Groove Agent 4 announcement

Drummer in the new Logic X is stellar!!! Fast loading, great sounding samples…simple to use…yet also able to mix.
I hope GA 4 will be able to drag the midi to the track like Superior Drummer as well.
Keep the percussion agent in some form as well please. :slight_smile:
Groove on Steinberg!!!

Great to hear GA4 is coming. I’ve loved and used Groove Agent since it first came out.

I’ve pretty much given up on Steinberg products, since I never remember to carry my dongle with me when I’m out with the laptop, so I’ve high hopes for the new Logic X Drummer, which has much of the functionality of Groove Agent.

But it would be nice if GA4 could:

  1. Drag and drop midi of a loop to a midi track, like most
  2. Drag and drop audio to an audio track

GA3 has the best palette of rhythms and sounds for me. It’s just a shame the dongle makes it nearly unusable for someone who isn’t in a static 1990s studio.

… and about time too… :wink:

My request: break away from “other usual suspects” - we already bought them while waiting …

  1. use different drummers that are masters in their own style. Don’t follow the less expensive option of using one or two session drummers for all style grooves. I’d be willing to pay for personalised expansion options featuring well known masters e.g. Dave Weckle, Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham, Manu Katche, Mike Portnoy etc

  2. the dual agent concept is excellent; improve on it by offering more percussion options. Think Miami Sound machine… :stuck_out_tongue:

  3. the immediacy of the slider concept is brilliant; don’t buy into the drag and drop… that works but is not nearly as much fun or intuitive. Keep the interface simple but allow us to play the kit and styles as if we were directing our own session drummer. Obviously Logic X has nice additions … improve on them

I’m very pleased to see That Groove Agent will be continued.

At the moment I work on a album and use Groove Agent 3 in many tracks.
I’m sure the new Agent will be even better for this task.
I would really appreciate to hear when the new agent will be available!

( I run GA3 in a 64 bit version of Cubase Artist 7.
Works fine with the help of Jbridge, a little tool that helps 32 bit plugins to run in a 64 bit DAW )

Thanks!

Will the new GA be available in the US? :mrgreen:

To me the strength and originality of Groove Agent is in the very easy but powerfull ability in less than a few minutes to get the basis for a song.
The very usefull random features allows you to jam and exercise, to improvise and also to make sketches and is a big help when writing music.

This is what I would like to see in Groove Agent 4:

  1. Style/Genre
    Extend the number of Styles and Genres

  2. Pattern/Fill/Intro/Ending
    Extend the number of patterns and Fills within a Style/Genre
    Add optional intros and endings

  3. Drummer
    Add a “Choose Drummer” Option for each Style/Genre:
    Let several drummers, as talented as Rasmus Kihlberg, play the same kind and number of patterns/Fills within each Style/Genre so we can choose between several drummers for the same style/Genre
    Make this option consistent: the same number of patterns for each drummer within one Style/Genre with aproximatively the same complexity for each pattern would make the patterns interchangeable.

  4. User Library
    Let the user add his own patterns, fills, intros and endings and the ability to create a user library.

  5. Jaming/Random features
    Allow the random pattern/fill function to choose from a greater range of patterns/fills:
    Mode a. adjacent patterns/fills as it is now
    Mode b. extended patterns/fills range
    Mode c. even more extended patterns/fills range
    Mode d. all patterns/fills
    Mode e. random mode (a to d)

  6. Fill control position
    Add a random mode for the Fills Control position

Best regards

Hi , what is the latest on GA 4 being released. I’m happy, but I would have been happier if GA 3 worked with Cubase 7. NO excuse in my opinion. Come on guys, what was the problem?? I’ve been a customer since Cubase VST.
Later Jeff

I’ve been wondering about upgrading GA1 for a while so came here and saw this post. I don’t know if I can wait for the new version but I thought I’d throw my thoughts into the mix:

  • My main beef about GA1 is that the transition between layers is far too abrupt and there doesn’t feel to be enough variation within each layer. Other products make a great play of this. Will GA4?

  • I would like to be able to layer sounds, each delayable.

For all I know, these may have been features of the paid version, but that seems to be by-the-by now.

As I said, I need to find something to overcome the abrupt velocity layering issue pretty rapid so any update on a release date?

Thanks for reading,
C

I’m hoping for something with the great patterns and sounds with the flexibility of platform. My other goto drummer is the Alesis Sr 18. Groove Agent has more interesting patterns and variations but I end up using mr sr18 more because of how quickly i can make a backing drums for a “Song” without programming. I love being able to quickly have a fill, A and B pattern that I can operate with my feet via midi or sustain pedal. If groove agent could do this along with an ipad app (midi pedal option again) I’d be thrilled. I’d also like a really basic sequencing function to string together so many measures of (eg. intro, pattern a, fill, pattern b, fill, repeat, outro).

Don’t forget some kind of tie in between an app option and cubasis. You would really have a unique slice of market by pairing a smart drumming app and cubasis.

