Steinberg Groove Agent 3 Operation Manual

							Groove Agent 3
100 English
* Vintage FR-3
Original rhythms from a very old drum machine. Slow Rock x 3 
(“home” tempo: 80 BPM). Samba x 4 (110). Rhumba x 3 (130). Be-
guine x 4 (130). Mambo x 4 (140). Bossanova x 3 (145). Rock’n Roll 
x 4 (160). There were no fills in this machine, so we’ve created some 
for you. Same goes for Sidestick and Half Tempo Feel. This baby 
didn’t even have a cymbal! The sound differs somewhat from the real 
thing, in that the original machine sounds a bit different each time it is 
played! MS 
* Vintage TR-7
A slightly newer analogue box. Slow Rock and Ballad x 2 (“home” 
tempo: 80 BPM). Western (90). Samba 1 + 2 (110). Rhumba x 2, Be-
guine x 2, Cha-Cha x 2, Mambo x 2, Baion x 2, Tango and 6/8 March 
(130). Bossa Nova x 3 and Bolero (145). Rock’n Roll 1 x 2 and 
Rock’n Roll 2 (155). MS 
* Vintage CR-8
An almost modern drum machine because you could program it, but 
still analogue sounding. Habanera (“home” tempo: 70 BPM). S. Rock 
(80). Samba 1 + 2 and Merengue (110). Mambo, ChaCha, Tango, 
Beguine, Enka and Rock 1-6 (120). Then comes a combination of 
Rock 1/Rock 4 (120). Disco and Swing 1 + 2 (120). Rhumba and 
Rhumba/ChaCha combination (130). BossaNova and BossaNova/
Mambo combination (145). Foxtrot (160). Combining two rhythms is a 
cool trick! MS
* Meek Ballad
Follow me back to the early 80s. This could be the next great thing… 
The slowly evolving groove adds a few more programmed hits on ev-
ery level, giving you a fair chance to find just the desired complexity. 
The style was created by adding each instrument one by one, just as it 
was in the childhood of these legendary “rhythm composers”. The 
meek shall inherit the earth. NE  
						

							Groove Agent 3
English 101
ENGLISH
* Axis Y
Back in the 80s, people had ugly hair cuts, pink jackets and played on 
hexagonal drums. Beware, because some of that might return any 
day! This style prepares you for at least the musical revival. Put on 
your dancing shoes and get into the groove. NE 
** Click Track
Here's your easy ticket to a more musical click track, to play along with 
in the studio. The fill button is designed to help the drummer get the 
feel for the subdivisions (8ths and 16ths). This style is recorded with 
the subdivisions of even 16th notes but can easily be switched to trip-
let feeling with the “Shuffle” knob. I’d recommend using Click Track 
with the Sidestick button activated. MEB
** League
Inspired by the song “Do or Die” from Human League's milestone al-
bum “Dare” of 1981, this style brings you the full capacity of the leg-
endary Linn LM1. (The last four levels have a somewhat different 
pattern.) Only a few could afford a real Linn drum machine back then, 
but from now on, we suppose there will be a huge revival for this won-
derfully fat piece of sound gear. In its Groove Agent 3 software form, 
of course. NE
** LM Ballad
A ballad is all about emotions, right? Sometimes sweet, sometimes 
painful. Anyway, this is no place for logic and reason, is it? Well, ap-
parently it is. Because even a machine, such as the famous Linn LM-1, 
could be a tool for expressing those matters of the heart. At least it 
was back in the swinging 80's. But if this won't work for you, don’t de-
spair. GA would still send you her love: “I never meant 2 cause u any 
sorrow, I never meant 2 cause u any pain…” NE 
						

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** Oberdorf
When digital drum machines were State of the Art, people (rich peo-
ple) used them to replace live drummers. Now we know better, don't 
we? These legendary instruments will hold a place in our hearts not 
because of their ability to be alive, but for their charming machine na-
ture. This style emulates a typically programmed dance pattern of 
the1980's. You can ask yourself what future generations will say 
about our tools! NE
Modern Pop
Modern Soul
Straight and very well suited for slow pop and soul ballads. Modern 
Soul contains a hybrid of analog, processed sounds and electronic 
sounds. LW
Trip-Hop
This is a trip to the darker side of Trip-Hop. Picture yourself in a 
spooky attic late at night, on your knees looking for an old photo al-
bum in a worn chest. Suddenly the room comes to life, the floor 
squeaks and wooden toys start playing in a slow, rhythmic groove. 
What next? Get into the groove or run for your life! W 
Nordic Pop
A straight and modern pop groove, inspired by the Nordic hit phe-
nomenon of the past ten years or so. Steady, compressed and simple. 
New, fresh kick and snare were designed especially for this style. LW 
* Bristol Trip (T)
Portishead was one of the bands that popularized Trip Hop. They 
loved to play their songs live with an acoustic drum kit and a tricky-
playing drummer. Be my guest! MS  
						

