 155 Kits Mixer 156 Master Mixer 156 Effect Handling

158 Effects Reference

158 Reverb Effects 161 Delay Effects 162 EQ Effects 164 Filter Effects 168 Distortion Effects 170 Modulation Effects 177 Dynamics Effects 186 Spatial and Panner Effects

187 Automation and MIDI Controllers

187 Automation 188 MIDI Controllers

190 Global Functions and Settings

190 Plug-in Functions Section 191 Plug-in Name and Steinberg Logo 191 Toolbar 192 Keyboard 193 Options Page

198 Using the Standalone Version of the Plug-In

198 Making Preferences Settings 198 Preferences Dialog 202 Selecting the MIDI Input and the Audio Output 202 Scratch Pad 204 Loading a MIDI File 204 Saving a MIDI File 205 Master Volume

206 Mixer Routing Diagrams

209 Index

Installation and Setup

Before you can use Groove Agent, you must install the program and the required content and set up your system.

Conventions

In our documentation, we use typographical and markup elements to structure information.

Typographical Elements

The following typographical elements mark the following purposes.

Prerequisite

Requires you to complete an action or to fulll a condition before starting a procedure.

Markup

Procedure

Lists the steps that you must take to achieve a specic result.

Important

Informs you about issues that might affect the system, the connected hardware, or that might bring a risk of data loss.

Note

Informs you about issues that you should consider.

Example

Provides you with an example.

Result

Shows the result of the procedure.

After Completing This Task

Informs you about actions or tasks that you can perform after completing the procedure.

Key Commands

Many of the default key commands, also known as keyboard shortcuts, use modier keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system.

Many of the default key commands use modier keys, some of which are different depending on the operating system. When key commands with modier keys are described in this manual, they are indicated with the Windows modier key rst, followed by the macOS modier key and the key.

EXAMPLE

Ctrl/Cmd-Z means: press Ctrl on Windows or Cmd on macOS, then press Z.

Installing the Program

After downloading the required les, you can install Groove Agent on your computer.

For detailed installation instructions, see https://www.steinberg.net/how-to-install-grooveagent-5.

Activating Your License

Groove Agent uses a software-based copy protection scheme. This Soft-eLicenser is installed automatically with Groove Agent. It can be accessed via the eLicenser Control Center application that is installed automatically with the product.

After installation, you must activate your product.

If you purchased Groove Agent in a shop, the product package contains a “Download Access Code” that allows you to download both the software and the license of the product.

If you purchased the download version of Groove Agent, you receive an e-mail with the activation code and a description of the activation process.

How You Can Reach Us

Click the Steinberg logo in the top right corner of the control panel to open a pop-up menu containing items for getting additional information and help.

● This menu contains links to various Steinberg web pages. Select a link to open the corresponding page. On the web pages, you can nd support and compatibility information, answers to frequently asked questions, links for downloading new drivers, etc.

About the Documentation

The documentation is available online and can be downloaded in PDF format from steinberg.help

To visit steinberg.help, enter steinberg.help in the address bar of your web browser or

● open Groove Agent, click the Steinberg logo in the top right corner and select Help > Groove Agent Help.

Installation and Setup Setting Up

Setting Up

The following sections describe how to use Groove Agent as a plug-in in different host applications.

NOTE

Groove Agent can also be used as a standalone application.

Selecting Outputs

Groove Agent loads with a stereo output conguration by default. However, you can use up to 32 stereo outputs in the Steinberg DAW. This allows you to route all kit slots to a dedicated channel in the MixConsole.

PROCEDURE

1. To make the outputs available in the VST instrument, open the VST Instruments window.

2. Click the Activate Outputs button for the instrument.

3. Activate the outputs that you want to use.

RESULT

The Steinberg DAW automatically adds an output channel for each additional output to the

MixConsole.

Using the Instrument in an AU-Compatible Application

The AU version of Groove Agent is installed in your AU plug-ins folder and lets Groove Agent work in an AU environment without any performance loss or incompatibilities.

For example, to load Groove Agent as an AU instrument for Logic Pro, proceed as follows:

PROCEDURE

1. Open the Track Mixer and select the instrument channel that you want to use.

2. Click in the I/O eld and select AU Instruments > Steinberg > Groove Agent.

3. Select one of the available channel congurations.

Using the Instrument in an AAX-Compatible Application

The AAX version of Groove Agent is installed in your AAX plug-ins folder and makes Groove Agent available as AAX instrument in ProTools.

PROCEDURE

1. To use Groove Agent as stereo multichannel plug-in, open the Track menu, and select New > Stereo > Instrument Track.

2. On the instrument track, click Inserts and select Groove Agent from the multichannel plug-in > Instrument submenus.

Using the Instrument as Standalone Application

Groove Agent can be used as a standalone application, independently of any host application. In this case, you can connect the instrument directly to your audio hardware.

Installation and Setup Setting Up

RELATED LINKS

Using the Standalone Version of the Plug-In on page 198

Common Editing Methods

Dials and Sliders

Dials and sliders can be unidirectional or bidirectional. Unidirectional values, for example level values, start at a minimum value and go up to the maximum. Bidirectional controls start from the middle position and go to the left for negative and to the right for positive values.

Most of the editing methods are the same for dials and sliders.

● To adjust a value, click a dial or a slider and drag up and down, or use the mouse wheel.

If you press Alt when clicking a dial, a small slider appears, allowing you to set the parameter.

● To make ne adjustments, press Shift and move the dial or use the mouse wheel.

● To restore the default value for a parameter, press Ctrl/Cmd and click on the control.

Multi Selection and Parameter Controls

To edit multiple pad parameters at the same time, select the pads that you want to edit.

If several pads are selected and they are not set to the exact same values, most of the controls indicate this by turning red. This is true for dials, on/off buttons, combo boxes, value elds, and text faders.

NOTE

More complex controls, such as the envelope editors, only show the values of the focused pad.

Adjusting Value Ranges

You can adjust the value range of a parameter using the corona of the encoder. The values for the pads are distributed within the new range, keeping their relative distances.

● To compress or expand the value range, drag the corona.

● To adjust the upper limit of the range, hold down Ctrl/Cmd and drag the corona.

● To adjust the lower limit of the range, hold down Alt and drag the corona.

Buttons

On/Off Buttons

These buttons have two states: on and off. If you move the mouse over an On/Off button, it changes its appearance to show that you can click it.

Common Editing Methods Value Fields

Push Buttons

Push buttons trigger an action and then go back to their inactive state. These buttons open menus or le dialogs.

Value Fields

To set a value, you have the following possibilities:

● Double-click in a value eld, enter a new value, and press Enter.

If the entered value exceeds the parameter range, it is automatically set to the maximum or the minimum value, respectively.

● Click in the value eld and drag up or down.

● Position the mouse over a value eld and use the mouse wheel.

● Click the up/down triangles next to the eld.

● To set the parameter to its default value, Ctrl/Cmd-click the value eld.

● To use a fader to adjust the value, Alt-click a value eld.

● To enter musical values, such as key ranges or the root key, with your MIDI keyboard, double-click the value eld, press a key on your MIDI keyboard, and press Return.

● To navigate to the next parameter, press Tab. To jump backwards to the previous parameter, press Shift-Tab.

If no parameter is selected inside the focused view, pressing Tab always jumps to the rst parameter.

Using Key Commands

● To open the Key Commands dialog, open the Options page and click the Key Commands button.

The commands are arranged in a hierarchical folder structure on the left. When you open a category folder, the items and functions are displayed with any currently assigned key commands.

● To set up a key command, select the function in the list, enter the key command in the Type in Key eld and click the Assign button to the right of the eld. If this key command is already used for another function, this is displayed in the

eld below.

Common Editing Methods Presets

● To delete a key command, select the function in the list, select the key command in the Keys list and click the Delete button.

● To search for a specic function, enter its name in the search eld at the top of the dialog and click the

NOTE

You can set up several key commands for the same function.

Presets

Groove Agent offers two types of presets: section/module presets and VST presets. Section and module presets store and recall the setup of a specic component on the Groove Agent panel. VST presets contain all information necessary to restore the complete state of the plug-in.

During setup, the factory presets are installed in a dedicated folder and a user folder is created for your own presets. The handling of presets is the same throughout the program.

NOTE

Factory presets are write-protected, but may be overwritten when a software update is executed. Presets in your user folder are never changed by the software update.

Start/Continue Search button.

Handling Section and Module Presets

The preset controls can be found throughout the program. The handling is always the same.

● To save a preset, click Save .

NOTE

You cannot overwrite factory presets. If you want to save changes made to a factory preset, save the preset under a new name or in a new location.

● To load a preset, click the arrow icon and select a preset from the list.

● To delete a preset, click Delete .

NOTE

Factory presets cannot be deleted.

Handling VST Presets

Loading VST Presets

PROCEDURE

1. In the header of the plug-in panel, click the Preset Management button next to the preset name eld and select Load Preset.

2. Do one of the following:

Select a preset to load it.

●

Double-click a preset to load it and close the preset loader.

●

Common Editing Methods Presets

Saving VST Presets

PROCEDURE

● In the header of the plug-in panel, click the Preset Management button next to the preset name eld and select Save Preset.

Getting Started

These sections help you to get started with Groove Agent and introduce program functions and settings.

Window Overview

The Groove Agent window is divided into several sections.

1 In the standalone version of Groove Agent, you nd a number of additional functions in an

extra section at the top of the application window.

2 If you use the plug-in in a host application, you nd the plug-in functions section at the top

of the window.

3 Below the plug in-functions section on the left, the kit slot is located.

4 On the right of the kit slot, you nd the kit rack.

5 The edit display on the right contains the Edit, Mixer, Perform, and Options pages.

6 With the two buttons at the top right of the edit display, you can expand the window to

show a keyboard at the bottom, and/or the Load panel at the right.

7 On the left of the edit display, you can nd the pad section.

RELATED LINKS

Kit Slot on page 33 Kit Rack on page 34

Getting Started Agents, Kits, Presets, and Content Files

Using the Standalone Version of the Plug-In on page 198

Agents, Kits, Presets, and Content Files

Groove Agent comes with a variety of content that can be loaded and edited. At the top of the hierarchy, you can load kits or multis. Further down the hierarchy, you can load and edit MIDI patterns, styles, drum samples, etc.

Agents

Groove Agent combines the creative power of different rhythm modules: Acoustic Agent, Beat Agent, and Percussion Agent.

Each of these modules offers its own approach to drums and rhythms, with special ways of creating your own inspiring beats in a huge range of styles.

The creative potential of each agent can be combined with any of the others. Four slots allow you to mix and match your ideal rhythm section or create ultra-modern hybrid beats, for example.

Kits

Kits are loaded to play the sounds in Groove Agent. They contain all information that is required to produce the sound of the selected drum kit, that is, about the sliced loop and the MIDI phrase that is needed to play back the loop, about the used MIDI patterns or styles, and about the insert effects that are used on the mixer channel.

You can save and load kits via the kit rack or the kit slot section.

Furthermore, kits contain information on the agent that the kit uses. In the Load dialog and on the Kits tab in the Load panel, kits are identied by the kit preset icon .

VST Presets

VST presets contain all Groove Agent settings, that is, all information necessary to restore the complete state of the plug-in. This includes all 4 kits, the MIDI patterns or styles, as well as any insert and AUX effects. All of these settings are also saved with the project in your host application. You can load VST presets via the pop-up menus in the plug-in header and in the plug-in functions section. In the Load dialog, these presets are identied by the VST preset icon

Content Files and Folder Structure

Groove Agent comes with a large number of ready-to-use sound content les, containing kits, patterns, styles, and presets. Factory kits are write-protected. You can edit those les while they are loaded, but you cannot overwrite them.

To save your modications to a factory kit, save the le under a new name. The le gets the le name extension .vstpreset and is saved with your user content. User content can be searched and categorized in the same way as factory content. User content is saved in a structure on your hard disk. You can create subfolders within this structure to facilitate moving or exchanging content.

MIDI Patterns

MIDI patterns contain information on notes and drum sounds and the rhythm in which they are played.

predened folder

Styles

Styles are complex structures of multiple patterns suited to create different parts of the drum tracks, for example, main pattern, ll, ending, and intro.

You can manage your user MIDI patterns and styles, for example by adding new subfolders to the folder structure, by moving or removing MIDI

les, etc. To access the folder where the user

Getting Started Loading a Kit

MIDI patterns or styles are saved, right-click the pattern or style, either in the Load panel or the Load dialog and select Show in Explorer/Finder. In this location, you can add, remove and rename les and create subfolders to organize your MIDI patterns.

Groove Agent ONE Content

Groove Agent can load Groove Agent ONE presets. The presets can either be loaded as kits in the kit rack or the kit slot section or as plug-in presets via the preset management menu in the plugin header.

If you load a Groove Agent ONE preset as a plug-in preset, the global plug-in parameters are set to the default values.

If you load a preset as a kit, the global plug-in parameters remain unchanged.

Loading a Kit

To be able to hear a sound, you need to load a kit into Groove Agent.

PROCEDURE

1. Select a kit slot in the kit rack.

2. Open the Load panel and select the Kits tab.

3. On the Select Content Set pop-up menu at the top of the page, select a content set.

4. In the attribute columns, specify the sound that you want to use, by selecting a musical

style, sub style, etc.

5. In the results list, select a kit and double-click it or drag it onto the kit slot.

RELATED LINKS

Managing and Loading Files on page 36

Getting Started Pattern and Instrument Pads

Pattern and Instrument Pads

In Groove Agent, you can edit both the sounds and the patterns that are used by your drum tracks. Instrument sounds can be accessed via the instrument pads. The pattern or style that is played can be edited via the pattern pads.

To switch between the instrument pads and the pattern pads, click the corresponding

● button above the pads.

Instrument Pads

If the instrument pads are shown, the pads trigger the instrument samples and you can edit the sound of the instruments. These instruments are then used by the pattern pads to play the selected MIDI pattern or style.

Pattern Pads

If the pattern pads are shown, the pads trigger the selected MIDI pattern or style.

●

MIDI patterns contain information on notes and drum sounds and the rhythm in which they are played.

●

Styles are complex structures of multiple patterns suited to create different sections of the drum tracks, such as,

lls, endings, and intros.

Browsing for MIDI Patterns and Styles

The Load panel allows you to browse for patterns and styles and assign them to the pattern pads.

PREREQUISITE

Show Pattern Pads is activated on the left.

PROCEDURE

1. Depending on the le type that you want to load, select the Styles or MIDI page.

2. On the Select Content Set menu, select the content set from which you want to load a le. To browse the entire content, select All.

3. Optional: In the upper section of the page, click on an attribute to display only those les

containing the attribute, for example, percussion, or a specic musical style, etc.

You can activate several attribute lters simultaneously.

4. If you are looking for a specic le, enter its name in the text search eld on the toolbar.

You can also enter text that is part of the le name or the le attributes in the search eld.

5. Use the transport controls below the results list to prelisten the results.

6. Step through the les in the results list and listen to them until you found the le that you

want to use.

7. Drag the le onto a pad.

8. Repeat the above steps to assigning more les to other pads.

RELATED LINKS

Prelistening Patterns and Styles on page 41 Prelisten Section for MIDI Patterns and Styles on page 40

Getting Started Playing back Pattern Pads

Playing back Pattern Pads

You can play back pattern pads using the MIDI Player or the Style Player. The MIDI player allows you to play and modify one pattern. The style player offers a variety of patterns, suited to create the different sections of your drum tracks.

PROCEDURE

1. Load an Acoustic Agent kit.

2. Open the Pattern page and click on an empty pattern pad.

If a pattern pad is empty, it also plays the instrument sound.

3. To activate the pattern pad and make it play the pattern, open the Edit page in the right section of the plug-in panel and click Pad On/Off in the top right so that it lights up.

4. Click the Use Style button to activate the style player, and select a style from the Select Style pop-up menu.

5. Adjust the tempo in the DAW to match the tempo of the style.

The original tempo of the style is indicated by the second number in the le name of the style and in the value eld to the right of the Select Style pop-up menu.

6. Click the Play button in the transport section to play back the style.

7. Try out different Quantize and Swing settings, move the Complexity slider, select a main

pattern, a

8. Keep the settings as they are and select different styles on the Pattern Library pop-up menu in the Pattern section to compare the sound and to nd the style that you want to use.

ll, an ending, etc., and listen to the results.

Converting Styles to MIDI Patterns

If you have found an acoustic or a percussion style that you want to use on your pad, but want to edit it further in the Pattern editor, you must convert it to a MIDI pattern rst.

PREREQUISITE

● In the pad section on the left, the pad that contains the style is active.

● You have set up the style on the Agent page so that it plays the way you want it.

PROCEDURE

● Click Convert Style to MIDI Pattern on the Agent page to convert the current style into a MIDI pattern.

NOTE

The conversion takes into account all the settings in the Performance section, with one exception: If you convert a percussion style, Random Complexity is not taken into account.

If you convert an acoustic style, only the active part of the style, that is, the selected main, ll, intro, or ending is converted.

Getting Started Modifying MIDI Patterns in the Pattern Editor

RESULT

The style is converted and the Agent page automatically switches to the MIDI player. The Pattern editor becomes available, allowing you to modify the pattern.

NOTE

Once a style is converted to a MIDI pattern, it can no longer be opened in the style player.

Modifying MIDI Patterns in the Pattern Editor

In the Pattern editor, you can modify patterns by adding or deleting notes, by replacing a drum sound with another, etc.

PROCEDURE

1. Click the Pattern tab in the edit display to open the Pattern editor.

2. Edit the pattern. You can for example insert new notes for an existing or for a new drum

sound, delete notes or move notes.

RELATED LINKS

Entering, Editing, and Previewing Notes on page 85

Creating the Different Sections of a Drum Track

To create the different sections of your drum track, for example, an intro, a ll, a main part, and an ending, it is useful to start by copying the current style to other pads. And then, to modify the style for those pads.

PREREQUISITE

You have set up a pattern pad to play back a style.

