Steinberg Groove Agent 3 Operation Manual
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Groove Agent 3 2English 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 me- dia. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or other- wise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their re- spective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corpora- tion. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh is a registered trademark. Mac OS X is a registered trademark. Cakewalk SONAR is a registered trademark of Twelve Tone Systems. ReWire is a trademark of Propellerhead Software AB. Logic is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH and Bornemark Software, 2007. All rights reserved.
Groove Agent 3 English 3 ENGLISH Table of Contents 4 Welcome! 6 What is Groove Agent? 6 What’s new in Groove Agent 3? 7 Register Groove Agent! 8 Installation 13 Setting up the instrument 16 First test 16 Groove Agent terminology 18 About the sounds in Groove Agent 31 Using Groove Agent in Classic Mode 32 The LCD window 32 Range 49 Introducing Dual Mode 51 Groove Agent in Dual Mode 52 Special Agent 56 Percussion Agent 62 Ideas on using Dual Mode creatively 63 Import & FX page 68 The Setup page 75 Creating a drum track with Groove Agent 3 77 Using Groove Agent’s MIDI output (Live to host) in Cubase SX 77 Using Groove Agent’s MIDI output (Record to file) 78 Using host automation in Cubase SX 79 Composing with Groove Agent’s Memory slots in Cubase SX 81 About the Groove Agent Styles 108 Tempo Guide 112 80 or 160 BPM, what’s the correct tempo? 113 Jamming with Groove Agent 3 114 Smooth operator 114 Controlling Groove Agent from a MIDI keyboard 118 Contact, Internet 118 Credits 119 Last but not least…
Groove Agent 3 4English Welcome! Somehow I find it hard to believe that I’m sitting in a rented cottage in Skagen, Denmark actually writing the manual for the third generation of Groove Agent. What started out as a rather basic idea about a vir- tual drum machine, has turned into a tool that’s almost a household name amongst computer based musicians around the globe. Third version, consider that! So, how do we meet the expectations from an increasingly demanding group of followers and new potential customers? We’d better be good this time, because the market is full of fine drum tools… Well, we’ve had to change the overall design a bit. The original Groove Agent interface was elegant and easy to use, but provided no room for growth. It would be impossible for us to fit our new modules into the old layout, so we’ve created a new one: Dual Mode. Even though the name itself may not sound too exciting, Dual Mode offers the possibility to use any two modules simultaneously. You may think of it as controlling a drummer and a group of percussionists at the same time. Or a live drummer with added MIDI controlled ele- ments and sounds. Or even as two drummers playing together! Oh, this sends me back to the days of Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs And En- glishmen” tour in 1970… but I digress. My dear friend Paul Kellett, who skillfully programmed the first two versions of Groove Agent, now works exclusively for another music software company. Our new master of ceremonies is Dave Brown, music software authority extraordinaire. He has designed and built a totally new Groove Agent from the ground up. This new code offers a wealth of possibilities, enabling us to present a machine that will load drum kits even faster along with a new built-in nine band EQ/Com- pressor coming directly from Dave’s respected Quantum FX 2. But, software without strong musical content is not of much use. The ever persistent Mats-Erik Björklund has assembled a new range of drum kits. A trusty group of talented musicians have produced 27 new styles for the original Groove Agent module.