Can’t wait to see what is next!

they should really rush with some news, as Maschine 2.0 is coming out: although Maschine is really TOP-level, on workflow, I know GA4 would be something entirely different (groove’s and stuff :smiley:). plus maschine isn’t vst3, which might prevent me of spending another 99$, and wait what Steinberg releases…

Development process: Years ago Steinberg put a project timeline on the website with a marker showing the current status of the development (can’t remember which product, maybe Halion 3?) I thought it was a clever way to keep us informed without committing to a date, while eliminating the “when is it coming out?” posts.

Groove Agent’s main strength is the wide variety of patterns and fills for a given style, in progressive complexities, with MIDI output. Optional integration of that with forms in either the Marker Track [Intro/Verse/Pre-chorus/Chorus/Turnaround/Bridge/Breakdown/Outro/etc.] and/or Arranger Track would help.

GA3’s main disappointment was the lack of MIDI export for the Special Agent and Percussion Agent. Don’t do that again.

When I use Random Fill, I’d like to be able to X out certain fills that aren’t working in a particular song, kind of like LoopMash does.

User patterns and fills would be great. A way to humanize the patterns by introducing subtle pattern variations (not just timing variations) would be a middle road between Jamstix and rigid MIDI patterns, and would lessen the need for “more patterns and fills” than the 25 already provided. How many times have I opened a style set in another product, only to get 5 patterns and 2 fills? That’s a fail.

Is it true that Groove Agent 3 doesn’t work with Cubase 7?

GA One or 4 or 5, needs sounds that are dry. If you want to provide an also pro solution to users or at least really a tool people can work with we would like to kindly ask you to provide us with samples that are dry as otherwise all the sound banks that come with reverb will only be able to be used with that particular reverb!

It would also be really nice to have the Cubase Presets menues worked on. I was looking for a nice BD and had to skip from one preset to the next. Not that it would cause any major thing, but it did take time.
There are many Grooveboxes out there, I believe if you are serious about getting Groove Agent (which I always considered a stable tool) up to a semi pro level it will need the Preset Section BD/Sn/HH/Tom1 /Tom2/ etc… and the dry sounds as well.

All the best

Theo

to whom it may concern:

I purchased Cubase 6 and GA3 in early December of 2012.

Within a very short time I recieved a complimentary upgrade to Cubase 7. No mention was made as to the inherent problems with Cu7 and GA3 on the Steinberg site.

Inasmuch a GA3 does not directly write to Cubase 7, I would certainly appreciate a similar opportunity to upgrade to GA4, at no cost or a greatly discounted price. I’m quite disappointed that GA3 is not being serviced or upgraded to work with Cubase 7.

This issue has caused me to move to other vendors for a solution. Is that what Steinberg marketing desires?

Not a happy camper…
Last edited by cagressett on Sat Feb 16, 2013 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total. cagressett
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Soon it will be a full year with no personal benefit whatsoever from purchasing GA3.
I also have purchased Cubasic Pro and have similar experience. I cannot use unless I disable direct monitoring. Not an option for me. Do I detect a trend??

Hopefully people in my situation will be offered some type of compensation when it’s time to pony up more money for “new” products…

Spam deleted as well as spamer zuluss.

Regards

Good!

Hi ,
I’m a guitarist and would love Groove agent to react to my playing and build a basic drum pattern that I could export edit or loop. I notice Rocksmith 2014 claims to have a virtual band for jamming that will react to your guitar playing - its that kind of idea but I’m sure stein berg could do a much better job and it needs to be drums only. Almost like a learn mode for groove whereby I can play a guitar part - repeating if necessary - and groove agent will work out a groove for the drums - possibly presenting variations on a groove for me to select my preference.
This would be a very powerful tool for those of us that play instruments but have no knowledge of how to create a drum pattern

11 months announcement? and when release ?

Groove Agent 4 SE in Cubase 7.5 … khm…

I guess … something …

With the release of Cubase 7.5 we are very happy to introduce the first family member of the new Groove Agent 4 series — Groove Agent SE 4.

Groove Agent SE ushers in the future of Steinberg’s virtual drum instruments with a sample engine built on latest HALion technology and based on a new concept superior to previous versions of the Groove Agent series. As I already explained in one of the earlier posts, Groove Agent 4’s new approach provides specialists for different drum purposes which we refer to as Agents. Clearly, a virtual acoustic drum kit with overhead and room miking has different requirements for the GUI and feature set than a drum machine with a sample editor and slicing tool. Groove Agent 4 will sport several different Agents for acoustic and electronic drum productions that can be used individually or combined.

Groove Agent SE on the other hand is limited to just one Agent at a time and introduces Beat Agent, the first Agent dedicated to electronic drums and MPC-like drum sample handling.

Beat Agent is a classic drum sampler with up to 128 pads in 8 groups, 8 sample layers per pad, a very nice editing section with filters, envelopes, sample and slice editor, a mixer section with lots of effects, and a pattern player. When comparing Groove Agent SE to Groove Agent ONE the amount of features has been multiplied while the new workflows lead to a faster and more intuitive editing and designing of your own sounds. Speaking of which, the fourth iteration of Groove Agent isn’t just another new feature in Cubase 7.5, and there’s certainly more to it than can be put down in a couple words.