PROCEDURE

1. To copy the settings of the current pad to another pad, hold down Alt and drag the pad onto another pad.

2. Repeat this until you have four pads with the same settings.

3. Select the second pad. Set the dial to a ll.

You can choose between eight lls.

4. Set up the ll to your liking. For example, change the complexity, activate half-time, try out different intensity settings, etc.

5. When you are done, right-click the pattern pad, select Rename Pad from the context menu, and enter a name for the pad, for example

6. Set up the pads for intro and ending in the same way.

Fill.

Getting Started Recording Trigger Notes for Your Patterns

AFTER COMPLETING THIS TASK

You can now record trigger notes for the pads in the DAW or transfer the patterns to the DAW by dragging them into a project.

RELATED LINKS

Pattern Editor on page 81 Converting Styles to MIDI Patterns on page 16 Dragging Patterns into a Project on page 18 Recording Trigger Notes for Your Patterns on page 18

Recording Trigger Notes for Your Patterns

When you use Groove Agent in a DAW project, you can record trigger notes at the positions where you want to trigger the patterns. This allows you to create the drums for your project on the y, in the project context.

PREREQUISITE

You have created a project in your DAW to which you want to add a drum track.

You have added a MIDI track that is assigned to Groove Agent.

PROCEDURE

1. In Groove Agent, set up the MIDI patterns or styles for your drum track.

2. In the DAW, record-enable the MIDI track and start playback of your project.

3. Record the trigger notes at the positions in the project where you want to hear the drums.

RESULT

When you now play back the project, the trigger notes trigger the pattern playback. You can automate parameters like Complexity and Intensity from within the DAW. Any changes that you make to a pattern in Groove Agent are automatically reected in all occurrences of this pattern in the project.

Dragging Patterns into a Project

You can drag patterns from Groove Agent into your DAW project and edit them there.

PREREQUISITE

You have created a project in your DAW to which you want to add a drum track.

You have added a MIDI track that is assigned to Groove Agent.

Before you drag your patterns into a project, check whether the pattern pads are mapped to the same keys as the instrument pads. If this is the case, the trigger notes of the pattern pads interfere with the notes that are part of your pattern pads. To prevent this, you can either set up a different MIDI port or a different MIDI channel for the pattern pads.

PROCEDURE

1. In Groove Agent, set up the MIDI patterns or styles for your drum track.

2. Select the pad that plays the pattern that you want to use and drag it onto the MIDI track

at the position where you want to insert it.

3. In the same way, drag the other pads into the project until you have assembled your drum track.

Getting Started Editing Patterns in the DAW

RESULT

The patterns are inserted as MIDI parts on the track. When you play back the project, the drum parts are played back as well.

RELATED LINKS

Using Different MIDI Channels/Ports for Instrument Pads and Pattern Pads on page 52 Editing Patterns in the DAW on page 19

Editing Patterns in the DAW

When you have created MIDI parts from your Groove Agent patterns, you can further edit the parts in the DAW.

PREREQUISITE

You have assigned a MIDI track in your DAW to Groove Agent.

You have dragged your patterns to this track.

PROCEDURE

1. In the Inspector of your Steinberg DAW, open the Drum Map pop-up menu for the track and select Create Drum Map from Instrument.

This creates a drum map based on the information about the used drum sounds in Groove Agent.

2. Open the part in the Drum Editor.

The editor displays the correct drum names in the drum names list on the left. In the event display on the right, the MIDI notes are shown.

3. Set up the pattern by deleting or entering notes, by copying or moving notes, etc.

For information about how to edit notes and controllers in the Drum Editor, refer to the Operation Manual for your Steinberg DAW.

Getting Started Working with Multiple Agents

Working with Multiple Agents

Using multiple agents allows you to add drums of different styles to your drum track, for example, to add percussion to your acoustic drums.

When working with multiple agents, the Overview page shows you exactly which kit contains which patterns, to which pads the patterns are mapped, and which patterns are played simultaneously. The four columns correspond to the four kits in the kit rack. The 16 slots represent the pattern pads of the selected pattern group.

Adding a Second Agent to Complement the First Agent

You can set up the kits for two different agents to play styles that complement each other.

Some of the Percussion Agent styles were created to be used with Acoustic Agent styles. These styles are found in the Complements folder of the Select Style pop-up menu for the style player in

Percussion Agent.

PROCEDURE

1. For the rst kit slot in the kit rack, open the Kits tab in the Load section.

2. Deactivate Load Kit with Patterns or Styles and load an Acoustic Agent kit.

3. For the second kit slot, load a Percussion Agent kit, also without patterns.

4. Select a pattern pad from the rst kit, open the Agent page, activate the pad and select

the style player.

5. Select the style Acid Jazz 01 for the pattern pad.

6. Select the main pattern and adjust the complexity to your liking.

7. Select the second kit, open the Select Style pop-up menu, navigate to the Complements

folder, and select a style from the Acid Jazz 01 folder.

The instrument sounds for this kit are received on MIDI channel 2.

Getting Started Recording the MIDI Output

RESULT

Now, the pattern pads for Acoustic Agent and Percussion Agent trigger matching styles.

● To listen only to the patterns of one kit, deactivate the patterns of the other kit on the

Overview page or mute the sounds of the second kit in the corresponding Agent mixer.

Adding a Second Agent to Fatten the Sound

You can fatten the sound of your current drum kit by adding a kit from another agent that does not contain its own patterns, but that adds to the patterns of the rst kit.

PREREQUISITE

You have loaded a kit in the rst kit slot and set it up to play the way you want it.

PROCEDURE

1. Select the second kit slot in the kit rack and open the Kits tab in the Load section.

2. Deactivate Load Kit with Patterns or Styles .

3. Load a kit in the second slot.

4. On the Overview page, copy the patterns or styles of the rst agent to the second agent.

This way, the same groove is played by both kits.

5. To accentuate only particular drum sounds, for example, snare or kick drums, make sure that only these drum sounds are used for the pads.

This way, the unused instrument pads do not play back any samples. Do one of the following:

● Reset the instrument pads for all drum sounds that you do not want to use.

● Edit the MIDI patterns for the drum sounds that you want to use, so that it contains

only the notes that you want to play.

6. If you use Beat Agent kits, you can load your own drum samples to customize your drum sounds even further.

RELATED LINKS

Assigning Samples to Pads on page 92

Recording the MIDI Output

If the host application supports MIDI output from plug-ins, you can record the MIDI output on a track in your DAW.

The kits in the kit rack are routed to the MIDI output ports Kit 1 to Kit 4.

PROCEDURE

1. In Groove Agent, load one or more kits with patterns.

2. In the DAW, create one or more MIDI tracks.

3. On the MIDI input pop-up menu for each track, select one of the four kit outputs.

4. Record-enable the tracks.

5. If you have not recorded trigger notes in the DAW, select the patterns that you want to use for the kits on the Pattern page and activate Follow Transport in the kit slot section.

6. In the DAW, activate recording.

Getting Started Note Repeat

RESULT

The MIDI output of the kits is recorded on the tracks for which Groove Agent is selected as MIDI input.

NOTE

Under VST2 hosts, the kits send their events only to the rst MIDI output port. If you do not want to record all loaded kits, deactivate MIDI output for the kits that you do not want to use in the kit slot section.

AFTER COMPLETING THIS TASK

You can now separate the recordings for the kits by dissolving the recorded MIDI part according to MIDI channel. The channel number of the events of a kit corresponds to the MIDI channel that is set in the kit slot section.

Note Repeat

Note Repeat allows you to repeat the notes of a particular drum sound.

In its most basic form, Note Repeat plays the current note with its velocity and note length over and over again. Additionally, Note Repeat allows you to specify the note length, based on note values or on milliseconds, and to

dene the velocity of the notes.

Using the phrase player, you can set up a complex series of repeat notes, specify both a velocity and a pitch progression for the notes, and create your own rhythmic patterns.

Each kit comes with its own Note Repeat settings. This allows you to simultaneously perform note repeats for different instruments of multiple kits on dedicated MIDI channels.

The Note Repeat notes are also sent to the MIDI output of Groove Agent, allowing you to trigger external plug-ins, or to record the notes in your host sequencer. Furthermore, if you are working with Beat Agent, you can use the pitch curve to modulate the pitch of your samples.

Note Repeat Page

The Note Repeat page has two sections. The upper section allows you to create simple note repeats, assign trigger keys, and control the general behavior. The lower section provides the phrase player.

● To open the Note Repeat page, open the Perform page in the edit display.

Active

Activates the Note Repeat parameters.

Sync

If Sync is activated, the repeat notes always start on the next valid note position, depending on the current song position.

If Sync is deactivated, the note repeat starts immediately, even if the note is not played on the beat.

Getting Started Note Repeat

Mono

By default, Note Repeat works on all instruments that you trigger simultaneously, which means that if you play two notes, both are repeated.

If Mono is activated, only the last note that was played is repeated.

Trigger Source

Determines whether the keys on the keyboard or MIDI controller messages are used to switch between variations.

● If this parameter is set to Keys, you can specify a key, either by clicking in the

eld below the button and dragging up or down, or by playing the note on your keyboard.

NOTE

Trigger notes for variations can only be used for one variation at a time.

● If this parameter is set to Controllers, you can specify a controller, either by

clicking in the eld below the button and selecting a controller from the list, or by using the corresponding hardware control on your MIDI keyboard.

Low Key/High Key

You can limit the key range that is affected by Note Repeat with the Low Key and High Key parameters.

Notes outside this range are not repeated, they are played back normally. This way, you can use Note Repeat to record complex hihat patterns in your host sequencer, without repeating an already recorded bass drum or snare from the same kit, for example.

Velocity Controller

Determines how the output velocities of the repeated notes are generated.

If you use single note repeat notes, the following applies:

● Constant (127) triggers the notes with a xed velocity of 127.

● Velocity triggers the notes with the velocity of the note that you play.

● The MIDI Controller submenu allows you to select a MIDI controller. The

value of this MIDI controller is used as velocity for the triggered notes.

● If Aftertouch is selected, the triggered notes get the velocity from the

aftertouch controller.

● Poly Pressure is similar to Aftertouch, but by sending poly pressure

messages, you can control the velocity per key.

NOTE

Note Repeat starts to trigger notes if a poly pressure value greater than 0 is received, even if no MIDI note is triggered.

If you use note repeat phrases, the following applies:

● If Constant (127) is selected, the velocity of the trigger note is not taken into

account. The output velocity is determined by the velocity specied for the steps.

● If Velocity, MIDI Controller, Aftertouch, or Poly Pressure are selected, the

velocity progression specied in the phrase is used to modulate the velocity of the trigger note. For example, if a phrase contains 3 steps with the velocity values 127, 64, and 1, and you trigger the phrase using a note with the velocity 127, the output velocity of the 3 steps is 127, 64, and 1. However, if you trigger the phrase with a velocity of 64, the output velocity of the 3 steps is scaled, and you get 64, 32, and 1.

Getting Started Note Repeat

Fetch

If aftertouch, poly pressure, or a MIDI controller are used to specify the velocity of the notes, the Fetch option determines the way that the notes are generated.

● If Fetch is activated, the rst note that you play denes the initial velocity. As

soon as the controller value exceeds this velocity, new notes get their velocity from the controller.

● If Fetch is deactivated, notes are directly generated with the current controller

value.

If poly pressure is used, notes are only generated for values larger than 0. This means that if you play a note, and the poly pressure has not yet been set to a value larger than 0, no note repeats are generated. If you raise the poly pressure value above 0, note repeats are generated, with a velocity that corresponds to the current poly pressure value.

Note Repeat Variation Buttons 1–8

You can set up eight different variations for the Note Repeat and use these buttons to play the associated repeat notes or phrases.

MIDI Follow

● If MIDI Follow is activated and you switch between note repeat variations, the

editor also switches to the current settings.

● If MIDI Follow is deactivated, the editor alway shows the settings for the

selected note repeat variation.

Phrase Player Section

The lower section of the page contains the phrase player.

You can edit the velocity and the pitch controller values for the steps. To display the velocity values, activate VEL, and to display the pitch modulation curve, activate PITCH.

Active

Activates/Deactivates the phrase player.

Phrase

Allows you to select one of the available phrases.

Preset controls

With the preset controls, you can save a phrase or remove it from the user library, or copy and paste phrases between variations.

MIDI Controller

If the pitch modulation curve is displayed, this pop-up menu allows you to select the MIDI controller that is used for pitch modulation.

If you want to use the pitch curve to modulate the pitch of your samples, open the

Pitch page for the corresponding pad and select the same MIDI controller on the MIDI Controller pop-up menu.

Getting Started Note Repeat

Swing

Shifts the timing of notes on even-numbered beats. This way, the pattern gets a swing feeling. Negative values let the notes play earlier, positive values let the notes play later.

Number of Steps

To specify the length of the phrase, drag the Number of Steps handle to the right or left.

Step display context menu

The context menu is available both for the velocities and for the pitch modulation values of the steps.

● If velocity values are displayed, Reset Step sets the velocity of the step to 127.

If the pitch modulation curve is displayed, Reset Step sets the pitch modulation for the step to 0 semitones.

● If velocity values are displayed, Reset All Steps sets the velocity of all steps to

127.

If the pitch modulation curve is displayed, Reset All Steps sets the pitch modulation for all steps to 0 semitones.

● Enable All Steps activates all steps.

● If velocity values are displayed, Copy Phrase copies the current phrase to the

clipboard.

If the pitch modulation curve is displayed, Copy Phrase copies the pitch modulation curve to the clipboard.

● If velocity values are displayed, Paste Phrase pastes the phrase from the

clipboard to the current phrase player. This allows you to copy phrases between different kits.

If the pitch modulation curve is displayed, Paste Phrase pastes the pitch modulation curve to the current curve display. This allows you to copy pitch modulation curves between different kits.

Performing Simple Note Repeats

You can create note repeats for a particular drum sound, and specify the interval in which the notes are repeated.

PREREQUISITE

● A MIDI keyboard is connected to your computer and set up correctly.

● You have loaded a kit into the rst kit slot.

Getting Started Note Repeat

PROCEDURE

1. Open the Perform page in the edit display.

2. Set Trigger Mode to Keys.

This way, you can trigger the note repeats using the keys on your MIDI keyboard.

NOTE

Note Repeat variation trigger notes have a higher priority than instrument notes, which means that if they share the same key, you cannot play the instrument on that key.

3. Activate the rst variation button.

4. Specify the trigger note in the eld below the button.

The corresponding instrument pad displays a repeat icon.

5. Click the Note Values/Milliseconds button below the trigger note eld to specify whether you want to set the repeat interval in note values or milliseconds.

6. Use the control below the Note Values/Milliseconds button to specify the note repeat interval.

7. On the MIDI keyboard, play the trigger key for the instrument pad, and then play the trigger key that you specied for the note repeat.

RESULT

The drum sound is repeated, according to the set interval, for as long as you press the key.

Creating Note Repeat Phrases

With the phrase player in the lower section of the Note Repeat page, you can create complex note repeats phrases for a particular drum sound.

● To use the phrase player, activate the Active button.

Activating Steps

A phrase can contain up to 32 steps. Only the steps that are activated are played.

● To activate a step, click its On/Off button below the display.

● To activate all steps, right-click in the step display and select Enable All Steps from the context menu.

Setting the Velocity for the Steps

The height of a step represents its velocity value. You can edit the velocity of steps in the following way:

● To adjust the velocity for a single step, click it and drag up or down.

Getting Started Note Repeat

● To adjust the velocity of multiple steps, click and draw a curve.

● To adjust the velocity of all steps relatively, Shift-click and drag.

● To draw a ramp, hold down Alt and draw a line.

● To draw symmetric ramps at the beginning and the end of the sequence, hold down Shift-

Alt and draw a line.

● To reset the velocity of a step to 127, Ctrl/Cmd-click the step.

● To reset the velocity of all steps to 127, hold Shift-Ctrl/Cmd and click a step.

Adjusting the Phrase

● To shift the rhythm of the phrase, use the Shift Phrase Right /Shift Phrase Left buttons.

If you shift the rhythm of the phrase to the left, the rst step is moved to the end. If you shift the phrase to the right, the last step is moved to the beginning.

● To reverse the phrase, click the Reverse Phrase button.

● To duplicate short phrases, click the Duplicate Phrase button.

NOTE

The maximum number of steps is 32. Therefore, phrases that contain more than 16 steps cannot be duplicated entirely.

Phrase Presets

Groove Agent comes with a set of phrase presets.

● To load a preset, click in the Phrase eld and select a preset from the pop-up menu.

● To create your own presets, use the preset controls to the right of the Phrase eld.

Performing Note Repeat Phrases

PREREQUISITE

● A MIDI keyboard is connected to your computer and set up correctly.

● You have loaded a kit into the rst kit slot.

PROCEDURE

1. Open the Perform page in the edit display.

2. Set the Trigger Mode to Keys.

This way, you can trigger the note repeats using keys on your MIDI keyboard.

NOTE

Note Repeat variation trigger notes have a higher priority than normal instrument notes, which means that if they share the same key, you cannot play the instrument on that key.

3. Activate the rst variation button.

4. Specify the trigger note in the eld below the button.

The corresponding instrument pad displays a repeat icon.

5. Activate the phrase player by clicking the Phrase On/Off button.

6. Set up the steps for the phrase or select a phrase from the Phrase pop-up menu.

Getting Started Note Repeat

7. On the MIDI keyboard, play the trigger key for the instrument pad, and then play the trigger key that you specied for the note repeat phrase.

RESULT

The phrase is repeated for as long as you keep the keys pressed.

Creating and Using Note Repeat Variations

You can set up eight different Note Repeat variations using the variation buttons and switch between them to bring more variation to your Note Repeat performance.

Variations can trigger both Note Repeat notes and Note Repeat phrases. For example, you can set up repeats with different note values, and then switch between them in real time, or switch between phrases of different complexities.

If a pattern pad and a note repeat variation share the same trigger note, the pattern pad gets priority.

You can copy and paste variation settings between buttons using the commands on the variation button context menu.

