Steinberg Groove Agent 3 Operation Manual

Groove Agent 3
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A 70s rock kit. Loud, deep and 
ringing. This kit is big! 
An 80s studio kit. Fresh and modern, 
like on most of today’s CDs.
On top of that, we added stuff that adds color and realism to the dif-
ferent eras and attitudes we wanted to cover. 50s drums played with 
brushes and mallets, 80s kit with rods and additional snares like pic-
colo and deep models. 

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To make the archive complete, we spent a long session recording 
percussion instruments, both those included in the GM protocol plus 
an array of other, interesting sounds: African fur drum, rainstick, tam-
bourine, cascabelles, mouth plop etc.
Recording bongos…
…congas…
… and timbales 

Groove Agent 3
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Engineer Jens Bogren came up with the suggestion that we’d run all 
sounds through an analogue 24 track tape recorder for “that warm 
sound”. Great idea! Coupled with our original intention to produce a 
very complete archive, this is what we actually recorded: 
•Tracks 1-2: closely miked drum. 
•Tracks 3-4: overhead microphones. 
•Tracks 5-6: ambient mics 2 meters away. 
•Tracks 7-8: distant mics 7 meters away. 
After the recording sessions, Per Larsson spent several months...

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Groove Agent 2
The Groove Agent 2 sessions sported Mats-Erik behind the drums 
and as the main sound designer. Engineer for this second round was 
Rickard Bengtsson. Mats-Erik took the opportunity to record some 
useful kits to make the sonic palette even more complete: 
The Studio kit – A top of the 
line set with some of the best 
drums and cymbals around. 
We wanted to achieve a 
sound that would fit in a lot of 
styles that demand a good, 
clean and modern sound. The...

Groove Agent 3
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The Noisy kit – We wanted to 
create a modern drum sound 
using traditional drums. These 
instruments are very small but 
along with the boom-box 
effect they sound much bigger 
than they really are. We 
experimented a lot with 
different digital effects and 
came up with a sound that we 
think will last. The snares are a 
thin, high pitched piccolo and 
a small 10” mini-snare. Some 
of the cymbals are rare vintage 
instruments that are almost 
impossible to find anywhere today,...

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In addition to the acoustic kits, a 
handful of vintage drum machines from 
Sven Bornemark’s private collection 
were added. Some of these beauties 
are over thirty years old, so sampling 
them was not without complications. 
Old analogue gear tends to sound a bit 
different from day to day – and even 
from beat to beat – so when comparing 
the original, built-in rhythms with our 
MIDI renditions, there are some 
differences. However, we think we’ve 
managed to capture...

Groove Agent 3
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Groove Agent 3
With Groove Agent 3 we wanted to add new dimensions to our drum 
tool concept. Session drummer deluxe Rasmus Kihlberg is one of a 
very small group of people capable of delivering live drum grooves 
ranging “from very sparse to very hot”. In 25 steps, with only slight 
variations between each step plus fills and half tempo feel versions of 
all levels! All in all, Rasmus recorded over 1.000 unique grooves be-
hind his drum kits plus hundreds of percussion...

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The second kit was Rasmus’ own Premier Gen-
X set with pinstripe heads. It’s tuned to 
produce a dry, clean, elegant and widely useful 
sound, hence the name “Clean Adult Fun”.
For the third set of recordings, we 
moved into the overly reverberant 
Stone Room, where Rasmus 
played his old, precious Ludwig kit 
from the early sixties, nick-named 
“Fula”. Think “Ringo Starr”, and 
you’ll know what sort of drum set 
we’re talking about. Mother-of-
pearl finish, white heads...

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We’ve spiced up the sonic 
palette with some very well 
known digital drum machines 
from the eighties. 
One such drum machine is the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer that be-
longs to Torgny Söderberg in Skara. It has serial number 00131 and 
was one the first to be sold in Sweden. This was Torgny’s main tool 
during his extremely successful period of songwriting, and conse-
quently this very machine has been heard in more Swedish pop hits 
than any other drum machine.
Hmm, isn’t it...

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Special Agent: Rasmus Kihlberg
Groove Agent 3 sports some totally new modules. In two of them 
we’re able to enjoy the inspiring drumming and fine percussion work 
of Rasmus Kihlberg.
For me as a producer, finding a person like Rasmus was a stroke of 
luck. Even though we’ve been acquainted for over twenty years and 
played together a number of times, it wasn’t until October 2005 that I 
started to think about Rasmus as a very exciting Special Agent.
Some background:...