Since Groove Agent SE 4 is basically the successor of Groove Agent ONE, here now some of the improvements we implemented:

  • Playback modes (vintage and turntable) for authentic 12-bit sound emulation
  • New filters (Classic, tube drive, hard clip, bit red, rate red)
  • Envelopes for pitch, filter and amp
  • New sample editor (Zoom, fade in/out, velocity start range, reverse mode)
  • AudioWarp (music and solo mode)
  • Slicing editor with direct mapping and up to 128 slices
  • Mixer section with 27 effects and 4 Aux buses
  • Pattern player with import and export of MIDI files
  • Custom pad colors

There are some highlights in Groove Agent SE that I would like to point out.

Playback quality modes
Sometimes there are features that hold more than you’d expect at first. The new playback modes in the Beat Agent are these kind of features. Why is it that so many contemporary producers still relay on these old school drum machine heavyweights? It is the 12-bit special sound that adds crispness to your drums and samples. So, in order to make a serious approach to emulate this sound, the team analyzed some of the classic 12-bit drum samplers to get to the bottom of the sound, recorded different samples, from drums to sine sweeps, and experimented with different ideas to replicate the signal flow. As a result, we came up with two different modes: the vintage and the turntable mode. The vintage mode is basically a “high-quality bit-crusher-resampler” that reduces the bitrate to 12 bits and resamples to 26.04 kHz. Add some distortion with the hard clip filter and you will get pretty close to the vintage drum sound that is so popular in hip hop and electronic productions. But that’s only half the story. The limitation of the classic 12-bit drum samplers has always been the memory that only allowed a sample time of about 2.5 seconds. In order to get longer samples into the memory the samples had to be recorded by switching the turntable from 33 RPM to 45 RPM, recording the samples at a higher speed of about +35% and then pulling them back down by just about 5.2 semitones within the sampler. This workaround had significant impact on the sound since it created explicit aliasing artifacts. Exactly this aliasing side effect can be heard when you pitch samples in the vintage mode. In turntable mode the recording at a higher speed and down pitching is simulated in advance to include the aliasing automatically. It may sound strange that adding aliasing artifacts should be a desired effect to enhance a sound, but basically that’s the stuff.

We could have added fixed distortion or low-pass filters and even crackle noise as included with some of the other VST instruments, but that just didn’t feel right. The control of these aspects should be left in the users’ hands. What do you think differently about it?

Slicing
The slicing editor is an adaptation of the one available in HALion 5, with differences in the workflow in order to meet the demands of modern beat production. The transient detection algorithm of the slice editor has been further improved to realize better results when dealing with drum samples. In most cases further editing of the slice points won’t be necessary. You will also notice that as soon as slicing is activated the slices are instantly mapped on the pads and are ready to play. It is basically a one-click solution and makes working with slices very convenient. Additionally, every change in the slice editor will provide instant changes to the mapping on the pads. In the manual mode there is just one slice when you start and with each slice marker added the resulting slice will be automatically mapped on the next pad, making the editing very fast and letting you instantly start playing your slice. Compared to other slicing approaches this workflow feels more like playing an instrument than processing a sample. Another point worth mentioning is that every time a sample is sliced, a MIDI pattern is created that can be exported to your Cubase project or instantly played on the pattern page. This brings us straight to the next feature.

Groove patterns
With the new pattern player in the Beat Agent, MIDI grooves can be triggered directly in the instrument. All of the drum kits come with 8 full grooves and 8 grooves triggering just single kit pieces that can be combined and mixed, i.e., one loop for the kick alone and another for the snare. All grooves can be played in the Beat Agent or exported into your project, and when exporting the MIDI groove into your Cubase 7.5 project, drum maps can be created that read out the pad names from Groove Agent SE for further editing. Vice versa, MIDI files can also be imported into the Beat Agent from the project window, the MediaBay as well as any file explorer.

Deep editing or programming of grooves is not a part of Groove Agent SE though, but there will be way more features available in the full version of Groove Agent 4. We have only just begun…

And this leads us to the last question most of you’d like to have answered:

What about Groove Agent 4?
The development of Groove Agent 4 is now the main focus of the VST instrument team. The recordings of the acoustic drums have been completed, and we are now finalizing the groove recordings. In the tradition of the Groove Agent series the ability to control the complexity for grooves will also be implemented in Groove Agent 4, but that, of course, increases the efforts put into the recordings significantly.

Groove Agent SE or basically the Beat Agent is just one part of the new Groove Agent concept and shows you what Groove Agent 4 will be capable of. Nevertheless, please check out the SE version and let us know what you think. We listened closely to your comments to improve Groove Agent ONE in the past, and considered a lot of your feature requests this time too. Groove Agent 4 is on its way. Still, please have a little more patience. We will keep you up to date.