Triggering Variations Using MIDI Controllers

If you trigger the variations using MIDI controllers, a variation is activated as soon as the controller value exceeds 64. The last controller value higher than 64 decides which variation to play.

It is recommended to use On/Off buttons or push buttons rather than faders or encoders to control the variation selection. Set the buttons up so that they send a value of 127 when you press the button, and a value of 0 when you release it.

The use of faders or encoder controls is not recommended for the triggering of variations, because they do not offer the required amount of control.

Note Repeat Variations and Sync to Beat

● If Sync to Beat is activated, the repeated notes always start at the next valid position. If you play a legato to switch between two variations, the repeat phrase is not restarted, but continues from the current beat position.

● If Sync to Beat is deactivated, the note repeat starts immediately, even if the note is not played on the beat. Phrases are always restarted from the beginning.

Getting Started Note Repeat

Recording the Notes Created by Note Repeat

You can record the Note Repeat output using the pattern player. This way, you can record complex rhythmic patterns that would be another plug-in.

PREREQUISITE

You have added two instrument tracks in your Steinberg DAW.

If you record a drum pattern in a loop, you can add different instruments with each cycle using various note repeat variations.

NOTE

It is not recommended to route the recording track back to the kit that you are using to generate the note repeat notes, because if you want to record a second cycle, notes that have been recorded in a rst cycle will also be affected by this second cycle.

PROCEDURE

1. Leave the rst kit slot empty.

This slot is used to generate the notes.

2. Open the Perform page for the rst kit slot and activate the note repeat functionality by clicking the Active button.

3. Select kit slot 2 and load the kit that contains the drum sound that you want to use for the repeated notes.

4. In the DAW, route the rst track to kit slot 1. This way, the notes that you play on your MIDI keyboard are routed to the Note Repeat page for the rst kit slot.

5. Set up the note repeat parameters for kit slot 1.

6. Activate the Monitor button on the rst track in the DAW.

7. For the second track, open the Input Routing pop-up menu, and select Groove Agent Kit

8. Set the MIDI channel for the track to channel 2. This way, the notes are sent to the second

kit slot.

9. Record-enable the second track.

10. Activate the Record button and play an instrument key together with a note repeat

variation key to generate and record the notes.

dicult to play live or use the recorded notes to trigger

Recording Patterns on Pattern Pads

Notes generated by Note Repeat can be used to record complex patterns directly on the pattern pads in

PROCEDURE

1. Load a kit in the rst kit slot.

2. Activate and congure the Note Repeat parameters for that slot.

3. Select an empty pattern pad and click the Record button.

4. Click the Play button.

5. Play your instruments and add note repeats.

6. Optional: Add different note repeat notes which each pattern cycle.

Groove Agent.

Recording starts.

The instrument notes and the repeated notes are recorded into the pattern.

Getting Started Decompose

7. Click the Stop button to stop recording.

RESULT

When you trigger the pattern pad, it plays the pattern that you recorded.

Decompose

If you are working with Beat Agent kits, you can use the Decompose function to split your samples into their noise and tonal components.

This allows you to edit the tonal and the noise components of your samples separately, for example, to change the distribution between the noise and tonal portions of a sample, to combine different noise samples with a tonal sample, or to experiment with different source samples to create entirely new sounds.

Decomposing Samples

The Decompose function separates the noise and the tonal components of a sample and allows you to save these components separately as new samples.

PREREQUISITE

● The instrument pads are shown in the pad section.

● You have loaded the sample that you want to decompose and opened the Decompose tab.

PROCEDURE

1. Optional: On the Main tab, click Prelisten.

You can now play back the two components separately by using the corresponding Solo buttons.

2. Click Apply to decompose the sample.

RESULT

Two new samples are created. They are saved with the extensions “_noise” and “_tonal”, respectively.

Getting Started Decompose

NOTE

If a sample with the same name already exists at the save location, for example, because you tried out different Decompose settings, a number is added to the new le name. No sample les are overwritten by the Decompose function.

AFTER COMPLETING THIS TASK

You can now edit the tonal and noise samples separately, combine them differently, etc.

RELATED LINKS

Changing the Distribution of the Tonal and the Noise Components of Samples on page 32 Fine-Tuning the Decompose Settings on page 32 Decompose Tab on page 121

Combining Noise and Tonal Components of Different Samples

Once the tonal and noise components are split, you can use them separately. This allows you to try out different noise components with a tonal sample, edit the components of a sample separately before combining them again, etc. You can also create entirely new sounds from your samples this way.

PREREQUISITE

You used the Decompose function on several samples, so that you have a variety of different noise and tonal samples to choose from.

PROCEDURE

1. On the Load panel, open the Browse tab.

2. Navigate to the folder that contains the decomposed samples or lter the view to show

only the decomposed samples using the Filter by Sound Component pop-up menu.

You can lter the list to show the tonal component samples, the noise component samples, or all the component samples, that is, noise and tonal, that were created with the

Decompose function.

3. Drag the samples on the instrument pads.

By layering two components from different original samples on one pad, you can play them together.

4. Play back the pad.

5. Experiment with different combinations.

AFTER COMPLETING THIS TASK

When you found the combination that you want to use, you can edit the samples further on the Sample tab, for example.

RELATED LINKS

Sample Tab on page 109

Getting Started Decompose

Changing the Distribution of the Tonal and the Noise Components of Samples

The Decompose function allows you to mix the noise and the tonal components of samples differently. This can be used to reduce the sound of the drum stick hitting the drum head, for example.

PREREQUISITE

You have loaded the sample that you want to decompose and opened the Decompose tab.

PROCEDURE

1. Click Prelisten.

2. Modify the mix by adjusting the Level dial of the Noise or the Tonal component.

3. When you are satised with the mix, activate Mix and click Apply.

RESULT

The two components are mixed and the modied sample is saved with the extension “_mix”.

NOTE

Fine-Tuning the Decompose Settings

If the Decompose algorithm does not separate the noise and tonal components to your liking, you can

Sensitivity

Cutoff

Duration

ne-tune the settings using the parameters on the Main tab.

Allows you to specify the level difference that is required between the signal partials and the noise oor. The value you specify denes the minimum distance between the peaks and the troughs of the spectrum for a partial to be detected. If you lower this value, more signal portions of the sample are considered to be part of the tonal component.

Allows you to dene the upper limit of the range in which Groove Agent searches for partials. Any signals above the Cutoff frequency are considered to be noise, regardless of the Sensitivity or Duration settings.

Allows you to specify the minimum length for a partial. Signals that are shorter than the value specied here are automatically considered to be noise, longer signals are considered to be part of the tonal component.

You can try to lower this setting if you work with samples that have fast attacks or strong transients that were not detected correctly by the Decompose function.

Managing Your Sounds

The following sections describe how to load, save, and manage the different kinds of sound les in Groove Agent.

Loading Kits

You need at least one kit to produce a sound with Groove Agent.

There are several ways to load kits:

● Via drag & drop from the Kits page or the Browser page in the Load panel onto the kit slot or the kit rack.

● Via drag & drop from the File Explorer/macOS Finder or the MediaBay of your Steinberg DAW.

● Via the context menu in the kit rack.

● By clicking the Load Kit button at the right of the kit name in the kit slot section.

● By clicking the name of the kit in the lower section of the kit rack to open the Load dialog and selecting a new kit.

Kit Slot

This section shows the name of the loaded kit, allows you to load a different kit, and make basic settings such as specifying the polyphony for the kit, for example.

Load button

Click this button to show the list of available kits.

You can also click the kit name to open this list. Right-click the kit name to open the kit context menu.

Load Previous/Next Kit

Click these buttons to load the previous/next kit from the list of available kits.

Load Kit with Patterns

Activate this button to make sure that kits are always loaded together with their patterns.

Polyphony

Adjusts the polyphony of the kit.

MIDI Channel

Sets the MIDI channel for the kit.

Managing Your Sounds Kit Rack

MIDI Input Indicator

MIDI Out

Velocity Curve

Follow Transport

The MIDI symbol starts blinking if incoming MIDI signals are detected.

Deactivates MIDI output for the kit.

Sets the velocity response curve of the kit. This allows you to adapt the kit to your hardware MIDI controller or playing style.

If Follow Transport is activated, you can use the transport functions in the DAW to start and stop playback both in the DAW and in record an audio track in your host application while Groove Agent plays the drums, for example.

● If playback is started in the DAW, Groove Agent plays back the active pad.

● If trigger keys are sent and the active pad is in Exclusive mode, playback

switches to the pad that was triggered last. Playback returns to the active pad as soon as the trigger key is released. Pads that are not in Exclusive mode can play simultaneously.

Groove Agent. This allows you to

Kit Rack

NOTE

Follow Transport works differently in Jam Mode.

Song Position Counter

The song position counter shows the current song position in bars, beats, and 16th notes. If you activate the Play button in Groove Agent, the song position counter always starts at 1.0.0.0 and runs until you click stop.

Tempo Display

The tempo display next to the position counter shows the tempo of the host application.

RELATED LINKS

Jam Mode on page 76

The kit rack to the right of the kit slot section gives you an overview over the loaded kits and their corresponding agent, and allows you to perform some editing for the selected kit via the context menu.

● To select a kit, click on it.

● To solo or mute a kit, activate the Mute or the Solo button. This is the same as activating the corresponding button in the Kit mixer.

● Empty Beat Agent kits are grayed out in the kit rack.

Managing Your Sounds Kit Context Menu

Kit Context Menu

Load Kit

Allows you to load a kit.

Load Kit With Patterns

Allows you to load a kit with its MIDI patterns or its styles, if any.

Load Pattern Group

Allows you to load a predened set of MIDI le assignments and play parameter settings for the 16 pads of the selected group.

Save Pattern Group

Allows you to save the 16 pads of the current group and their settings as a pattern group.

Delete Pattern Group

Allows you to delete a pattern group.

Save Kit

Saves the kit. If you try to overwrite write-protected factory content, a dialog opens that allows you to save the edited kit under a new name.

Save Kit As

Allows you to save the kit under a new name.

Remove Kit

Removes the kit and its patterns from the slot.

Revert to Last Saved Kit

Reverts to the kit that was originally loaded on the slot. If the kit was loaded without patterns, only the kit and no patterns are loaded.

Cut Kit

Copies the kit and its patterns and removes it from the slot.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Copy Kit

Copies the kit and its patterns.

Paste Kit

Pastes the copied kit into the slot. If the slot already contains a kit, it is replaced.

Rename Kit

Allows you to rename the kit.

Reset Agent

Loads the Init preset of the agent.

Import (Beat Agent only)

Allows you to import MPC and GAK les into Beat Agent kits.

Export Kit With Samples (Beat Agent only)

Exports the Beat Agent kit together with its associated samples.

NOTE

Samples that are part of protected content, such as the VST Sound content, cannot be exported.

Copy Global Pattern Pad Settings

Copies the global pattern pad settings.

Copy Kit Pattern Pad Settings

Copies the pattern pad settings of the focused kit slot.

Paste to Global Pattern Pad Settings

Pastes the copied settings as global pattern pad settings.

Paste to Kit Pattern Pad Settings

Pastes the copied settings to the focused kit slot.

Export Mixer and FX to Cubase/Nuendo

Allows you to transfer the Acoustic Agent mixer settings, complete with equalizer settings and effects, to your Steinberg DAW, which means, you can perform mixing for the kit entirely in the MixConsole.

Export Mixer to Cubase/Nuendo

Allows you to transfer the Acoustic Agent mixer settings, without equalizer settings or effects, to your Steinberg DAW. This is useful if you want to create your own mix from scratch.

Managing and Loading Files

The Load panel allows you to manage, navigate to, load, and preview different le types.

To display the Load panel, click the corresponding button in the top right of the edit display.

To open the Load panel in a separate window, click Dock/Undock Load Panel at the right of the page buttons.

The Load panel contains the Kits, Instruments, Styles, MIDI, and Browser pages.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

In the top section of the page, you specify which sounds to look for. The lower section presents the corresponding results.

● To adjust the size of the two sections, drag the divider at the top of the results list.

Managing Files via the Kits, Instruments, Styles, and MIDI Pages

The Kits, Instruments, Styles, and MIDI pages are based on Steinberg’s MediaBay technology. These pages give you access to the available kits, MIDI patterns, styles, etc.

The Kits page gives you access to the kits.

●

If you want to load kits with their patterns or styles, activate Load Kit with Patterns or Styles.

If this button is deactivated, only the kits are loaded while the patterns and styles are kept.

The Instruments page on the Load panel shows the instruments that you created from

● your instrument pads.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

● The Styles page gives you access to the styles.

The factory styles are created for Acoustic Agent kits and are usually loaded and used in the Style Player. Furthermore, content from Content Sets such as “Nashville” and “Simon Phillips Studio Drums”, make use of the style player.

You can also load styles in Beat Agent. However, in this case, make sure to map the instruments correctly to the instrument pads.

Percussion styles are available for the Percussion Player used by Percussion Agent, but can also be used with the MIDI Player.

● The MIDI page gives you access to MIDI les and MIDI patterns. They can be used in the MIDI Player. The MIDI Furthermore, the MIDI Mindset” or “Prime Cuts” can be loaded in the MIDI Player.

Filtering the Results

You can lter the results list using the congurable attribute columns at the top or by restricting the search to a

Content Set Filter

Use the Select Content Set pop-up menu to restrict the search to a specic content set. By default, the search is performed in all installed content sets.

les in the factory content are created for use in Beat Agent kits.

le content from VST Sound Instrument Sets such as “Neuro

specic content set.

Results List

Attribute Filter

● To set up the lter, click on specic values in the columns.

● To select different lter criteria, click the column header and select a different attribute from the submenu.

Only the les that match the set lter are displayed in the results list.

The results list shows all les that have been found, according to your lter settings.

Content Filters

The content lter buttons allow you to dene whether to show the entire content , only the factory content , or only your user content .

View Filters (Kits Page)

The toolbar has two lter buttons that allow you to dene which preset types to display: multis or kits. In the results list, the corresponding icon is shown to the left of the preset name.

Style Filters (Styles Page)

The two style lter buttons allow you to show the styles that are used in the Style Player , the styles that are used in the Percussion Player , or both.

Rating Filter

You can limit the results list according to the rating of the presets. Use the rating slider to dene the minimum rating.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Rescan Disk

Rescans the disk for les that match the search criteria. Click this button if you added or removed les on your hard disk, for example.

Set Up Result Columns

Allows you to select which attribute columns to display on the toolbar.

Results Counter

Displays the number of les that match the lter criteria. To stop an active scanning process, click in the value

Text Search

In the text search eld on the results list toolbar, you can enter text contained in the name or any of the attributes of a preset that you are looking for. The results list is updated immediately and the category search section above shows all categories that contain presets matching the text search.

To reset the text-based result lter, click Clear Search Text next to the search eld.

To restrict the search to the names only, activate Search Names Only . This way, other attributes are not taken into account.

Tempo Filter

The Tempo Filter pop-up menu allows you to limit the results list to les within a specied tempo range. This way, you can restrict the results to les that match your

current project. The options on the pop-up menu are automatically adapted to the tempo of the host application. You can set the lter to display only les that match the project tempo, or you can allow for a deviation of 5, 10, or 20 bpm from the project tempo.

eld.

NOTE

If you change the tempo in the host application, this is not reected automatically on the pop-up menu. The menu is updated when you open it and select an option.

To show all les, regardless of their tempo, set Tempo Filter to Any Tempo.

RELATED LINKS

Conguring the Results List on page 39

Conguring the Results List

You can specify which le attributes you want to be displayed in the results list and set up the column order so that this attribute is visible without scrolling. This allows you to nd the les that have a particular attribute more quickly.

● To congure which attributes are shown in the results list, click Set up Result Columns in the upper right corner of the results list and activate the corresponding entries. New attributes are added at the right of the list.

To reorder the columns in the results list, drag the column headers to another position.

●

To change the sorting of the list entries, click the column header. The triangle in the

● column header shows the sorting direction.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Assigning General MIDI Program Change Numbers to Sounds

Assigning General MIDI program change numbers to sounds allows you to use MIDI program change messages to load the sounds into the slot of the corresponding MIDI channel.

PROCEDURE

1. In the Load section, select the Kits, Styles, or MIDI page and click Set up Result Columns on the title bar of the lower section.

2. Select Musical > GM Sound.

3. Select the sound to which you want to apply the GM program change number.

4. In the GM Sound column for the sound, select the General MIDI program change number

that you want to use.

You can assign the same GM Sound program number several times. If a program number is used more than once, the

Rating attribute can be used to decide which program to load.

File Info Section

The File Info section below the results list shows information about the selected le.

● For MIDI les, original tempo, signature, and length are shown, as they are saved in the

le.

● For styles, signature and length are shown.

● For instruments, the name of the instrument and the number of samples that it contains are shown.

Prelisten Section for MIDI Patterns and Styles

The Prelisten section below the results list allows you to listen to the selected MIDI pattern or style.

For MIDI pattern and style les, the following controls are available:

Level

Adjusts the playback level.

Play

Plays back the focused le.

Stop

Stops playback. The play locator jumps back to the start of the le.

Pause

Pauses playback. Click again to resume playback.

Auto Play

Automatically starts playback of the focused le.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Loop Playback

If this button is activated, the focused le is played back repeatedly.

Play Position

The play position indicator shows the playback position within the focused le. To select another position for playback, click on the slider or drag the handle.

For styles, the following additional controls are available:

Style Part

Allows you to select a part of the style, such as intro, ll, ending, etc.

Complexity/Variation

● If the Main part of the style is selected, you can select a complexity.

● If any other part of the style is selected, you can select a variation.

Prelistening Patterns and Styles

With the controls below the results list, you can listen to the MIDI patterns and styles in the results list before loading them.

PROCEDURE

1. On the Styles or MIDI page, select a le in the results list.

If you listen to a style, you can use the pop-up menu on the left to specify which part of the style you want to listen to. With the Complexity/Variation control, you can select a complexity for the Main part of the style or a variation for the other parts of the style.