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** Pop Paradiddle
This is basically the kind of stuff I'd play in a contemporary pop band 
or during a studio session, when a “drum machine style” is called for. 
If the band used loops during production, this style of drumming will 
maintain that feeling in a live situation. RM
Club
Detroit Techno
As you may have already guessed, the techno roots are in Detroit. In 
this style I decided to give you a lot of noise. No energy has been 
saved here! They would call it “Hard to the bone” in the old days. DS 
House
House music is a quite laidback electronic style that lives on its own 
groove. It’s a bouncy style with percussion as one of its main ele-
ments. House was born when DJs added 808 and 909 analog drum 
machines to beef up the dance music. DS
Trance
When creating this Trance style, I wanted to make room for catchy 
melodies, so the drumming is easy and not supposed to take too 
much room in a mix. Now, if you still think the drums occupy too much 
sonic space, tweak the knobs until your melodies become the main 
element again. DS 
Drum&Bass
This style combines the use of high speed beats with a natural half 
tempo feel, resulting in a playful rhythmic ballet. Thunderdome sub 
basses push the speaker limits, while frantic high pitched sounds 
keep the flow going. NE 
2-Step
A very tiny and fast affair with high pitched sounds. There’s a slight 
swing factor in this mixture of 2-Step, Garage and early synth-pop. 
LW 
						

							Groove Agent 3
104 English
Tribal Techno
This style was programmed to fit the sound of modern techno. It has a 
lot of my own personality in it. This is my tribute to the underground 
techno culture. You may recognize some of the grooves. The name of 
the style says a lot. Listen to those tribal grooves and you will under-
stand the name. DS 
* Daft
Keep it fair and square. Simple and stupid. Keep it going. Keep it up. 
Perhaps the bottle will distract you. Never mind. It’s just a bottle. Keep 
it safe. NE 
** Grime
A few years ago pirate radio stations in London started broadcasting 
a new and more aggressive form of Rap and 2-Step, influenced by 
hardcore electronica. “Grime” was born. MC's often spit out their lyr-
ics double time over the beat accompanied by sparse breaks and fu-
turistic bleeps and growls. This style is also referred to as Eskibeat, 
Sublow or 8bar and only recently it left the realms of the underground 
to face mainstream success. Be part of it – and why not add some 
distortion… NE
** Jungle
In the beginning there were drummers. Some of them played pretty 
fast. But not fast enough. So then there were DJs, pitching up and ed-
iting funky drum loops to make the beats really fast and complex, call-
ing it “Jungle”. “What the heck”, said the drummers and actually 
started to play those crazy high speed loops live. That takes some 
heavy exercising. Or – it takes a Groove Agent. NE 
						

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About the Special Agent styles
Rasmus Kihlberg gives a brief introduction to every style he recorded. 
The “T” indicates a triplet or swing feel. The original recording tempo 
is also indicated. As a general rule, the Special Agent styles can be 
used in tempi 15% lower and 50% higher than the recorded tempo. 
Example: “Four On Da Floor” can be used between 85 BPM and 150 
BPM without sounding too unnatural.
Motown (recorded at 120 BPM)
Oh, how obvious it feels to include this style! It's a really classic style 
found on numerous Motown records. We've tried to create a happy 
marriage between the sound ideals from 1966 and 2006 here. I even 
included some classic fills. Enjoy! RK
Four On Da Floor (recorded at 100 BPM)
Welcome to the 1980s! Try this style in songs where you want the 
drums to dominate the sound. Plenty of kick drum here! Listen, and 
you'll notice that there's always a kick drum playing with the snare 
backbeats. RK
Slow Funk (recorded at 60 BPM)
16th based drumming, suitable for smooth ballads as well as quicker 
tunes. Does this sound like it's inspired by a Chicago album from the 
1980s? I think so. Try this in a Soul or R'n'B song to add a “live” 
touch. RK
Indie Rock (recorded at 110 BPM)
A sloppy drummer style. Attitude is everything here. Rough and dirty. 
I'd recommend adding lots of loud guitars to any song where this style 
is used. RK
Rotterdam (recorded at 90 BPM)
Here's a variation on the old “Amsterdam” theme, meaning that the 
bass drum plays a little more irregularly. It's also my salute to Mr. Jim 
Keltner, a living legend indeed. Never a beat too many. Well, maybe a 
crash cymbal at the end of a song… RK 
						

