Steinberg Groove Agent 3 Operation Manual

							Groove Agent 3
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New Orleans Funk70100
Bristol Trip7090
Ambient60100
Paint60100
Nu R’n’B60100
HipHop60100
Slick6090
Ballad6080
Trip-Hop6080
Meek Ballad5090
Kelly5090
Slow Blues4080
Dark Side5070
5/4 Rock80130
7/8 Funk70120
Acid Jazz70130
Free Form20130
Grime120160
Irish Rock80120
Jungle120160
LM Ballad5080
League90140
Mandela80140
Oberdorf80140
Senegal90150
Storm40110
Three Beat90140
HM Paradiddle120200
Pop Paradiddle120200
Paradiddle Triplets120200
Ambitious70150
Jillie Bean70140
6/8 Latin60110
Old Squeaky50130
Wattsup80130
Style 20 BPM 220 
						

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Special Agent styles:
3/4 Nordic Woods90150
Click Track40160
Madish80160
Wonderland80120
Axis Y80140
5/4 Fusion90160
Style 20 BPM 220
Motown105160
Four On Da Floor90140
Slow Funk5590
Indie Rock100150
Rotterdam85140
Shuffle Funk80130
Choo Choo Brush100220
Slow Rock
5580
Stiff Little 16ths80120
Country Rock100160
Medium Bounce100160
VariBossa100150
Rrrock90170
Beguine Mix100140
Jazz Ballad60120
Style 20 BPM 220 
						

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80 or 160 BPM, what’s the correct tempo?
Normally, we decide a certain style’s tempo by defining where the 
downbeats and backbeats are. A rhythm that goes boom-chick-
boom-chick probably counts 1-2-3-4 at the same rate. In most popu-
lar western music the kick (bass drum) plays the downbeats (1 and 3) 
and the snare drum plays the backbeats (2 and 4).
As with all living things, this rule has its exceptions. Reggae often has 
a half tempo feel built into itself by nature. The reggae style we’ve in-
cluded in Groove Agent actually plays the backbeat on the third beat 
of the bar. It simply seemed sensible to specify its favorite tempo 
range to 130-150 BPM rather than half those figures. This is also true 
for the cajun style. 
On the other hand, styles like Tom-Toms, Backbeat and Train Beat 
are sort of double speed by nature. Here, the Train Beat style works 
best somewhere in the 100 BPM region. More practical than 200, 
don’t you think? 
Finding a suitable style for your song
So, you are working on a song in 104 BPM and now you want to know 
what styles have a suitable tempo? Take a look at the tempo map. It 
provides a rough guide to suitable tempo ranges for the various styles. 
						

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Jamming with Groove Agent 3
There’s no better way to kill inspiration than to feed it with a static 
drum loop. Sooo unlike a live drummer! But with the right side con-
trols, and especially the new functionality of the Auto Fill knob, it’s 
now easier than ever to set up Groove Agent as a live drummer to jam 
along with.
Start by choosing a pattern of your liking. You can use Groove Agent 
or Special Agent for this. By pressing the Random button, our drum-
mer will randomly play adjacent complexity levels. If you set the Auto 
Fill control to a 4, 8, 12 or 16 position, you’ll hear authentic fills with 
regular intervals. Finally, activating Random Fill makes sure that every 
time there’s a fill it’s a different one.
You can set up a similar jamming scheme with Percussion Agent too. 
Just make sure there are a few Random elements going on. The Ran-
dom Complexity button is your friend here.
You may feel the urge to play a drum instrument yourself. Perhaps you 
have a much better idea for a kick drum pattern than what’s been pro-
grammed into Groove Agent or you may want to add a very special 
tambourine rhythm. If so, please feel free to do just that! 
If you mute, say, the kick drum, Groove Agent won’t play the kick drum 
pattern. You can add your own kick drum playing from your MIDI key-
board, and if you’re recording the MIDI output of Groove Agent, your 
playing will end up in that newly created MIDI part, too.
With the introduction of Dual Mode, it’s even easier to manually add 
stuff on top of an existing Groove Agent, Special Agent or Percussion 
Agent groove. With two modules on screen, it’s easier than ever to 
get a good overview and explore the possibilities. 
						

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Smooth operator
We are the first to agree that some of the knobs in this instrument are 
small, very small. When tweaking the sounds, a knob can suddenly 
jump from one position to another. Not very comfortable.
However, the VST protocol offers some fine help here. If you hold 
down the [Shift] key of your computer keyboard while moving a slider 
or a knob, you’ll get into “fine detail mode”. You’ll notice how much 
easier it is to get exactly the right value while editing. Also, clicking on 
a control element with the [Ctrl]/[Command] key held will cause the 
control to jump to its default value. 
If your sequencer lets you choose what sort of mouse movement con-
trols knobs, you should try “linear” (up and down) mode. This generally 
gives a better and more predictable feel and handling. 
Controlling Groove Agent from a MIDI 
keyboard
For most occasions, Groove Agent 3 can be easily and comfortably 
controlled by a mouse. But there are situations where you want to 
control the instrument via a remote device such as a MIDI keyboard. 
We have prepared a scheme, so that almost everything you can do di-
rectly on screen can also be carried out remotely. Here’s a complete 
description.
MIDI channel Description
Ch 1 Groove Agent in classic mode/upper module
Ch 2 Groove Agent in lower module
Ch 3 Special Agent in upper module
Ch 4 Special Agent in lower module
Ch 5 Percussion Agent in upper module
Ch 6 Percussion Agent in lower module
Ch 10 Groove Agent in classic mode/upper module in GM mode 
						