2. Use the transport controls below the list to play back the le.

If Auto Play is activated, the selected le is automatically played back.

3. Step through the les in the results list to listen to different les.

Prelisten Section for Instruments

The Prelisten section below the results list allows you to listen to the selected instrument.

Level

Adjusts the playback level.

Play

Plays back the focused le.

Stop

Stops playback. The play locator jumps back to the start of the le.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Prelisten in Place

Activates prelistening of the selected instrument. This allows you to listen to the instrument in the context of a running style or pattern.

Click the triangle above the button to select a prelisten option.

● If Always is selected, selecting an instrument in the results list always triggers

the instrument.

● If Auto is selected, selecting an instrument in the results list does not trigger

the instrument if the Style Player or the MIDI Player are playing. This prevents the prelisten instruments from being triggered off the beat.

NOTE

As soon as the instrument loses the focus in the results list, the Prelisten function stops and the original pad content is played again. This allows you to quickly compare two instruments, for example.

Loading MIDI Patterns or Styles in Your Host Application

You can drag MIDI patterns and styles from the Load panel onto a MIDI track in your host application.

PREREQUISITE

You have added a MIDI track in your host application project.

PROCEDURE

1. In the Load section, open the MIDI page or the Styles page.

2. Select the le that you want to import into your host application.

3. If you want to drag a style into the project, use the prelisten controls below the results list

to select the part of the le and the complexity/variation.

All performance settings, such as Auto Complexity, Auto Fill, Quantize,etc. are taken into account, that is, they will be part of the resulting MIDI pattern.

4. Drag the le onto a MIDI track in you DAW.

RESULT

A MIDI part containing the pattern is added to your project.

The MIDI patterns that you drag out of Groove Agent are MIDI les, that is, you can drop them in any host application that supports drag and drop of MIDI

Loading Kits into Slots

To load a kit into the selected agent slot, you have the following possibilities:

● Select the slot into which you want to load the kit, and double-click the kit in the results list.

● Drag a kit from the results list to a kit in the kit rack or onto the slot in the kit slot section.

If a kit is already loaded, it is replaced with the new kit.

● Right-click the kit in the results list and select Load Kit from the context menu.

les.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Editing Attributes

Presets can be described by using a predened set of attributes.

PROCEDURE

1. In the New Preset Attributes section of the Save dialog, click in the eld of the attribute value that you want to set.

Depending on the attribute, a menu or a dialog opens.

2. Select a value.

Attribute values are written into the corresponding preset les.

Deleting User Presets

● To delete a user preset, right-click it and select Delete from the context menu.

NOTE

Factory presets cannot be deleted.

Loading Files Using the Browser

In the Browser, you can browse for samples, MIDI les, and presets. The Browser also shows samples that are part of VST Sound content.

In the Browser, you can search and load the following les:

Samples from the le system or from within loaded kits.

●

NOTE

Samples can only be loaded for Beat Agent kits.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

● MIDI les.

● Multis and kits.

Path Section

● To step through the recent locations, click the Previous Browse Location/Next Browse Location buttons.

● To navigate to the folder one level up in the location tree, click the Browse Containing Folder button.

● The path to the current position in the hierarchy is shown on the right. To navigate to one of these folders, click its name.

● To open the navigation history, click at the very right of the path eld.

Location Tree

The location tree on the left in the Browser allows you to navigate through your samples, in any folder on your system. You can even access les contained in VST Sound containers and ISO les.

If you select an entry in the tree, the results list shows the corresponding content.

Location Tree Context Menu

Refresh Views

Updates the tree. This is useful if you added a new disk to your setup or created a new folder on the hard disk.

Rescan Disk

Rescans the selected element in the tree. The corresponding les are opened, the information is extracted, and the database le is updated accordingly.

Quick Rescan Disk

Rescans only the folders that have changed since the last scan.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Show in Explorer (Win)/Reveal in Finder (Mac)

Shows the location of the selected le on your system.

Locations

Locations are folders or directories on your system that contain media les. By setting up locations, you can organize the

The text eld above the tree shows the name of the selected folder. If the name is preceded by an asterisk, the folder has not been saved as a location yet.

les that are available in the results list according to context.

Results List

Managing Locations

● To open the list of favorite locations, click in the text eld.

● To add the current folder to the favorite locations, click Add Selected Media Node as Favorite Location.

You can keep the folder name or specify a new name for the location.

● To delete the current location from the list, click Remove Favorite Location.

The results list shows the les found in the selected folder. It displays all les that Groove Agent can read, such as VST presets or samples.

In addition to information like le name and path, the columns in the results list can be congured to show different attributes.

The results list also shows any subfolders of the selected folder, but does not include the les contained in the subfolders themselves. To see the content of subfolders, you must select the corresponding subfolder.

● To open a folder or location, double-click it in the results list.

If you double-click a preset, its contents are shown.

● To move up one level in the folder hierarchy, click Browse Containing Folder.

You can limit the number of results in the results list using the text search function. This way, you can search for attributes into account. The value eld in the top right corner indicates the number of les that match the search text. To clear the search text, click Clear Filter Text.

les with specic names, for example. For presets, the search also takes any

Conguring the Results List

To congure which attributes are shown in the results list, click Set up Result Columns in

● the upper right corner of the results list and activate the corresponding entries. New attributes are added at the right of the list.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

● To reorder the columns in the results list, drag the column headers to another position.

● To change the sorting of the list entries, click the column header. The triangle in the column header shows the sorting direction.

Browsing For Tonal and Noise Samples Created with the Decompose Function

When you want to edit or use your tonal or noise samples, you can lter the results list to show only these samples.

On the toolbar, click Filter by Sound Component and select an option from the pop-up menu.

Show All Files

If this option is selected, the results list is not ltered.

Show Tonal Components

Displays only the samples containing the tonal component. Those samples have the extension “_tonal”.

Show Noise Components

Displays only the samples containing the noise component. Those samples have the extension “_noise”.

Show Components only

Displays both the noise and the tonal sample les.

Searching for Files on Your System

Instead of searching the current results list, you can also use the text search to look for les on your hard disks or in VST Sound containers.

PROCEDURE

1. Select the location that you want to use as the starting point for the search.

The higher up in the hierarchy the location, the longer the search takes.

2. In the top left corner of the results list, click the Search Location Content button and enter the search text in the text eld.

3. Optional: Click the button to the right of the search eld to specify whether you want to search for samples, MIDI patterns, kits, multis, or all types.

4. To start the search, press Return or click Search/Stop Search to the right of the search text.

The les that match the search criteria are listed in the results list.

NOTE

The maximum of les that can be displayed in the list is 10,000.

5. Double-click a result to show it in the location tree.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

File Info Section

The File Info section below the results list shows information about the focused le.

● For MIDI les, the original tempo, signature, and length are shown, as they are saved in

le.

the

● For styles, the signature and length are shown.

● For samples, the length, channels, bit depth, and sample rate are shown. If available, root key, key, and velocity range are also shown.

Prelisten Section for MIDI Patterns and Styles

The Prelisten section below the results list allows you to listen to the selected MIDI pattern or style.

For MIDI pattern and style les, the following controls are available:

Level

Adjusts the playback level.

Play

Plays back the focused le.

Stop

Stops playback. The play locator jumps back to the start of the le.

Pause

Pauses playback. Click again to resume playback.

Auto Play

Automatically starts playback of the focused le.

Loop Playback

If this button is activated, the focused le is played back repeatedly.

Play Position

The play position indicator shows the playback position within the focused le. To select another position for playback, click on the slider or drag the handle.

For styles, the following additional controls are available:

Style Part

Allows you to select a part of the style, such as intro, ll, ending, etc.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Complexity/Variation

● If the Main part of the style is selected, you can select a complexity.

● If any other part of the style is selected, you can select a variation.

Prelisten Section for Samples

The Prelisten section below the results list allows you to listen to the selected sample.

Level

Adjusts the playback level.

Play

Plays back the focused le.

Stop

Stops playback. The play locator jumps back to the start of the le.

Pause

Pauses playback. Click again to resume playback.

Prelisten in Place

Activates prelistening of the selected sample.

Click the triangle above the button to select a prelisten option.

● If Always is selected, selecting an audio le in the results list always triggers

the sample, regardless of whether a sequence from the host or the internal pattern player is playing.

● If Auto is selected, selecting an audio le in the results list does not trigger the

sample if a sequence from the host or the internal Style Player or MIDI Player are playing. This prevents the prelisten samples from being triggered off the beat. However, the prelisten sample for the pad is replaced and when the pad is played, the new sample is used.

NOTE

As soon as the sample loses the focus in the results list, the Prelisten function stops and the original pad content is played again. This allows you to quickly compare two samples, for example.

Loop Playback

If this button is activated, the focused le is played back repeatedly.

Replace Pad/Focused Sample

Determines whether the sample that is selected for prelistening replaces the entire pad or the focused sample .

Play Position

The play position indicator shows the playback position within the focused le. To select another position for playback, click on the slider or drag the handle.

Managing Your Sounds Managing and Loading Files

Missing Samples

If you browse the samples of a program and you cannot load them or listen to them, they may have been moved or deleted. In this case, the sample info displays

To remedy this, load the program again and make sure that no samples are missing. Afterwards, be sure to save the program with the restored sample paths.

RELATED LINKS

Finding Missing Samples on page 134

Loading Files

●

To load the sample that is focused in the results list into the selected instrument pad, use the key commands Return or L, or double-click the le.

●

To load a kit, drag it from the results list to the kit slot, the kit rack, or onto a pad.

NOTE

This replaces the current samples and resets the sound settings.

Some le types are not supported. In this case, an icon is displayed to indicate that the le format cannot be loaded.

“Sample not found”.

Protected kits are shown with a lock icon to indicate that you cannot extract single samples. However, you can load the kit as a whole.

Replacing the Focused Sample

When you load a sample via the Browser, all samples on the selected pad are replaced. But you can also replace only a specic sample.

NOTE

You can also replace samples that are part of the factory VST Sound content.

PROCEDURE

1. On the Edit page, in the mapping view, select the sample that you want to replace.

2. In the Browser, activate Replace Pad/Focused Sample so that a waveform is displayed on

the button.

3. In the location tree, browse to the new sample and double-click it.

RESULT

The selected sample is replaced with the new sample. All sound settings of the previous sample are kept.

NOTE

Replace Pad/Focused Sample affects only the loading of samples via double-click or key commands. It does not affect the loading of samples via drag & drop from the Browser to pads.

Working With Pads

Groove Agent features two different types of pads: instrument pads and pattern pads. Instrument pads are used to trigger samples. Pattern pads trigger MIDI drum patterns or styles.

Instrument and pattern pads have multiple functions and can show various information about the pads. Some pad functions are only available for clearly stated.

The pad section on the left can show the instrument pads or the pattern pads. To switch between the instrument pads and the pattern pads, click the corresponding button above the pads.

Pad Section

specic agents. If this is the case, this is

The pad section is located on the left in the plug-in window. It contains the transport controls, the group buttons, and the pads.

Transport Controls

The transport controls allow you to trigger the focused pattern pad without playing a MIDI note.

Stop

Stops playback of the selected pad.

Start

Starts playback of the selected pad.

NOTE

If you switch between pattern pads during playback, the pattern changes according to the set

Record

Allows you to record MIDI events live.

Jam Mode

Activates/Deactivates Jam Mode.

Trigger Mode.

Group Buttons

The pad section provides up to 128 pads, organized in eight groups of 16 pads.

Working With Pads Pad Section

You can switch between the groups by clicking on the group buttons. The button of the active group is highlighted. If one or more pads of a group have samples mapped to them, an orange LED above the group button lights up. If a pad within a group receives a MIDI note, a green MIDI indicator LED lights up.

Pads

Pattern pads trigger MIDI drum patterns or styles. Instrument pads trigger samples.

● Pads show the associated MIDI note in the top right corner.

● In the lower section, the name of the pad is displayed.

● If samples are assigned to an instrument pad, the LED above the pad lights up.

● If a MIDI le is mapped to a pattern pad, the LED above the pad lights up.

● A pad lights up if the associated MIDI note is triggered.

● To select a pad without triggering a sample or pattern, Alt-click the pad.

● A yellow frame around a pad indicates that this pad is selected for editing.

● You can edit multiple selected pads. The rst selected pad shows a yellow frame, the rest

For pattern pads, you can change the MIDI note assignment. For instrument pads, you can only change this if Use Hardware Controller Mapping is activated.

of the selected pads a lighter yellow frame.

Pad Colors

You can colorize the pads using up to 16 different colors. This can improve the overview over the instruments within your kit. For example, you can set the bass drum to one color, the snare to another, toms and cymbals to another, etc.

● To apply a color to a pad or to several selected pads, open the context menu and select a color from the Set Color submenu.

NOTE

If you use the pattern pads in individual mode, you can set up different pad colors for each kit slot.

RELATED LINKS

Recording MIDI Events Live on page 89 Jam Mode on page 76 Beat Agent Sound Editing on page 90 Acoustic Agent Sound Editing on page 136 Percussion Agent Sound Editing on page 145

Working With Pads Renaming Pads

Renaming Pads

Renaming pads is useful if the names of the samples or the MIDI les are either too long or not very intuitive. Furthermore, it allows you to indicate that more than one sample is mapped to a pad, for example.

PROCEDURE

● To change the name of a pad, right-click it, select Rename Pad, enter a new name and press Enter.

NOTE

You can set up different pad names for the individual kit slots if Global mode is not activated for the pattern pads.

Using Different MIDI Channels/Ports for Instrument Pads and Pattern Pads

By default, instrument and pattern pads share the same MIDI port. If instrument and pattern pads are both assigned and share the same trigger note, the pattern pad always gets priority, therefore, instrument pads that use the same trigger note as a pattern pad cannot be played via the same MIDI port. In this case, you have two options: You can set up a different MIDI port or a different MIDI channel for the pattern pads.

It is recommended to use either of these functions or combine them, in order to control pattern and instrument pads separately.

Using the Pattern MIDI Port for Pattern Pads

To be able to play all instrument and pattern pads via MIDI, assign a separate MIDI port to the pattern pad section. This way, you can trigger instruments on one MIDI port and patterns on the other.

PROCEDURE

1. Activate Use Pattern MIDI Port for Pattern Pads in the lower left corner of the pattern pad section.

If another port is used, MIDI data is received on all MIDI channels.

2. In your DAW, set up two MIDI tracks and set the MIDI output of the rst track to Groove Agent Main and the MIDI output of the second track to Groove Agent Pattern.

RESULT

You can use one MIDI track to play the instrument pads and another MIDI track to play the pattern pads.

Using Different MIDI Channels for Pattern Pads and Instrument Pads

You can specify a dedicated MIDI channel to trigger the pads in the pattern pads section. This is useful if your host sequencer does not support more than one MIDI port.

PROCEDURE

● Click in the MIDI channel eld below the pads and select the channel that you want to use from the pop-up menu.

Working With Pads Instrument Pads

If this is set to Omni, the pattern pads receive trigger notes on all 16 MIDI channels.

Instrument Pads

Instrument pads are used to trigger samples.

Each pad is mapped to a MIDI note, which can trigger a sample. If samples are assigned to a pad, the LED above the pad lights up. You can trigger the pads with different velocities. Click in the lower section of a pad for lower velocities and at the top of the pad for higher velocities.

Mute

To mute an instrument pad, click the Mute icon in the upper left corner of the pad.

Click again to unmute.

To unmute all instrument pads, click Reset All Mute below the pads.

Solo

To solo an instrument pad, click the Solo icon in the upper left corner of the pad.

Click again to unsolo.

To unsolo all instrument pads, click Reset All Solo below the pads.

Below the pad section, you nd several buttons. These are different for the different agents.

Working With Pads Instrument Pads

Instrument Pad Context Menu

The context menu contains functions and settings for the instrument pads.

Load Instrument (Beat Agent only)

Allows you to load an instrument that you saved for a pad.

Save Instrument (Beat Agent only)

Allows you to save the current pad with its samples and settings as instrument. The created instruments are available on the Instruments tab on the Load panel.

Rename Pad

Allows you to rename the pad.

Set Color

Allows you to select one of the 16 available colors for the pad.

Assign Output (Beat Agent only)

Allows you to specify an output for all samples of the pad. The following outputs are available:

● The Kit Mix.

● One of the 16 Agent mixer channels.

● One of the 16 stereo output busses of the plug-in.

If you use Groove Agent in a Steinberg DAW, selecting a plug-in output from the menu automatically activates this output in the host application. The rst stereo out is the Master output. This output is always active.

NOTE

Samples that are routed to an output that is deactivated in your host application are automatically sent to the Master output of the plug-in.

● One of the AUX channels. This allows you to create sub groups, for example.

Edit/Learn Trigger Note

Allows you to specify a new trigger note for the pad, either by entering it into the value eld or by playing the corresponding note on your hardware controller.

Cut Pad

Removes all pad settings and pastes them to the clipboard.

Working With Pads Instrument Pads

Copy Pad

Paste Pad

Select All Pads

Select All Pads in Group

Invert Selection

Invert Selection in Group

Reset Pad

Copies the settings of the pad to the clipboard.

Allows you to paste the pad settings from the clipboard to another pattern pad, of the same or a different pattern group.

Selects all 128 pads.

Selects all 16 pads of the pad group.

Inverts the selection for all pads, that is, all unselected pads become selected and vice versa.

Inverts the selection for the pad group, that is, all unselected pads of the group become selected and vice versa.

Removes all samples and resets name, color, and trigger note to the default values for the selected pad.

Reset All Pads

Removes all samples from all 128 pads and resets name, color, and trigger note to the default values.

Reset Pad Order

Resets all pads to a chromatic order.

Remove All Samples

Removes the samples from the selected instrument pad.

RELATED LINKS

Saving Beat Agent Instruments on page 94 Loading Beat Agent Instruments on page 94

Using an Alternative MIDI Trigger Note Mapping

If you use an external hardware drum controller that sends specic MIDI notes for specic instruments, you can specify an alternative MIDI trigger note mapping.