Groove Agent 3 English 5 ENGLISH Engineer Marco Manieri, Special Agent Rasmus Kihlberg and producer Sven Bornemark On top of that, one extremely experienced and frequently recorded drummer by the name of Rasmus Kihlberg has recorded some of his best grooves for you. This gives you, the lucky user, instant access to 15 useful styles of live drumming, complete with 25 complexity levels, fills and half tempo feel renditions. And as if that weren’t enough, Ras- mus also took the time to record a bagful of percussion instruments. Again, live grooves that can be arranged into traditional or complex patterns. I feel confident that version 3 is a worthy successor in the Groove Agent series of instruments. Believe me, we spent a lot of effort on this baby. More than two dozen devoted musicians plus a bunch of patient betatesters assisted in turning this drum machine dream into reality. We’ll take a short, well deserved break now before we dig into… well, you’ll see! /Producer
Groove Agent 3 6English What is Groove Agent? Groove Agent 3 is a tool that can help you compose a complete drum track for your song in a few minutes. Groove Agent 3 can provide in- spiration throughout your musical creation process. Groove Agent 3 can be the perfect sparring partner when you’re jamming and practis- ing. Groove Agent 3 can breathe new life into your existing array of in- board and outboard drum and percussion equipment. So Groove Agent 3 can do a lot of things, but first of all it’s a fine helper when you say: – “I can’t program drums” – “I don’t have the time to program drums” – “Inspire me!” What’s new in Groove Agent 3? This third incarnation is a major step up from the previous versions. Consider the following: • Special Agent module with 15 complete drum styles played live by Rasmus Kihlberg. • Percussion Agent module that provides 8 groups of live recorded grooves. • 27 new Groove Agent styles including odd time signatures. • Total number of audio outputs increased from 8 to 12 stereo outputs. • 3 new acoustic drum kits plus an assortment of digital drum machines and percussion. • All new FX section, where every output has its own 9-band EQ with Compressor. • FX presets for individual drums and entire kits can be used as-is or tweaked. • Improved style handling with genre categorization for better overview.
Groove Agent 3 English 7 ENGLISH • New Auto Fill functionality for jamming and practising along with a useful Speed control. • All new Dual Mode where two drum/percussion modules can be run in parallel. • A new Sample Import page allows the users to import and use their own drum samples. Register Groove Agent! Before getting carried away with Groove Agent 3, please take a mo- ment to register. This will entitle you to technical support, and we’ll also keep you up to date with the latest news and updates.
Groove Agent 3 8English Installation The Steinberg key Please read this section before installing the Groove Agent software. Included with the Groove Agent 3 package you will find an activation code for the Steinberg Key (sometimes referred to as a “dongle”), a hardware copy protection device that is part of the Groove Agent copy protection scheme. Groove Agent will not run if there is no Steinberg Key or if the key hasn’t been properly activated. You can separately purchase a new Steinberg Key for use with Groove Agent, or use a key previously bought for use with other Steinberg applica- tions. The Steinberg key The Steinberg Key is, in fact, a little computer on which your Stein- berg software licenses are stored. All hardware-protected Steinberg products use the same type of key, and you can store more than one license on one key. Also, licenses can (within certain limits) be trans- ferred between keys – which is helpful, e.g. if you want to sell a piece of software. • If you have a Windows PC, the installation routine will initiate a restart of Windows after installation of the key drivers and the program soft- ware. After the restart, you can plug the key into the USB port to pro- ceed with the key activation. • If you have an Apple Macintosh computer, there will be no automatic restart. Be sure to read the information regarding the Steinberg Key that is displayed during the installation process.
Groove Agent 3 English 9 ENGLISH • If you already own copy-protected Steinberg software, remove any existing Steinberg Keys from the computer’s USB port during the Groove Agent 3 installation routine. The Steinberg Key must not be plugged in before or during the installa- tion of Groove Agent 3. Otherwise the operating system of your com- puter will register it as new USB hardware and try to find drivers that won’t be present before Groove Agent 3 installation. If you already own a Steinberg Key (e.g. for Cubase or Nuendo), you can load your Groove Agent license onto that one, using the activation code supplied with Groove Agent 3. This way you need only one USB key for both your host application and Groove Agent 3 (see below). System requirements (PC version) To run Groove Agent you’ll need: •Windows XP (Home or Professional). •Intel/AMD Processor 2 GHz minimum. •1 GB RAM. •4 GB free hard disk space. •DVD drive required for installation. •Windows MME compatible audio hardware is required (ASIO compatible audio hardware required for low latency operation). •Steinberg Key (copy protection device) and USB port required. •Internet connection required for license activation. •For using as a plug-in or Rewire slave-device, a VST 2, DXi2 or Rewire compatible host is required. •The Steinberg Key (USB copy protection device) required to run this product is not included. Customers who do not own a Steinberg Key must purchase one separately. The same Steinberg Key copy protection device is then used for all Steinberg products that require it. See the Steinberg website for recommendations on how to set up your audio work station.