							Groove Agent 3
106 English
Shuffle Funk (T, recorded at 85 BPM)
A couple of centuries ago, fusion bands seemed to pop up from ev-
erywhere. This style represents a mixture from that school. Triplet 
based grooves, bordering to dotted 8ths and 16ths. Perfect for “in-
strumental music”. Electric Jazz, anyone? RK
Choo Choo Brush (recorded at 120 BPM)
My reason for including this style in Groove Agent 3 is that I frequently 
get requests like “Try playing the same thing but with brushes”. This 
groove is very Don Henley/Eagles. It works with practically any song 
based on a straight 8ths feel. RK
Slow Rock (T, recorded at 60 BPM)
Do you remember how the Slow Rock preset in really old drum ma-
chines used to sound? This is really a 12/8 style more than anything 
else, but it plays well with the host time signature set to 4/4. Blues 
players, look here, this is for you! The shuffle beat in the kick drum 
should inspire any bass player to give that little extra. RK
Stiff Little 16ths (recorded at 88 BPM)
Drum machines used to sound like this some 20 years ago. Every level 
in this style is based on even 16th notes. You may think that I play like 
a machine on this one. Well, that's fully intentional. Oh Vienna – Ras-
mus the drum computer! RK
Country Rock (recorded at 110 BPM)
Here's something that could be applied to a song approaching the 
classic “American FM Rock/Country Rock” territory. A good, punchy 
kick drum provides a solid ground for the bassplayer. Minutes before I 
recorded this, I listened to Keith Urban's “Somebody Like You”. That 
should say it all. RK 
						

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Medium Bounce (T, recorded at 110 BPM)
This style is a must for anyone trying to make jazz drums sound right. 
Not an easy task… I give you the building blocks to a classic build-up 
of a standard jazz song, from triplet based brushes to big band drum-
ming. When using this style in your song, try switching complexity lev-
els now and then. It'll add a healthy “random drummer” feeling. Jazz 
ain't easy… RK
VariBossa (recorded at 110 BPM)
This is a traditional Bossa Nova groove that evolves into different 
clave rhythms. It can be used both on soft pop tunes and traditional 
Bossa Nova songs. Beware of the fills – they tend to go over the top 
at times… RK
Rrrock (recorded at 110 BPM)
The title says it all, eh? Thanks to Gula Studion, this groove has be-
come incredibly useful as “rock backing with a live feel”. Preferred vol-
ume setting: Loud! RK
Beguine Mix (recorded at 110 BPM)
Beguine Mix is a strange mix-up of various Latins style grooves. It's 
hard to specify any real style really. Beguine with pop music touch, 
maybe? Classic rumba played on an indie kit? You decide. Maybe we 
should have called this one “Stop the Beguine” (as opposed to “Be-
gin the Beguine”)…? RK
Jazz Ballad (T, recorded at 70 BPM)
I've never heard this style work properly on any sample CD. It's ex-
tremely hard to program. Here's the groove that will take your song to 
the smoky jazz club around the corner. It also contains a so-called 
Elvin Jones groove, meaning mallets playing triplets on the toms. Re-
ally useful when you need to broaden the horizons of your composi-
tion. RK 
						

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108 English
Tempo Guide
Groove Agent styles:
Style 20 BPM 220
Jazz Trio140210
Grind150200
Indie Punk150190
Fox130200
Bob120220
Twist
130190
Drum’n’Bass150170
Swing100210
3/4100200
Trance100160
Bossa Nova110180
Pop110180
Tribal Techno130160
Detroit Techno130160
Reggae130150
Progressive120160
House120150
HM Straight100160
Shuffle80200
Vintage FR-370180
Vintage TR-770180
Daft100150
2-Step110150
Arena100150
Hard Rock110140
Olympic110140
Machinery40200
Vintage CR-860180
Tamla100140
Roots100140
6/8100140
Disco100140 
						

							Groove Agent 3
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Cha-Cha110130
Grunge110130
Boogie90140
Elektro100130
HM Triplets100130
Funk100130
Steady Beat80150
Mini Club80140
Mini Works80140
Nordic Pop80130
Samba80130
Mozambique90120
Train Beat70130
Breakbeat80120
Songo80120
Soul80120
Basic HipHop90110
Busy Beat70120
Unplugged70120
Modern Soul70120
Bombay Dance Hall70120
12/870120
Fusion80110
Tom-Toms80110
Sloppy HipHop80110
Rumba80110
Live HipHop80100
Bonzo80100
Ominous30150
World Ethno70110
Westcoast70110
Backbeat70110
TexMex70100
LA Shuffle70100
Cajun70100
Style 20 BPM 220