PROCEDURE

1. Activate Use Hardware Controller Mapping in the lower right corner of the instrument pad section.

Now you can load, save, and delete different trigger note congurations.

2. Specify a new trigger note for the pad.

Right-click a pad, select Edit/Learn Trigger Note and specify the new trigger note

●

by entering it into the value eld or by playing the corresponding note on your hardware controller.

Right-click a pad, select Trigger Notes > Assign Trigger Note and select the note

●

from the submenus.

Groove Agent jumps to the next pad.

Working With Pads Instrument Pads

3. Assign a MIDI note to all the pads that you want to use and press Enter to stop assigning MIDI notes.

Assigned trigger notes are shown on the Trigger Notes submenu of the context menu.

Assigning Multiple Trigger Notes to an Instrument Pad

Some hardware drum controller instruments, like crash cymbals, provide several zones. These zones are sending different MIDI notes, in order to play different articulations. If a drum kit comes with a sample mapping that contains all articulations on dedicated instrument pads, each instrument pad only requires one for each articulation, you can assign multiple trigger notes to one instrument pad, so that each zone on the hardware controller triggers the same sample.

PROCEDURE

1. Activate Use Hardware Controller Mapping in the lower right corner of the instrument pad section.

Now you can load, save, and delete different trigger note congurations.

2. To specify an additional trigger note for the pad, do one of the following:

●

Right-click the instrument pad, select Trigger Notes > Add/Remove Trigger Note and select the note that you want to add from the submenus.

● Right-click the instrument pad, select Trigger Notes > Learn Additional Trigger

Notes and play the additional note on your keyboard.

specic trigger note. However, if the kit does not provide a pad

You can specify up to three additional notes for each pad.

Assigned trigger notes are shown on the Trigger Notes submenu of the context menu.

Removing Additional Trigger Notes

You can remove additional trigger notes in the following ways:

● On the context menu for an instrument pad, select Trigger Notes > Add/Remove Trigger Note and deselect the note that you want to remove.

● On the context menu for an instrument pad, select Trigger Notes > Remove Trigger Notes and select the note that you want to remove.

● To remove all additional trigger notes and replace them with a new single trigger note, use the

Edit/Learn option on the context menu.

Using MIDI Effects

For each instrument pad, you can set up MIDI effects on the MIDI FX page.

The MIDI FX page is divided into the Pad Mode, Rudiments, and MIDI Delay sections.

Working With Pads Instrument Pads

Pad Mode

Pad Mode determines to which pad the settings on the MIDI FX page are applied.

Internal

In Internal mode, the MIDI effects are applied to the samples on the selected pad.

Remote

In Remote mode, you can select to which destination pad you want to apply the MIDI effects.

This allows you to trigger an instrument with and without MIDI effects, for example.

NOTE

● If the destination pad also contains MIDI effects, these are not taken into

account.

● If you set up remote MIDI effects on a pad for which samples are assigned, the

remote MIDI effects are applied only to the samples on the destination pad.

If Remote mode is activated for a pad and a destination pad is specied, a remote icon is displayed on the pad.

● To bypass the remote effects, click Disable MIDI to Remote Pad to the left of

the remote icon.

Rudiments

Active

Click this to activate the articulation.

Type

Determines the rudiment type.

Working With Pads Instrument Pads

Flam, Drag, Ruff and Roll

For Flam, Drag, Ruff, and Roll, the following parameters are available:

Sync

Time

Note Value

● Flam plays two hits very close together.

● Drag plays three hits very close together.

● Ruff plays four hits very close together.

● Roll continually plays drum hits to produce a sustaining drum sound.

● Buzz emulates the effect of a drummer pressing the stick into the drum while

hitting it. The stick bounces on the drum, producing multiple hits that sound like a decaying drum roll.

Synchronizes the hits to the project tempo. The time span between the hits is set in fractions of beats.

Adjusts the time span between the hits.

If Sync is activated, this parameter adjusts the time span in fractions of beats.

MIDI Delay

Dynamics

Adjusts the dynamics of the hits.

At the minimum setting, all hits are played with the same volume. The higher the setting, the more the difference in volume between the loud and the soft hits increases.

Humanize

Use this parameter to randomize the timing, the dynamics, and the pitch of the hits.

Buzz

For Buzz, the following parameters are available:

Grip

Determines how the drumstick is held. Higher settings produce less buzz.

Pressure

Adjusts the pressure on the stick. Higher settings produce a longer decay of the buzz.

Humanize

Use this parameter to randomize the timing, the dynamics, and the pitch of the hits.

MIDI Delay produces echo effects by repeating the notes that you play.

The subsequent note events can be modied, for example, you can vary the time span between the echoes with the Distribution parameter.

Active

Activates/Deactivates the MIDI Delay effect.

Sync

Synchronizes the echoes to the project tempo. The time span between the echoes is set in fractions of beats.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Time

Note Value

Repeats

Damping

Pitch

Distribution

Adjusts the time span between the echoes.

If Sync is activated, this parameter adjusts the time span in fractions of beats.

Determines the maximum number of echoes.

Determines whether the echoes fade in or fade out with the MIDI velocity. If you set this parameter to negative values, the MIDI velocity gradually increases. If you set this parameter to positive values, the MIDI velocity gradually decreases.

NOTE

Damping only shows an effect if the sound settings of the samples use velocity.

Determines how much the pitch changes from echo to echo.

Determines the time distribution of the echoes. If you set this parameter to negative values, the time span between echoes gets shorter, that is, the echoes speed up. With positive values, the echoes slow down.

Pattern Pads

Pattern pads trigger MIDI drum patterns or styles.

The pad section provides up to 128 pads, organized in 8 groups of 16 pads. Each pad is mapped to a MIDI note. You can assign MIDI patterns to each pattern pad, to trigger complete drum patterns or single instrument patterns, depending on the MIDI les. The pads are used to switch between patterns.

If a MIDI le is assigned to a pad, the pad shows a progress indicator and a beat counter. When the pattern is triggered, the progress indicator shows the playing progress graphically. In addition, the beat counter shows the current beat during playback. This allows you to see which

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

patterns are currently running and at which playing position, relative to the length of the pattern. This can be particularly helpful when Toggle is selected on the Play Mode pop-up menu, because it provides a quick overview of the patterns that will be stopped and those that will be triggered.

Assigning MIDI Patterns or Styles to Pads

You can assign MIDI patterns or styles to pads from various locations, by double-clicking, by using drag and drop or via the Load dialogs.

● Double click a le on the Styles page or the MIDI page in the Load panel to assign it to the selected pad.

NOTE

If you double click a percussion style when a Beat Agent or Acoustic Agent kit is loaded, the style is converted to a MIDI pattern and opened in the Pattern Player.

● Drag a MIDI pattern from the MIDI page in the Load panel onto a pad.

You can also assign multiple MIDI les to consecutive pads this way.

● Drag a style from the Styles page in the Load panel onto a pad.

You can also assign multiple styles to consecutive pads this way.

NOTE

If the current player that is used for a pad does not support the dragged style, the le is converted to a MIDI pattern and loaded into the MIDI Player.

● Drag a MIDI pattern or a style from the Load panel onto the Load eld in the MIDI Player/ Style Player.

● Drag a MIDI pattern or a style onto a eld on the Overview page.

● Drag a MIDI pattern or a style onto the Select MIDI Pattern eld at the top of the Pattern editor.

● Drag a MIDI le from the File Explorer/macOS Finder or from the MediaBay of the Steinberg DAW onto a pad.

● Drag a MIDI part from the host application onto a pad.

● Drag a le from the File Explorer/macOS Finder onto the MIDI Import eld in the MIDI Player. The le is imported to your user pattern library and assigned to the selected pad.

● Select a pad, open the MIDI Player or the Style Player and select a le from the Select MIDI Pattern/Select Style pop-up menus.

RELATED LINKS

Assigning Multiple Files to Pads on page 60

Assigning Multiple Files to Pads

You can assign several MIDI patterns or styles to multiple consecutive pads at the same time.

PROCEDURE

1. Move the mouse over the lower part of the pad on which you want to drop the rst le.

A yellow frame indicates which pads receive a le.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

2. Drop the les.

RESULT

The les are imported to your user library and are automatically assigned to the pads.

Pattern Pad Context Menu

The context menu contains functions and settings for the pattern pads.

Rename Pad

Allows you to rename the pad.

Set Color

Allows you to select one of the 16 available colors for the pad.

Edit/Learn Trigger Note

Allows you to specify a new trigger note for the pad, either by entering it into the value eld or by playing the corresponding note on your hardware controller.

Assign Trigger Note

Allows you to select a new trigger note for the pad from a submenu.

Cut Pad

Removes all pad settings and pastes them to the clipboard.

Copy Pad

Copies the settings of the pad to the clipboard.

Paste Pad

Allows you to paste the pad settings from the clipboard to another pattern pad, of the same or a different pattern group.

Select All Pads

Selects all 128 pads.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Invert Selection

Inverts the selection for all pads, that is, all unselected pads become selected and vice versa.

Reset Pad

Removes the MIDI le and the name from the pad and resets color and trigger note settings to the default values.

Reset All Pads

Removes the MIDI le and the name from all pads and resets their color and trigger note settings to the default values.

Remove Patterns

Removes all patterns and styles.

Remove Pattern from Selected Kit

Removes the pattern or style for the selected kit.

Global Pattern Pads

You can use the pattern pads in Groove Agent individually for each kit or globally for all kits.

NOTE

Be sure to check whether instrument pads and pattern pads share the same trigger key. It may be necessary to separate control over pattern and instrument pads, using the Port for Pattern Pads option or by selecting a different MIDI channel for the pattern pads.

If Global mode is not activated, each kit plays its patterns when pattern pads are triggered. Pad colors, names, and other pad settings are individual for each kit. The patterns are played using the MIDI channel that is selected for the pattern pad. If pattern pads are set to the same MIDI channel, they are played together.

If Global mode is activated, all patterns of all kits play together when a pattern pad is triggered. This allows you to play complex arrangements of multiple kits using only one key.

To use global mode, activate Global Pad Settings for Pattern Pads on the left below the pads.

When you switch to global mode, the pattern pads start out with their default settings, that is, no colors or names are specied for the pads and no pad settings, such as Exclusive mode, for example, are made.

You can congure the global pads independently for the individual pattern pads. You can also copy and paste pattern pad settings, either between individual pattern pads, or between global and individual pattern pads. This allows you to use the pattern pad settings of one kit slot for the global pattern pad settings, too, for example.

Use Pattern MIDI

To copy settings, right-click a kit in the kit rack and select Copy Global Pattern Pad

● Settings or Copy Kit Pattern Pad Settings, depending on which settings you want to copy.

To paste the settings, open the kit rack context menu and select Paste To Kit Pattern Pad

● Settings or Paste To Global Pattern Pad Settings, depending on where you want to paste the copied settings.

RELATED LINKS

Using Different MIDI Channels/Ports for Instrument Pads and Pattern Pads on page 52

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Playing Patterns Using the Transport Controls

In individual mode, each kit has its own transport controls.

PROCEDURE

1. Select a pattern pad for one kit slot and press Play.

Only this pattern is played back.

2. Switch to another slot, select a pad, and press Play.

The second kit slot starts to play. If Sync to Beat is activated, playback starts based on the current playback position.

3. If you now press Stop, playback only stops for the current kit slot. To start or stop playback for all kit slots simultaneously,

NOTE

●

If you activate Follow Transport for one slot, its playback follows the start/stop commands and time position of your host sequencer. However, any slots for which Follow Transport is not activated will not follow. You can still manually control their playback using the transport controls in

●

To activate/deactivate Follow Transport for all kit slots simultaneously, Shift-click the Follow Transport button.

Shift-click the Play or Stop buttons.

Groove Agent.

Muting Individual Pads in Global Mode

The Overview page allows you to mute individual pads, even while Global mode is activated

PREREQUISITE

Global mode is activated below the pattern pads.

NOTE

If Global mode is deactivated, you can mute individual pads using the Pad On/Off buttons at the top right of the Agent page.

PROCEDURE

1. Open the Overview page.

2. Deactivate the Pattern Active button for the pad that you want to mute.

Removing MIDI Files from Pads

You can remove patterns and styles from a pattern pad using the pad context menu.

● To remove the pattern or style for a single kit and pattern pad, right-click a pad and select Remove Pattern from Selected Kit from the context menu.

● To remove all patterns and styles from all kits at the same time right-click one of the pads and select Remove Patterns from the context menu.

Locking Pad Settings

Locking the pad settings is useful if Global mode is activated for the pattern pads and you want to keep the current pad settings for one kit slot, for example.

If the pad settings are not locked and you load a new kit, pad settings that are saved in the kit preset, such as Exclusive, Play Mode, pad color, etc. overwrite the existing pad settings.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

NOTE

Inactive pads saved in the kit preset do not overwrite any existing pad settings.

● To lock the pad settings, activate Lock Global Pad Settings below the pad section.

If this button is activated, the current pad settings are kept when you load a new kit.

Moving and Copying Pattern Pads

You can copy or move pattern pads with all their settings to other pattern pads of the same or a different pattern group.

● To move the active pattern pad with all its settings to another pad, drag the pad and drop it on the destination pad.

● To copy a pattern pad to another pad, hold down Alt and drag the pad on the destination pad.

● To move or copy one or more pads onto other pads, use the context menu commands Cut Pad, Copy Pad, and Paste Pad.

This way, you can move or copy multiple pads at the same time.

NOTE

You can also move or copy pads between pad groups. To do so, rst drag the pad onto the group button for the group to which you want to move or copy the pad, then drop it onto the destination pad.

Pattern Groups

You can save the 16 pads of a group with their patterns and settings as a pattern group. This allows you to quickly restore and reuse particular patterns and settings.

Pattern groups include all settings that you make in the Pad Settings section at the bottom of the Agent page, such as Exclusive mode, Play Mode, etc.

● To save the current pattern group for a kit, right-click the kit in the kit rack or the corresponding slot on the Overview page and select Save Pattern Group.

● To load a pattern group, right-click the kit in the kit rack and select Load Pattern Group.

NOTE

If you load a pattern group, the pad settings are only restored on empty pads. If you have assigned a pattern to a pad, your pad settings are not overwritten by the pattern group.

Agent Page

The Agent page allows you to select and set up the patterns or styles that are played by the pattern pads. With the two buttons at the top, you can select whether you want to use the MIDI Player or the Style Player.

The MIDI Player allows you to play and modify one pattern. The Style Player offers a variety of patterns, suited to create the different parts of your drum tracks, for example. Both players offer you a range of playback functions and settings.

You can switch between the two players using the buttons at the top of the page.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

You can display the pad settings at the bottom of the page by activating the Show Pad Settings button at the top right of the Agent page.

The players are only available for active pads. To activate a pad, click the Pad On/Off button in the top right section of the page.

RELATED LINKS

Style Player on page 67 MIDI Player on page 65 Pad Settings on page 74

MIDI Player

The MIDI Player allows you to load your own MIDI les or one of the included MIDI patterns and set up playback for them.

Mute Pattern

Mutes the current pattern.

MIDI Import

To import MIDI les from your le system or MIDI parts from your host application into the user pattern library, drag them onto the

You can import multiple MIDI les at the same time. The rst le is assigned to the selected pad.

Load MIDI Pattern

Allows you to load a MIDI pattern.

NOTE

Pattern pads always contain the MIDI data and do not reference the original MIDI

les.

You can also load a pattern by dragging it from the Load panel onto the Load MIDI Pattern eld. If you drag a style le onto the eld, the Agent page automatically

switches to the

Style Player.

MIDI Import eld.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Save MIDI Pattern

Original Tempo/Time Signature

MIDI Export

Quantize Amount

Quantize Grid

Swing Factor

Allows you to save the current MIDI pattern as user pattern.

Displays the original tempo and time signature as saved in the MIDI le.

To export a pattern, click the MIDI Export eld and drag it onto a MIDI track in your host application. You can also drag the pattern to other locations and applications that support MIDI

This parameter denes how much of the quantization grid is applied. A value of 100 % means the MIDI note events play back only at the specied quantize note value. Smaller values move the notes only partially towards the next quantize note value. With a value of 0 %, no quantization is applied.

This parameter allows you to set up a quantization grid, in fractions of beats. You can also specify dotted and triplet values.

Allows you to shift the timing of notes on even numbered beats to give the pattern a swing feeling. Negative values shift the timing backward, and the notes are played earlier. Positive values shift the timing forward, and the notes are played later.

les.

Swing Grid

Determines the grid for applying Swing. For example, to shift the timing of every 16th note in a pattern, set this to 1/16.

Start

Species the beat from which the pattern starts to play.

End

Species the end of the pattern. Initially, this parameter is set to the original length of the MIDI pattern.

This value is limited to the length of the pattern. You can change the maximum length in the Pattern editor, either by dragging the locator to the right or by entering the value manually in the End eld on the info line.

Effective Pattern Length

You can use the range slider below the Start and End parameters to adjust the range of the pattern loop. To change one of the values, drag the left or right edge of the slider.

Gate Scale

Allows you to shorten or lengthen the notes of the pattern. At a value of 100 %, the notes play with their original gate length.

NOTE

Gate Scale has no effect on samples that are played in One Shot mode. They always sound until the end.

Velocity Scale

Raises or lowers the note-on velocities of the pattern. At a value of 100 %, the notes are played with their original velocity.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Tempo Scale

MIDI Import/Export and Alternative Trigger Note Mappings

If you are working with alternative trigger note mappings, this is taken into account and the MIDI pattern is adapted automatically on import/export. This is important if you are recording MIDI with a hardware drum controller and you want to import MIDI parts from the host application or export patterns from

If you recorded the MIDI le with the standard trigger note mapping, deactivate Use Hardware Controller Mapping in the pad section.

RELATED LINKS

Playing back Pattern Pads on page 16 Using an Alternative MIDI Trigger Note Mapping on page 55 Pattern Editor Toolbar on page 83

Style Player

The Style Player allows you to load one of the included styles and make playback settings for it.