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MIDI remote keys for Groove Agent module(s)
MIDI remote keys for Special Agent module(s)
MIDI remote keys for Percussion Agent module(s)
Every octave on a MIDI keyboard controls one Percussion Agent 
groove (group). Here are the keys and their destinations (per octave, 
ranging from C0 [24] to C8 [108] - with groove 1 starting at C0, 
groove 2 starting at C1 etc):
Ch 15 Groove Agent in classic mode/upper module, same as ch 1
Ch 16 Groove Agent in classic mode/upper module (even channel)
Remote key Description
B0-A3 (35-69) Trigger drum sounds (as displayed on the Import & FX page)
E2(52) Half Tempo Feel
A#3 (70) Accent
B3 (71) Stop
C4-C6 (72-96) Complexity levels A-20
Mod wheel up Fill
Remote key Description
E2 (52) Half Tempo Feel (doubled for easy SA/GA compatibility)
A3 (69) Half Tempo Feel
A#3 (70) Accent
B3 (71) Stop
C4-C6 (72-96) Complexity levels A-20
Mod wheel up Fill
Remote key Description
CLevel Off button MIDI channel Description 
						

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MIDI Mute Key Mode
When controlling Groove Agent from a MIDI keyboard, there are alter-
native methods for muting and un-muting groups. Choose the method 
that suits you best.
•Toggle – White keys in the range C4-C5 switch instrument groups
1-8 on and off. 
•Velocity Switch – Notes with high velocity (>64) mute groups, notes 
with low velocity un-mute groups.
•While Held – Groups are temporarily muted (or un-muted, depending 
on their current status) while notes are held. 
D-E-F-G-A Levels 1-2-3-4-5
C# Mute Percussion Agent groove (group)
D# Solo Percussion Agent groove (group)
F# Random
BStop/Run Percussion Agent module Remote key Description 
						

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MIDI CC Destination
If you have an extra modulation wheel or dedicated controller/s on 
your keyboard, you can use these CC’s to control Groove Agent: 
Please note that the controllers mentioned here may also be handy 
when editing Groove Agent drum parts in your sequencer. 
You can get one level deeper in detail when controlling Groove Agent 
via MIDI. In any Groove Agent module, these commands double as 
edit controls for each of the 8 output groups on MIDI channel 1-8: 
CC Destination 
2 and 65  Snare/Sidestick selection 
3 and 64  Half Tempo Feel 
7 Overall volume 
76  Host BPM (60 + value) if your host does not support tempo sync 
77 Humanise 
78 Shuffle 
91 Ambience 
Prg chng  Memory select 1-10
CC Destination 
69 Mute 
70 Vel Offset 
71 Tune 
72 Ambience 
73 Volume 
74 Output 
75 Decay 
						

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Contact, Internet
For more info, latest news and updates, please visit Steinberg at 
www.steinberg.net.
To get in contact with the creators of this product, please visit the 
Bornemark website at www.bornemark.se.
Credits
Groove Agent concept: Sven Bornemark
Software development: Dave Brown, Michael Spork
Product Management: Helge Vogt
Project Management: Per Almered, Thomas Fransson
Quality assurance: Martin Gente, Uwe Hübner, Götz Kretschmann, 
Robin Rhodin. Special thanks to all our beta testers!
Graphic design: Wirebird and Tomas Holmström
Recording engineers: Jens Bogren and Rickard Bengtsson at Studio 
Kuling, Marco Manieri at Gula Studion
Audio editing: Mats-Erik Björklund, Sven Bornemark, Per Larsson, 
Lars Westin, Björn Wiking, Uffe Börjesson
Musicians: Per Almered, Martin M Bauer, Roger Berg, Mats-Erik 
Björkljund, Dan Bornemark, Sven Bornemark, Mats Dagerlind, Nils 
Erikson, Marshall Karlsson, Ronny Milianowicz, Per Samuelsson, 
Michael Spork, Daniel Sunebring, Jens Ståhlstierna, Figge von 
Wachenfeldt, Lars Westin
Special Agent and Percussion Agent: Rasmus Kihlberg
Manual: Sven Bornemark with kind assistance from Heiko Bischoff, 
Per Almered, Dave Brown and Michael Spork
Throughout the production period we have received lots of help from 
the Steinberg staff in Hamburg. You guys are too many to mention, so 
THANK YOU ALL! 
						

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Last but not least… 
Thank you, HeavenlyHansson, for suggesting this instrument. 
Mats-Erik and Rasmus, I’m so grateful for the knowledge, musician-
ship and energy you’ve spent on the creation of this instrument. 
Thank you PoA Sörlin for your great music, your patient work and for 
being there.
Thomas Fransson for photos and footage.
Roger Linn, you’re the greatest! Samples from Linn Electronics prod-
ucts: the LM-1 Drum Computer and LinnDrum are provided courtesy 
of Roger Linn. To learn what he's up to these days, visit 
www.rogerlinndesign.com.
Tom O for friendly assistance.
Robin Hofwander for your highly valuable help.
Simeon Amburgey and Houston Haynes for vigilant eyes and helping 
hands.