Denes the speed at which the pattern is running. You can choose between half, normal, and double speed.

Groove Agent to the host application during that process.

Styles are complex structures of multiple patterns suited to create different sections of the drum tracks, such as, lls, endings, and intros.

NOTE

If you want to use Beat Agent kits with the Style Player, make sure to use a GM instrument mapping, such as is used in the

Acoustic Agent kits, for example.

Mute Pattern

Mutes the current pattern.

Load Style

Allows you to load a style.

You can also load a style by dragging it from the Load section onto the Load Style eld. If you drag a MIDI pattern le onto the eld, the Agent page automatically switches to the

MIDI Player.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Original Tempo/Time Signature

MIDI Export

Quantize Amount

Swing Factor

Displays the original tempo and time signature as saved in the MIDI le.

To export a style, click the MIDI Export eld and drag it onto a MIDI track in your host application. You can also drag the style to other locations and applications that support MIDI les.

Adjusts the timing of the pattern, from live-played to hard-quantized timing.

● At a setting of 0 %, the pattern plays with the original timing.

● At a setting of 100 %, the timing is hard-quantized.

NOTE

Flams and rolls are not affected by this parameter.

Swing Grid

Determines the grid for applying Swing. For example, to shift the timing of every 16th note in a pattern, set this to 1/16.

Pattern Dial

Allows you to specify whether you want the style player to play a Main pattern, a Fill, an Ending, or an Intro. Depending on your selection, you can choose between different variations. For example, eight different lls are available.

Complexity

You can modify the complexity of drum patterns. Increasing the complexity can add more notes, change from hihat to ride or from snare to toms, for example. This allows you to introduce a feel of free-style playing to a pattern. You can set the complexity in the following ways:

● Move the Complexity handle below the display to the right or left. Drag to the

right to increase the complexity, and to the left to decrease the complexity.

● Click in the display and move the combined Complexity/Intensity control to

the left or right.

You can modify complexity and intensity at the same time by moving the control both on the x and the y axis.

● Double-click in the Complexity value eld above the display and enter a new

value.

NOTE

The Complexity parameter is only available for main and halftime patterns, not for intros, lls, and endings.

Intensity

The intensity is controlled via the y-axis of the x/y control of the Style Player. All patterns support the Intensity parameter. The patterns play with their original velocity at the top position of the y-axis. Decreasing the intensity means decreasing the velocity. You can set the intensity in the following ways:

● Move the Intensity handle to the right of the display up or down.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Half-Time On/Off

Auto Complexity

● Click in the display and move the combined Complexity/Intensity control up

or down.

You can modify complexity and intensity at the same time by moving the control both on the x and the y axis.

● Double-click in the Intensity value eld below the display and enter a new

value.

Activates half-time rhythmic feel for the playback of the main pattern. This is reached by extending the normal rhythm over two bars rather than by halving the tempo. If a style does not contain halftime patterns, this parameter is not available.

NOTE

This parameter affects only the main patterns. Intros, endings, and lls do not support half-time playing.

This parameter varies the set Complexity randomly, creating a less static playback of the styles.

Click Auto Complexity to open the menu with the available options.

● 1/1 Bar – The complexity varies randomly after a full bar.

● 1/2 Bar – The complexity varies randomly after half of a bar.

● 1 – The complexity is increased on the rst beat of a bar. All other beats of the

bar have the same or a lower complexity.

● 1+3 – The complexity is increased on the rst and the third beat of a bar. The

other beats have the same or a lower complexity.

● 2+4 – The complexity is increased on the second and the fourth beat of a bar.

All other beats of the bar have the same or a lower complexity.

● 1+4 – The complexity is increased on the rst and the fourth beat of a bar. All

other beats of the bar have the same or a lower complexity.

● Auto Fill – The complexity changes every time that a ll is played by the Auto

Fill function.

For example, if Auto Fill is set to 2, the complexity changes automatically after bar 2, 4, 6, and so on.

NOTE

If Auto Fill is deactivated, the complexity does not change.

● To deactivate Auto Complexity, select Off.

If Auto Complexity is activated, the dot in the background of the complexity/ intensity display indicates which complexity is currently played.

Break

The lls from the style player do not have to cover an entire bar. For example, a ll might cover only the last two beats of a bar.

● If you want a pause before the ll starts, activate the Break button.

● If you want the previous pattern to play up to the start of the ll, deactivate

the Break button. This way, no gaps occur.

If no pattern is playing when you trigger a ll, the main pattern of the style that is used by the pad is played until the ll starts. The Complexity setting of the pad is taken into account.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Auto Fill

Auto Fill Options

With the Auto Fill function, the main pattern can play back a ll after a specied interval of bars. This is useful for jamming with Groove Agent. For example, with a setting of eight available lls.

If Auto Fill is activated, the number of the ll that is playing lights up in yellow.

NOTE

This setting affects only the main pattern. Intros, endings, and lls are not affected. They play back as usual, that is, they do not change into a ll after the set interval.

If the Auto Fill Options are activated, you can choose which lls are used by Auto Fill. This way, you can limit the use of lls to those that really go with your sound.

NOTE

4, you get a ll every 4 bars. Each time, the ll is randomly chosen from the

When you change the pattern group or load another kit, all lls are automatically activated.

Crash Mode

Determines whether main pattern, intro, ll, and ending play with crash cymbals.

● If Always is selected, the style player plays the crash cymbals of the main

pattern and a crash cymbal on the rst beat after the ll.

● If Fill/Ending is selected, the style player plays only crash cymbals that are

part of the ll or the ending. For example, crash cymbals from a main pattern that are used to played.

● If Main is selected, the style player plays only the crash cymbals of the main

pattern.

● If Off is selected, the style player leaves out all crash cymbals.

Hihat Mode

Species whether a pattern plays the hihat with all articulations, or only with the tip or the shank articulation.

NOTE

● This setting is taken into account when you export a pattern by dragging the

MIDI export eld to a MIDI track in your host application.

● External MIDI input is not affected by this setting, that is, you can play all

articulations.

ll up endings that do not start at the rst beat are not

Ride Mode

Species whether a pattern plays the ride cymbal with or without bell articulation.

NOTE

● This setting is taken into account when you export a pattern by dragging the

MIDI export eld to a MIDI track in your host application.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

● External MIDI input is not affected by this setting, that is, you can play all

RELATED LINKS

Playing back Pattern Pads on page 16

Using the Style Player

If the Style Player is activated and a style is selected on the pop-up menu, you can assign intros,

lls, and endings to pattern pads by using the large dial in the Performance section.

●

To do so, activate the pattern pad and set the dial to the intro, ll, or ending that you want to use.

The pattern pad plays the selected part each time you trigger it.

NOTE

●

Intros and endings are not affected by the parameters Halftime, Complexity, Auto Complexity, Auto Fill, and Crash Mode.

●

Fills are not affected by the parameters Halftime, Complexity, Auto Complexity, and Auto Fill.

articulations.

Converting Intros, Main Patterns, Fills, or Endings into MIDI Patterns

You can convert the selected part of a style to a MIDI pattern. This allows you to edit this part in the Pattern editor, for example.

The conversion takes into account the playback parameters of a style, for example, Intensity, Quantize, Swing, and Crash Filter and converts them into MIDI events in the MIDI pattern. The resulting MIDI pattern for the main pattern of a style also

NOTE

Auto Complexity and Auto Fill are not taken into account.

You can convert styles on the Agent page or on the Overview page.

PROCEDURE

1. In the Style Player page, select the part of the style that you want to convert, that is, main pattern, intro, ll, or ending that you want to convert.

2. Set up the playback parameters, and click Convert Style to MIDI Pattern.

When converting the Main part of a style, all performance settings, such as Auto Complexity, Auto Fill, Quantize, etc. are taken into account. For example, if Auto Fill is set to 2 and the Main part is 4 bars long, the converted MIDI pattern will contain a ll on bar 2 and another one on bar 4. If

Auto Fill is set to 4, only the last bar will be a ll.

reects the set Complexity.

RESULT

The style is converted into a MIDI pattern and the MIDI Player is automatically shown on the Agent page.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

NOTE

Once you have converted a part of a style into a MIDI pattern, it cannot be used in the Style

Player any longer.

Percussion Agent Style Player

The Style Player allows you to combine up to eight instrument substyles. Each substyle plays a typical rhythm pattern with a

specied percussion instrument.

Mute Pattern

Mutes the current pattern.

Load Style

Allows you to load a style.

You can also load a style by dragging it from the Load section onto the Load Style eld. If you drag a MIDI pattern le onto the eld, the Agent page automatically switches to the MIDI Player.

Save Percussion Style

Allows you to save your settings as user style.

Original Tempo/Time Signature

Displays the original tempo and time signature as saved in the MIDI le.

MIDI Export

To export a style, click the MIDI Export eld and drag it onto a MIDI track in your host application. You can also drag the style to other locations and applications that support MIDI les.

Quantize

Adjusts the timing of the pattern, from live-played to hard-quantized timing.

● At a setting of 0 %, the pattern plays with the original timing.

● At a setting of 100 %, the timing is hard-quantized.

NOTE

Rudiments in the MIDI patterns are not affected by this parameter.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Global Intensity

Global Swing

Global Swing Grid

Substyle Parameters

The following parameters affect only the playback of the substyles:

Instrument On/Off

Instrument Substyle

Decreases the intensity for the style.

Allows you to shift the timing of notes on even-numbered beats to give the pattern a swing feeling. Negative values shift the timing backward, and the notes are played earlier. Positive values shift the timing forward, and the notes are played later.

Determines the grid for applying Swing. For example, to shift the timing at every 16th note position in a pattern, set this to 1/16.

Activates/Deactivates playback for the corresponding instrument.

Allows you to load an instrument substyle.

Right-click the eld to open a context menu allowing you to remove substyles.

● Clear removes the selected substyle.

● Clear All Inactive removes all substyles that are not active.

● Clear All removes all substyles.

Complexity

● The higher the complexity, the more intense the rhythm pattern.

This way, you can have more intensity in the bongo than in the cowbell, for example.

Random Complexity

Randomizes the playback. The substyle automatically switches to a random complexity at each full bar.

Intensity

Decreases the intensity for each substyle separately.

Tempo Scale

Allows you to set the tempo of a substyle to half speed (1/2), normal speed (1x) and double speed (2x).

Groove Offset

Offsets playback of the substyle by up to 8 eighth notes. For example, with an offset of 2, the playback starts on the second quarter note.

Swing

Adjusts the swing factor for each substyle individually. The swing grid is dened globally with the Global Swing Grid parameter.

Compiling a Percussion Style

You can compile a percussion style using up to eight substyles. The substyles are organized into folders according to their musical style.

PREREQUISITE

● You have activated the pad that you want to use and the Style Player is activated on the Agent page.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

● If you want to base your style on an existing style, you have loaded a percussion style via

PROCEDURE

1. Activate the instrument substyles that you want to use.

2. Click the small triangle at the right of the substyle eld and select a substyle from the pop-

3. Adjust the performance parameters.

4. Click Save Percussion Style in the top right of the Agent page to save your compilation of

Pad Settings

To display the pad settings below the MIDI Player or the Style Player, activate Show Pad Settings

the Load Style eld.

up menus.

The menus include substyles for accompanying specic styles from Acoustic Agent are available. These can be found in folders that are named after the corresponding Agent style.

This allows you to modify playback of the substyle. For example, the Complexity parameter allows you to select one of ve variations for a particular substyle.

instrument substyles together with the performance parameters with your user content.

at the top right of the Agent page.

Acoustic

The pad settings are common to all slots, that is, you set them up only once. However, these settings are part of the kits, and are replaced when you load a new kit into a slot.

Exclusive

Activates/Deactivates exclusive playback for a pad. Triggering an exclusive pad stops playback of the current pattern, according to the set Trigger Mode. Pads for which this button is not activated can play simultaneously with other patterns.

If Exclusive mode is activated for a pad, this is indicated by an icon in the upper left corner of a pad.

Jam State

Determines the play order of the pads if Jam Mode is activated and the pattern pad is in exclusive mode.

● If a pad with Standard jam state is triggered, any previous pads stop playing.

The new pad plays exclusively.

● If Next is selected, playback jumps automatically to the rst pad for which

Standard jam state is selected and which is mapped higher up on the keyboard. If no pad with in a loop.

● If Return is selected, playback jumps back to the previous pad. Use this mode

to switch from a pad with a ll back to the previous pad, for example. If you trigger several pads for which Return is activated in sequence, Groove Agent returns to the last pad in Standard, Next, or Stop mode. If no pad was triggered before, the current pad plays back in a loop.

● If Stop is selected, playback stops automatically when the entire pattern is

played back.

Standard jam state exists, the current pad plays back

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Play Mode

Trigger Mode

Pattern Length Limit

The Jam State is indicated by different icons in the upper left corner of the pads.

● To play a pattern for as long as you hold down a key, select Hold.

● To start and stop playback with the trigger note for a pad, select Toggle.

Toggle mode is best used for live performances. Otherwise, it can lead to unpredictable results, for example, when stopping and restarting playback in the host application or when locating to another position during playback.

● To play a pattern completely to its end, select One Shot. In this mode, note-off

events are ignored. Playback stops automatically at the end of the pattern. To make sure that the pattern plays from start to end, deactivate

Determines whether a pattern starts to play immediately, at the next beat, or at the next full measure.

Sync to Beat.

Determines the pattern length for playing back patterns when Jam Mode is active.

Sync to Beat

If Sync to Beat is activated, triggering a pattern starts the pattern in sync with any other patterns that are playing. For example, if you trigger a pattern and trigger the next pattern after 3 beats, this pattern starts playing at beat 3. If deactivated, the second pattern starts from the beginning.

NOTE

If Jam Mode is activated, Sync to Beat is automatically deactivated for exclusive pads. This way, the patterns on exclusive pads are always played on the rst beat, to ensure a predictable pattern switching behavior.

Velocity Mode

Species how the velocity of the notes that you play affects the notes of the pattern.

● If Original is selected, the notes of the pattern are played with the velocity

that is saved with the pattern.

● If As Played is selected, the notes of the pattern are played with the velocity

that you are playing on the keyboard.

● If Original + As Played is selected, the pattern velocity is determined by the

combination of the velocity saved with the pattern and the velocity of your playing.

Sync to Beat is

Setting the Pattern Length Limit

When you work with multiple kits in different kit slots, they each have different patterns and these patterns or styles can differ in length. In this case, the corresponding players must use

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

different loop intervals. You can set up this interval with the Pattern Length Limit parameter in the Pad Settings section.

EXAMPLE

If you have two patterns, and pattern A plays one bar on the rst kit and pattern B plays four bars on the second kit, pattern A loops four times while pattern B is only played once.

During regular playback, this works as expected, because the overall loop only plays for as long as you hold down a key. However, if Jam Mode is activated, it is necessary to specify at which moment playback must switch between pads. This is especially important for intros, lls, and endings.

EXAMPLE

If pattern A is a 1-bar ll that plays an Acoustic Agent style, and pattern B is a 4-bar Percussion Agent style, you want to play the ll and then jump back to the main pattern pad. This requires a reference length that forces the pad to play only this one bar. To set the reference length, set the length limit to Min. This way, playback switches between pads as soon as the shortest pattern or style has

nished playing.

Jam Mode

EXAMPLE

If you want to create a main drum rhythm that contains a 4-bar drum style with a 1-bar percussion pattern, you set Pattern Length Limit to Max to allow the drum style to play its full length and to let the percussion pattern loop four times.

If you set the length limit to Max, the longest pattern denes when to switch between pads. This can be useful for exclusive pads for which the Jam State is set to Standard, because they do not change automatically to another pad but continue to play until you trigger another pad.

EXAMPLE

If you use a pad with an ending that is based on a 2-bar le, but you only want to play a 1-bar ending, set Pattern Length Limit to 1 to make playback stop after one bar.

Jam Mode allows you to automatically switch between pattern pads during playback. For example, you can switch from an intro to a verse, or from a ll back to the previous verse, or even automatically stop playback.

If Jam Mode is activated in the transport section, the Play Mode and Trigger Mode parameters are not available for pads in Exclusive mode. These pads are played back with a single click. Patterns only switch after entire bars. Pattern pads for which the Exclusive Mode button is deactivated behave like normal.

NOTE

Jam States

How the pattern pads behave in Jam Mode is dened by the Jam State parameter. This parameter is available if the Jam Mode button and the Exclusive Mode button are activated for a pattern pad.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

RELATED LINKS

Jam State on page 74

Using Jam Mode

Jam Mode allows you to play along and jam with Groove Agent. It is much more exible than a

static song or pattern list.

PROCEDURE

1. Load an intro, a verse, a ll, and an ending to four consecutive pattern pads.

2. Activate Exclusive Mode for all four pads and set up the Jam State as follows:

3. Activate Jam Mode.

4. Trigger the pad with the intro.

5. Trigger the pad with the ll. After the ll, playback switches back to the pad with the verse

6. Trigger the pad with the ending. Playback stops once the ending is completed.

●

Set the rst pad containing the intro to Next.

●

Set the second pad containing the verse to Standard.

●

Set the third pad containing the ll to Return.

●

Set the fourth pad containing the ending to Stop.

The Play button starts blinking to indicate that Groove Agent is waiting for a pattern pad to be triggered.

The intro is played back. Then, playback switches to the pad that contains the verse and plays back the verse in a loop.

and plays it back in a loop.

Playing Individual Patterns in Jam Mode

If Global mode is deactivated, Jam Mode works independently for each kit slot. You can activate Jam Mode for multiple kit slots and jam on all of them.

PROCEDURE

1. Load two kits in two slots and activate Jam Mode for the rst kit.

The Play button starts blinking.

2. Trigger a pattern pad so that it starts to play.

3. Now switch to the second kit and activate Jam Mode here, too.

As for the rst kit, the Play button starts blinking and waits for a pattern to be triggered.

NOTE

To activate/deactivate Jam Mode for all kit slots simultaneously, Shift-click the Jam Mode button.

4. Trigger a pad. Playback of this pad now joins the playback of the rst pad at the current play position.

RESULT

You can now switch between the two running kit slots and switch pattern pads.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Jam Mode and Follow Transport

If Follow Transport is activated in the kit slot section, Groove Agent reacts to the transport commands in the DAW.

If Follow Transport and Jam Mode are both activated, playback in Groove Agent begins as soon as the host transport starts.

If Exclusive mode is activated for the selected pad, playback starts with this pad. If Exclusive mode is not activated, playback starts with the rst pad for which Jam Mode is set to Standard.

If you stop playback in the DAW, it also stops in Groove Agent.

However, if playback in Groove Agent stops, either because you use the Stop button or because playback reaches a pad that is set to Stop, playback in the host application still continues. If, at a later stage, you use the Play button in Groove Agent again, playback resumes at the project cursor position of the host application.

Overview Page

The Overview page shows which patterns and styles are assigned to the pattern pads of the loaded kits. The columns correspond to the kits in the kit rack.

For each kit slot, the 16 pattern pads of the selected pattern group are displayed. Cells in which a name is displayed have a pattern or style assigned. If a pattern is assigned to a pad, its background is gray. If a style is assigned, its background is dark blue.

● To activate/deactivate playback for a pad, click its Pad Active button.

This allows you to mute individual pads in Global mode.

● To load a pattern or style, click the small triangle on the right in a cell and select a le in the Load dialog.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Overview Page Context Menu

The context menu contains the available editing functions.

Show in File Explorer/macOS Finder

Opens the folder on your system in which the current user MIDI pattern or style is stored.

Clear

Removes the assignment for the selected pattern pad.

Clear Column

Removes all assignments for the selected pattern group.

Convert Style to MIDI Pattern

Converts the style used by the pattern pad into a MIDI pattern.

Convert Percussion Style to MIDI Pattern

Converts the percussion style used by the pattern pad into a MIDI pattern.

Load Pattern Group

Allows you to load a pattern group.

Save Pattern Group

Saves the current settings as pattern group.

Delete Pattern Group

Allows you to delete a pattern group.

NOTE

You can delete your user pattern groups. Factory content cannot be deleted.

Assigning Patterns and Styles to Cells

You can assign patterns or styles to the cells on the Overview page using the Load panel or the Load dialog.

PROCEDURE

● Do one of the following:

Click the arrow icon on the right of a cell to open the Load dialog, select the pattern

●

or style that you want to use and click OK.

Open the MIDI or Styles page in the Load section, activate Auto Play, step through

●

the list until you found the le that you want to load and double-click it.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Moving and Copying Patterns and Styles

The Overview page offers several possibilities to move, copy, or exchange the patterns or styles between the cells.

● To switch the content of two cells, drag a cell to another cell.

● To copy a pattern or style of a cell to another cell, hold down Alt and drag the cell to another cell.

● To move or copy patterns or styles to other groups, hold down Alt and drag the cell rst over the corresponding group button.

This switches the Overview page to display this group. Now, you can drop the content on the destination cell.

NOTE

● If you try to move or copy a style to a cell for an agent that does not support them, the styles are automatically converted to MIDI patterns.

● If you load a pattern group that contains styles into a slot for an agent that does not support these styles, they are automatically converted to MIDI patterns.

Opening Patterns in the Pattern Editor

● To create a new pattern, double-click an empty cell.

This opens the Pattern editor where you can enter events to create a new pattern.

● To edit an existing pattern, double-click the cell.

This opens the Pattern editor where you can edit the events of the pattern.

NOTE

You can only edit patterns in the Pattern editor, not styles. If you want to edit your styles this way, you must

RELATED LINKS

Converting Intros, Main Patterns, Fills, or Endings into MIDI Patterns on page 71 Pattern Editor on page 81

rst convert the part of the style to a MIDI pattern.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Pattern Editor

In the Pattern editor, you can create and edit MIDI drum patterns.

● To open the Pattern editor, click the Pattern tab on the Edit page.

NOTE

The Pattern editor is only available for MIDI patterns, not for styles. You can convert styles to MIDI patterns on the Agent page.

The editor is subdivided into several sections:

● The title bar showing the name of the current pattern at the top.

● The toolbar below the title bar.

● The drum sounds list on the left.

● The event display on the right. In the event display, the drum notes are shown.

● The controller lane at the bottom.

Drum Sounds List

In the list on the left, the drum sounds are listed. What is shown in the list depends on the Visibility setting on the Conguration pop-up menu.

The columns show the key, the pad name, the quantize setting, and the mute status of the pads.

NOTE

The column sorting is xed, you cannot change it.

Drum Sounds List Context Menu

Depending on whether you right-click the column header or the instrument lane, different options are available on the context menu.

The column header context menu contains the following options:

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Select All Notes

Clear Pattern

Delete Double Notes

Trim Pattern to Start/End

Duplicate Pattern

Selects all notes in the Pattern editor.

Deletes all notes in the Pattern editor.

Deletes all double notes in the Pattern editor, that is, all notes that are placed on top of other notes at the same positions.

Double notes can occur when quantizing, drawing in notes, etc.

Deletes all notes outside the pattern start and end markers.

Copies all events between the pattern start and end markers and pastes them after the end marker. If any events are located after the end marker, these are deleted.

Classify Pattern

This option is only available if you have used the Classify Slices function on the Slice tab for the instrument pad.

● Use Best Classied Slices: Moves the notes of each class to the cleanest

sounding slice of the class.

For example, if a sliced loop has clean sounding kicks and kicks with a crash or hihat on top, Use Best Classied Slices moves the notes to the slice with the cleanest sounding kick. This way, the sliced loop plays only with the cleanest sounding slices.

● Use Longest Slices: Moves the notes of each class to the longest slice of the

class.

This is useful if you want to play a sliced loop slower than its original tempo. If you slow down the tempo of a sliced loop, shorter slices can produce gaps. But if the sliced loop plays only with the longest slice of each class, these gaps are avoided.

On the context menu for the instrument lanes, the following options are available:

Select All Notes on <Key>

Selects all notes on the selected key.

Delete All Notes on <Key>

Deletes all notes on the selected key.

Delete Double Notes on <Key>

Deletes all double notes on the selected key, that is, all notes that are placed on top of other notes at the same positions.

Double notes can occur when quantizing, drawing in notes, etc.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Pattern Editor Toolbar

The toolbar contains tools, visibility options, and settings for creating and editing your patterns

Pattern editor.

in the

Object Selection

Use this tool to select drum notes.

Drumstick

Use this tool to draw in individual drum notes. To remove a note, click on it.

Erase

Use this tool to remove drum notes.

Zoom

Use this tool to zoom in on the click position. Hold down Alt to zoom out.

Mute

Use this tool to mute individual drum notes.

Lines

Use this tool to enter a line of drum notes or controller values.

Auto-Scroll

Activates/Deactivates auto-scroll.

If Auto-Scroll is activated, the grid scrolls automatically during playback so that the position cursor is always visible.

Show Controller Lane

Activate this button to show the controller lane at the bottom of the editor. In the controller lane, you can enter and edit MIDI controller values.

Show Note Length

Switches the display of the notes between diamonds and bars. If bars are shown, you can edit the note length.

Show Info Line

Shows/Hides the info line.

● ● If a note is selected, the info line shows the start, end, length, key, and

velocity of the note event.

To edit a parameter, double-click on the value, enter a new value, and press Return.

● If no note is selected, the info line shows the start and the end beat of the pattern.

To change the pattern start, enter a new value or drag the start marker in the display to a new position. To change the pattern end, enter a new value or drag the end marker in the display to a new position.

NOTE

Notes after the pattern end and before the pattern start are not played back. However, they are not deleted when you change the pattern start/end.

Conguration

If you click the Conguration button, the following options are available:

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Preview Notes

Show Pad Colors

Visibility

If this button is activated, notes are played back automatically when you create or select them.

If this button is activated, the notes in the editor are shown in the colors of the corresponding pads.

This allows you to keep a better overview over the different instruments if you are working with sliced loops that have been classied into kick, snare, hihat, etc.

● If you select Show All Keys, the list is sorted chromatically, starting with the lowest key (C-2) at the top and ending with the highest key (G8) at the bottom of the list.

● Select Show Keys with Events to show all keys for which MIDI notes are available at the top of the list. Keys that do not contain MIDI notes are not shown.

● Select Show Keys with Pad Assignments to show all keys for which samples are assigned to the pads. Keys without sample assignments are not shown.

● Select Reverse Sorting to reverse the sorting order of the drum sounds list.

Create Notes when drawing Velocity

If this is activated, MIDI note events are automatically created when you draw in velocity events on the controller lane.

To the right of the Conguration button, the following tools and options are available:

Snap

● If Snap is activated, notes snap to the grid when you create or move them.

● If Snap is deactivated, you can move notes freely to any position.

NOTE

When working with the drumstick tool, you can deactivate Snap temporarily by pressing Ctrl/Cmd. This way, you can position notes freely.

Velocity for new notes

Determines the velocity of notes that are entered in the Pattern editor.

● Click the button to select one of the four predened velocity values, or enter the velocity value manually in the value eld on the right.

Iterative Quantize On/Off

Determines whether the notes are quantized exactly to the set quantize grid, or whether they are quantized iteratively, that is, moved half the way to the next quantize note value.

Global Quantize On/Off

Allows you to select which value is used when Snap is activated – the global quantize value on the toolbar or the individual quantize values for the drum sounds.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Record MIDI

Auto Quantize

Metronome

Precount Click

Metronome Volume

Pattern Length

Enables the live recording of MIDI events.

If this button is activated, Groove Agent automatically quantizes the recorded notes according to either the note value set in the Quantize is activated, according to the global quantization note value.

Activates/Deactivates the metronome for live recording of MIDI events.

Activates/Deactivates a 1-bar precount for the metronome for live recording of MIDI events.

Sets the volume of the click for live recording of MIDI events. To reset the setting,

Ctrl/Cmd-click the button.

Displays the length of the pattern.

Q column of the instrument or, if Global

● To change the pattern length, enter a new value.

Time Signature

Determines the time signature. You can enter the new signature as fractions of beats.

Creating and Editing Patterns

You can create new patterns or edit existing patterns in the Pattern editor.

PROCEDURE

1. Select the Drumstick tool.

2. Click in the editor to add new notes or modify the existing notes.

3. Optional: Enter controller values for the selected drum sound in the controller lane.

4. Optional: Enter a name for the pattern in the title bar.

5. Click the Save MIDI Pattern button in the title bar.

RESULT

The pattern is saved in the User folder and can now be loaded via the pattern menu on the title bar.

Entering, Editing, and Previewing Notes

● To enter notes, select the Drumstick tool and click in the event display.

To enter a note and specify its velocity at the same time, hold down Ctrl/Cmd-Shift, click in the event display and drag up to increase the velocity, and down to decrease the velocity.

NOTE

You can deactivate Snap temporarily by pressing Ctrl/Cmd. This way, you can position notes freely even if Snap is activated on the toolbar.

● To preview an instrument, click in the Key column for the Instrument.

● To mute a drum sound, click in the Mute column for the sound.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

● To change the length of a note, activate the Show Note Length button on the toolbar,

● To move a note, drag it to another position.

● To delete a note, click it with the Erase tool.

● To cut, copy, and paste notes, use the standard key commands.

● To duplicate notes, select them and press Ctrl/Cmd-[D].

NOTE

When entering, editing, and duplicating notes, double notes can occur, that is, notes that are placed exactly on top of other notes. To remedy this, right-click the header of the drum sounds list and select

Quantizing Notes

move the mouse pointer over the border of the note so that a double-arrow is shown, then click and drag left or right.

If Snap to Grid is activated, the note end or start snaps to the grid when you change the note length.

Notes are pasted at the cursor position.

Duplicated notes are inserted after the last note of the selection, according to the set grid.

Delete Double Notes.

You can draw notes with a global quantization grid or with an individual quantization grid for each instrument.

● To draw notes with the global quantization grid, set the Quantize Presets pop-up menu to the quantize value that you want to use and activate the

NOTE

If you activate Iterative Quantize, the notes are not aligned with the exact quantize note positions, but are moved halfway there.

● To change the quantize value for a pad, click the Q column for the sound and select another value from the pop-up menu.

Dening the Length of a Pattern

Changing the length of a pattern in the Pattern editor allows you to add a pause behind the last MIDI event of the pattern, for example.

PROCEDURE

● Drag the end marker to a new position on the timeline.

If you drag the end marker to the left and the bars behind the end marker are empty, the length of the pattern is shortened automatically.

If you drag the end marker to the left and the bars behind the end marker contain MIDI events, the length of the pattern is shortened only to the bar that contains the last MIDI event. No MIDI events are deleted.

Global Quantize button.

Dening the Playback Range

You can specify the range of the pattern that you want to be played back.

PROCEDURE

● To dene which part of a pattern is played back, drag the start and end markers of the pattern on the timeline.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

RESULT

MIDI events before the start or after the end marker are not played back.

Trimming Patterns

If you edit a pattern by changing its length, you can remove the notes and controllers that are no longer part of the pattern.

PROCEDURE

1. Set up the pattern start and end to encompass the range that you want to use for the pattern.

2. Right-click in the column header section of the drum sounds list, and select Trim Pattern to Start/End.

RESULT

All events outside the pattern start and end borders are removed.

Editing Controllers on the Controller Lane

The controller lane below the event display shows MIDI controller events for the selected drum sound. You can show one MIDI controller at a time.

● To switch to another controller, click the name of the active controller and select another one from the list.

● To draw in controller events for the notes of the selected drum sound, move the mouse pointer over the controller lane and click.

● To draw in a series of controller events, use the Lines tool, and click and drag in the controller lane.

To select the mode for the Lines tool, click the arrow button to the right of the tool and select an option from the menu.

If Line is selected, you can click and drag to create a straight line of controller values.

If Parabola, Sine, Triangle, or Square are selected, you can insert a series of controller events representing the corresponding curve shapes.

● To control the open state of the hihat for an Acoustic Agent kit, select the controller CC#4

Foot and enter the controller events.

Modulating the Pitch of Beat Agent Samples

The Pattern editor allows you to modulate the pitch of Beat Agent samples that are assigned to instrument pads.

PREREQUISITE

You have added samples to your instrument pads and you have edited the samples to your liking.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

PROCEDURE

1. Open the Pitch tab for a pad and select a MIDI controller on the MIDI Controller pop-up

2. In the Pattern editor, open the controller lane pop-up menu and select the MIDI controller

3. Draw in controller data to modulate the pitch of the samples.

RESULT

The pitch of the sample is no longer static but modulated by the controller lane.

NOTE

You can assign several controllers to different samples/pads and control their pitches with multiple controller curves from within one pattern.

menu.

This makes the samples available for pitch modulation in the Pattern editor.

that you selected for the pad.

At a value of 65, the sample is played back without changes. Values above 65 increase the pitch, and values below 65 lower the pitch.

Velocity Editing Options

If the Velocity controller values are displayed on the controller lane, several editing functions are available for selections.

If several MIDI notes are selected in the Pattern editor, their velocity values are enclosed in a selection rectangle on the controller lane. This rectangle offers you a variety of editing functions for the velocity curve.

Tilt Left

If you click in the upper left corner of the rectangle, you can tilt the left part of the curve. This allows you to tilt the event values at the start of the curve upwards or downwards.

Compress Left

If you Alt-click in the upper left corner of the editor, you can compress or expand the left part of the curve. This allows you to compress or expand the event values at the start of the curve.

Scale Vertically

If you click in the middle of the upper border of the editor, you can scale the curve vertically. This allows you to raise or lower the event values of the curve in percent.

Tilt Right

If you click in the upper right corner of the editor, you can tilt the right part of the curve. This allows you to tilt the event values at the end of the curve upwards or downwards.

Compress Right

If you Alt-click in the upper right corner of the editor, you can compress or expand the right part of the curve. This allows you to compress or expand the event values at the end of the curve.

Working With Pads Pattern Pads

Scale Around Absolute Center

If you click in the middle right border of the editor, you can scale the curve absolute to its center. This allows you to raise or lower the event values horizontally around the center of the editor.

Scale Around Relative Center

If you Alt-click in the middle right border of the editor, you can scale the curve relative to its center. This allows you to raise or lower the event values horizontally around the center of the editor.

Recording MIDI Events Live

Instead of entering notes one by one using the tools in the Pattern editor, you can also record MIDI events live.

PREREQUISITE

To enable the live recording of MIDI events, click the Record MIDI button on the toolbar of the Pattern editor or the Record button in the transport section above the pad section. The Record button in the transport section blinks to indicate that it is armed.

PROCEDURE

1. Optional: Activate the Metronome and specify a Precount Click.

2. To start live recording, do one of the following:

● Click the Play button in the pad section.

● Trigger the pattern pad for which you want to record the notes.

● Activate Follow Transport in the kit slot section and start playback in the sequencer

application. This is especially useful if you want to record Groove Agent in the project context.

3. Play notes and MIDI controllers on your MIDI keyboard.

If Auto Quantize is activated, the notes are recorded at the quantize grid positions.

The recording runs in a cycle over the whole length of a pattern.

RESULT

The notes that you play are added to the existing notes in the pattern.

NOTE

If you record notes or controller events over already existing notes or controllers, these are replaced by the new ones.

NOTE

Jam Mode and Record MIDI cannot be used together. The Record button is not active in Jam Mode. If you activate Jam Mode during recording, recording is stopped.

RELATED LINKS

Kit Slot on page 33

Beat Agent

Beat Agent is a full beat production instrument with all the tools and sounds to create amazing beats for any electronic or urban music genre.

Many amazing sounding drum kits are included, alongside all the advanced features that you need to edit existing kits and create your own ones.

Beat Agent also excels in manipulating samples and loops, with features like automatic loop slicing, one-click drum hit replacement, an onboard FX rack and much, much more.

Beat Agent Sound Editing

On the Edit page for instrument pads, you set up the sound of the kits.

●

To open the Edit page, click the Edit button in the upper section of the plug-in panel.

The Edit page contains the Main, Pitch, Filter, Amp, Sample, Slice, Decompose, MIDI FX, and

Recorder tabs.

Absolute and Relative Editing

When editing multiple samples, you can either change values absolutely for all the samples (ABS) or make relative changes (REL), depending on the setting of the corresponding button on the toolbar.

● If you use absolute editing and you change a parameter from 50 % to 60 % for one sample, all other samples are also set to 60 %.

If you use relative editing and you change a parameter from 50 % to 60 % in one sample,

● another selected sample that was set to 70 % is set to 80 %.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

NOTE

Relative changes can be made for all parameters that can be adjusted continuously. Changes of parameters that select one of multiple modes or switch between two states are always absolute.

RELATED LINKS

Multi Selection and Parameter Controls on page 8

Showing Information About the Pads

Below the pads in the pad section, you can nd two buttons that allow you to show more information on the instrument pads.

Show Pad Info

Activate Show Pad Info to show the pad number, the number of samples, and the output on the pads.

Show Exclusive Groups

Activate Show Exclusive Groups to show the exclusive group settings for the pads. If you move the mouse over a pad that belongs to an exclusive group, all pads that belong to the same exclusive group are highlighted. If a hidden pad group contains pads that belong to the same exclusive group, a red LED above the group button lights up.

Locking Color and Output Settings

Locking the color and output settings for the pads allows you to switch between different kits while keeping these settings.

PROCEDURE

1. Right-click the lock button below the pads.

2. On the context menu, specify which parameters you want to lock for the pads.

If the button lights up, at least one setting is locked for the pads.

Editing Selected Samples or All Samples

You can apply your editing either to the selection (SEL) or to all samples of the pad (PAD), depending on the setting of the corresponding button on the toolbar.

Soloing the Focused Sample

When you work with layered samples, there may be situations where you want to listen to and edit one single sample. For this, you can solo the focused sample.

If Play Focused Sample Solo on the top right of the Edit page is activated, only the focused sample is played when you trigger the pad, which enables you to edit individual samples in detail.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

NOTE

This button is only available if Edit Selected Samples or Pads is set to SEL.

Assigning Samples to Pads

You can assign samples to pads by using drag and drop, replace existing samples using the mapping view context menu, or add samples to pads using the Browser.

You can drag one or more samples from the File Explorer/macOS Finder and from your host application onto

● To assign a sample to a pad, drag it onto the pad.

You can drag les from the following locations of the host application:

● MediaBay

● Project window

● Pool

● Sample Editor (regions)

● Audio Part Editor

● LoopMash slices

Groove Agent. Samples can be mapped to the same pad, or to different pads.

When you drag one or more samples onto a pad, the drop icons are shown. These determine whether the samples are added to the pad, whether the current sample is replaced with the one you are dragging, or whether the samples that you drag are assigned to multiple consecutive pads.

● Drag samples to the topmost drop icon to add them to the pad.

You can assign up to 32 samples to a pad.

● Drag one or more samples to the middle drop icon to replace the currently assigned samples with the ones that you are dragging.

● Drag several samples to the lowest drop icon to assign them to several consecutive pads in one or in several groups.

A yellow border is shown around the pads that receive one of the samples.

NOTE

How many samples can be dropped to several pads depends on the number of available pads.

If Groove Agent cannot supply a sucient number of free pads for the number of dropped samples, a dialog is displayed, allowing you to proceed or cancel the operation. If pads already contained samples, these are replaced.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

RELATED LINKS

Mapping View on page 95

Moving and Copying Samples between Pads

You can be move and copy samples between pads, and even between different pad groups, using drag and drop.

● To move the samples from one pad to another pad, drag the pad onto the destination pad.

Depending whether you drag it onto the top, middle, or bottom drop icon, the samples are added to the samples on the destination pad, or they replace any samples on the destination pad, or they are inserted onto the destination pad and the following pads.

NOTE

To copy the samples instead of moving them, keep Alt pressed when dragging the samples.

NOTE

When you copy pads that are part of a sliced loop, they are pasted as normal instrument pads, that is, they are no longer related to the loop.

Moving and Copying Samples between Groups

To move or copy the samples to pads in another group, drag the samples on the group button rst to show the group, and then to the new pad.

The options are the same as when moving samples between pads of the same group.

Moving Sliced Loops

You can move sliced loops with one drag and drop operation.

● Drag the rst slice of the loop and move it onto the pad section.

When you start dragging, Groove Agent shows the pads on which the sliced loop can be dropped, that is, the pads that are followed by enough empty pads to insert all the slices. Pads on which the loop cannot be dropped are grayed out.

● Drop the slice on the pad from which you want to start inserting slices.

Assigning Samples to Outputs

You can assign the output of an instrument pad to one of the available output busses. This allows you to apply external effect plug-ins to your samples or apply internal effects to the samples on a single pad, for example.

To apply your external effect plug-ins, assign the pad to one of the plug-in outputs. This allows you to edit the signals from this output in the MixConsole of your Steinberg DAW, for example.

To apply the internal effects on the samples of an instrument pad, assign it to one of the Beat Agent busses and add effects to this bus in the Agent mixer.

Removing Samples From Pads

To remove a sample from a pad, right-click it and select Remove Sample from the context

● menu.

To remove all samples of a pad, right-click one of the samples and select Remove Selected

● Samples.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

NOTE

If the PAD/SEL button is set to PAD, you cannot select individual samples and Remove Selected

Samples removes all samples of the pad.

Changing the Order of Pads

By default, instrument pads are sorted chromatically, based on the standard mapping. However, in some cases, you may want to display pads from other groups within a particular group. Therefore, you can exchange the position of pads.

For example, often a second bass drum is mapped to B0, which can be found in pad group 2. Most of the other common drum kit instruments are, however, located in group 3. If you want to see the second bass drum together with the other instruments of group 3, exchange the B0 pad with an unused pad in group 3.

● To exchange two pads, hold down Shift and drag one pad onto another pad.

This exchanges the entire contents of the pads with all their settings.

● To see whether the order of the pads differs from the standard sorting, you can either check the trigger notes of the pads to see whether they are mapped chromatically or not, or you can click the Info button to see the pad index of all pads.

● To reset the order of all pads to a chromatic order, open the context menu for a pad and select Reset Pad Order.

Saving Beat Agent Instruments

You can save Beat Agent instrument pads with all their settings as separate instruments.

PROCEDURE

1. Set up the instrument pad to your liking.

2. Right-click the pad and select Save Instrument.

RESULT

The pad is saved as a separate instrument and can be accessed via the Instruments tab on the

Load panel.

Loading Beat Agent Instruments

You can load your saved instruments to an instrument pad. This is useful if you want to reuse your pads, or use them as basis for other instruments.

PROCEDURE

1. On the Load panel, open the Instruments tab.

2. Navigate to the instrument that you want to use.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

3. Optional: Use the Prelisten controls below the results list to listen to the instruments.

4. When you have found the instrument that you want to use, double-click it or drag it onto

Mapping View

The mapping view shows the sample mapping of the selected pad.

You can replace and remove samples in the mapping view and adjust their velocity ranges. The focused sample is displayed in a lighter color.

NOTE

The mapping view always shows the velocity ranges, even if they are not used to trigger samples.

RELATED LINKS

Main Tab on page 97

This helps you to nd the instrument that works best in your current context.

the instrument pad.

NOTE

You can also load instruments via the pad context menu.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

Editing the Mapping of a Pad

A pad can contain up to 32 samples.

● You can add samples by dropping them onto the mapping view. They can be inserted between two other samples, behind the last sample, or in front of the rst sample. This is indicated by a red insert line.

● To replace a sample, drag a new sample onto an existing sample. Which sample will be replaced is indicated by a red frame.

●

To change the order of the samples, drag them to a new position.

●

To map a sample to another pad, drag it onto the pad.

This removes the sample from the current pad. To map the sample to another pad without losing the current mapping, hold down

●

To change the velocity range, select a sample in the mapping view and enter new values in the Hi and Lo elds on the right or position the mouse between two samples, so that a double-arrow is shown, and drag to the left or right.

Alt while dragging.

NOTE

Changing the velocity range of a sample automatically adapts adjacent samples, that is, velocity ranges cannot overlap.

Replacing Samples

You can replace individual samples in the mapping view with other samples on your hard disk.

PROCEDURE

1. Right-click the sample and select Replace Sample from the context menu.

2. In the le dialog, navigate to the le that you want to use instead, select it, and click Open.

RESULT

The sample is replaced.

Mapping View Context Menu

The commands on the mapping view context menu allow you to manage the samples that are used on the pads.

NOTE

You can only apply the context menu commands to individual samples if the Edit Selected Samples or Pads button is set to SEL . Otherwise, the entire pad content is affected.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

Replace Sample

Allows you to replace the focused sample.

Cut Samples

Cuts the selected samples to the clipboard.

Copy Samples

Copies the selected samples to the clipboard.

Paste Samples

Pastes the samples from the clipboard to the focused pad. The pasted samples are inserted after the selected sample on the destination pad. All samples are evenly distributed over the velocity range.

NOTE

You can copy and paste samples between the pads of a kit, but also between different kits and even between different

Remove Samples

Removes the selected samples.

Groove Agent instances.

Main Tab

The Main tab gives you access to the sample mapping of the pad as well as to the most important parameters.

The Main tab shows a simplied sample editor. You can adjust the sample start and end markers, the fade-in and fade-out markers, and the fade curves in the display.

Mode

Determines the trigger mode for the samples of a pad:

● In Velocity mode, the incoming velocity determines which sample is played.

● In Layer mode, all samples are played at the same time, regardless of their

velocity.

● In Round Robin mode, the samples are played repeatedly one after the other,

from left to right.

● In Random mode, samples are played randomly. Repetitions can occur.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

● In Random Exclusive mode, samples are played randomly, but repetitions are

Poly

Sets the maximum polyphony of a pad. For example, if this is set to 4, you can trigger a pad 4 times before notes are stolen.

NOTE

The polyphony value represents the number of notes that can sound simultaneously, therefore triggering layered samples on a pad may lead to a much higher number of actual sample voices.

Fade

Species the time it takes for a voice to fade out when voices are stolen.

NOTE

You can specify different fade settings for the different samples of a pad.

Exclusive Group

This allows you to assign a pad to one of 32 exclusive groups. Pads within a group are never played back simultaneously. When a new note is played, the previous note stops.

not allowed.

Volume

Sets the level of the sample.

Pan

Sets the position of the sample in the stereo panorama.

Coarse

Adjusts the tuning in semitones.

Fine

Adjusts the ne tuning in cents.

Cutoff

Controls the cutoff frequency of the lter.

NOTE

Cutoff, Resonance, and Distortion are only available if a lter is used.

Resonance

Sets the lter resonance.

Distortion

Sets the amount of distortion. The effect of this parameter depends on the selected lter mode.

Output

The output to which the samples are routed. The following outputs are available:

● The Kit Mix.

● One of the 16 Agent mixer channels.

● One of the 16 stereo output busses of the plug-in.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

● One of the AUX channels. This allows you to create sub groups, for example.

NOTE

These outputs can all contain insert effects.

Playback Quality

Sets the quality.

● Standard: Select this mode to play back the samples with their original bit

● Vintage: Select this mode to emulate the sound quality of early 12-bit drum

● Turntable mode is similar to Vintage mode. The samples are played with

NOTE

Samples that are routed to an output that is deactivated in your host application are automatically sent to the Master output of the plug-in.

depth and sample rate.

machines. The detuning of the samples produces the typical aliasing effect. The sample rate is limited to 26040 Hz.

12bit/26040 Hz. Use this mode to emulate the typical workow of hip hop producers. Because the rst digital drum machines only had a very limited amount of RAM, turntables were sampled at a speed of 45 RPM instead of 33 1/3 RPM. This way, more samples could be saved into the available RAM. During playback, the samples were tuned down, to correct for the change in pitch. This added the typical crunch and aliasing that the early drum machines are famous for.

NOTE

If Vintage or Turntable is selected for a sample, you cannot edit the sample using the AudioWarp functions on the Sample tab. If you try to select one of these modes for a sample that uses AudioWarp, a warning message is displayed.

Filter Type

Sets the lter type. You can choose between Classic, Tube Drive, Hard Clip, Bit Reduction and Rate Reduction.

To deactivate the lter, select Off.

Filter Shape

● LP 24, 18, 12, and 6 are low-pass lters with 24, 18, 12, and 6 dB/oct.

Frequencies above the cutoff are attenuated.

● BP 12 and BP 24 are band-pass lters with 12 and 24 dB/oct. Frequencies

below and above the cutoff are attenuated.

● HP 6+LP 18 and HP 6+LP 12 are combinations of a high-pass lter with 6

dB/oct and a low-pass lter with 18 and 12 dB/oct, respectively (asymmetric band-pass lter). Frequencies below and above the cutoff are attenuated. Attenuation is more pronounced for the frequencies above the cutoff.

● HP 12+LP 6 and HP 18+LP 6 are combinations of a high-pass lter with 12 and

18 dB/oct and a low-pass lter with 6 dB/oct (asymmetric band-pass lter). Frequencies below and above the cutoff are attenuated. Attenuation is more pronounced for the frequencies below the cutoff.

Beat Agent Beat Agent Sound Editing

● HP 24, 18, 12, and 6 are high-pass lters with 24, 18, 12, and 6 dB/oct.

● BR 12 and BR 24 are band-reject lters with 12 and 24 dB/oct. Frequencies

● BR 12+LP 6 and BR 12+LP 12 are combinations of a band-reject lter with 12

● BP 12+BR 12 is a band-pass lter with 12 dB/oct plus a band-reject lter with

● HP 6+BR 12 and HP 12+BR 12 are combinations of a high-pass lter with 6 and

● AP is an all-pass lter with 18 dB/oct. Frequencies around the cutoff are

● AP+LP 6 is an all-pass lter with 18 dB/oct plus a low-pass lter with 6 dB/oct.

● HP 6+AP is a high-pass lter with 6 dB/oct plus an all-pass lter with 18 dB/oct.

Frequencies below the cutoff are attenuated.

around the cutoff are attenuated.

dB/oct and a low-pass lter with 6 and 12 dB/oct, respectively. Frequencies around and above the cutoff are attenuated.

12 dB/oct. Frequencies below, above, and around the cutoff are attenuated.

12 dB/oct and a band-reject around the cutoff are attenuated.

attenuated.

Frequencies around and above the cutoff are attenuated.

Frequencies around and below the cutoff are attenuated.

lter with 12 dB/oct. Frequencies below and

Editing Envelopes

Beat Agent features pitch, lter, and amplier envelopes. These envelopes are available on the Pitch, Filter, and Amp tabs.

Each of these multisegment envelopes has up to 128 nodes, for which Time, Level, and Curve parameters are available. The nodes and their parameters specify the shape of the envelope. You can edit one or multiple nodes by dragging them in the graphical envelope editor or by entering values manually. When editing an envelope node, a value tooltip displays the current settings of the node.

Fixed

● If Fixed is activated and you move selected nodes on the time axis, only the

● If Fixed is deactivated, all nodes that follow the edited nodes are also moved.

Snap

You can select a second envelope to be displayed in the background of the edited envelope. If Snap is activated and you change the position of nodes, they snap to the nodes of the envelope that is shown in the background.

● To specify the envelope for the background, open the pop-up menu to the

NOTE

Pitch envelope nodes also snap to semitone positions.

selected nodes are moved.

right of the Snap button and select an envelope from the list.

Show Channel Sum/Show Left Channel/Show Right Channel

With these buttons, you can show the sample waveform in the background of the envelope display. Any editing you perform on the envelopes is automatically reected in the waveform.

● Show Channel Sum shows the mono sum of the sample in the display.

● Show Left Channel shows the left channel of the sample.

● Show Right Channel shows the right channel of the sample.

100

Steinberg Groove Agent - 5.0 Operation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Table of Contents

Installation and Setup

Conventions

Typographical Elements

Markup

Key Commands

Installing the Program

Activating Your License

How You Can Reach Us

About the Documentation

Setting Up

Selecting Outputs

Using the Instrument in an AU-Compatible Application

Using the Instrument in an AAX-Compatible Application

Using the Instrument as Standalone Application

Common Editing Methods

Dials and Sliders

Multi Selection and Parameter Controls

Buttons

Value Fields

Using Key Commands

Presets

Handling Section and Module Presets

Handling VST Presets

Loading VST Presets

Saving VST Presets

Getting Started

Window Overview

Agents, Kits, Presets, and Content Files

Loading a Kit

Pattern and Instrument Pads

Browsing for MIDI Patterns and Styles

Playing back Pattern Pads

Converting Styles to MIDI Patterns

Modifying MIDI Patterns in the Pattern Editor

Creating the Different Sections of a Drum Track

Recording Trigger Notes for Your Patterns

Dragging Patterns into a Project

Editing Patterns in the DAW

Working with Multiple Agents

Adding a Second Agent to Complement the First Agent

Adding a Second Agent to Fatten the Sound

Recording the MIDI Output

Note Repeat

Note Repeat Page

Performing Simple Note Repeats

Creating Note Repeat Phrases

Performing Note Repeat Phrases

Creating and Using Note Repeat Variations

Recording the Notes Created by Note Repeat

Recording Patterns on Pattern Pads

Decompose

Decomposing Samples

Combining Noise and Tonal Components of Different Samples

Changing the Distribution of the Tonal and the Noise Components of Samples

Fine-Tuning the Decompose Settings

Managing Your Sounds

Loading Kits

Kit Slot

Kit Rack

Kit Context Menu

Managing and Loading Files

Managing Files via the Kits, Instruments, Styles, and MIDI Pages

Filtering the Results

Results List

Assigning General MIDI Program Change Numbers to Sounds

File Info Section

Prelisten Section for MIDI Patterns and Styles

Prelistening Patterns and Styles

Prelisten Section for Instruments

Loading MIDI Patterns or Styles in Your Host Application

Loading Kits into Slots

Editing Attributes

Deleting User Presets

Loading Files Using the Browser

Path Section