Hi there,
I'm not really expecting to find help here, I'm more interested in how you deal with this problem:
For literally the hundredth time I'm trying to familiarise myself with Groove Agent SE. I really, really want to like it, and as a tool for tweaking samples and for a sample library I cannot complain about it at all. But every "sampler" I had so far, may it be a MIDI sound card, a keyboard or my beloved Triton Rack - each of those always had full banks of 128 samples and after a while I knew most of the samples and which banks I liked most.
With Groove Agent it is just chaos. There are just so many drum kits and most of them only with 16 samples. And usually I use only one sample per kit. As much as I use this sampler, I just cannot memorize even the name of one good drum kit...
How do you handle this? Are they any techniques or tricks how to efficiently use this sampler? I guess, I could start making lists, but it's not exactly my type of workflow to read something while making music...
How to memorize Groove Agent's drum kits
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- KVRAF
- 2312 posts since 9 Jun, 2002 from East of Santa Monica
Seems to me if you want to use the instrument, you'll have to find a way to adapt your workflow a bit to accommodate its quirks.
One suggestion: Does your DAW have the ability to write and attach notes to a track (Not musical notes, but helpful instructions to yourself)? If so, then you can document the GA details that way.
One suggestion: Does your DAW have the ability to write and attach notes to a track (Not musical notes, but helpful instructions to yourself)? If so, then you can document the GA details that way.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 137 posts since 3 Aug, 2016 from Germany, Munich
Well, it does. I use Cubase and you can have notes per track.
And this very second I was about to write why this sounds like making lists and why a single project file won't help me for future projects (as notes are only stored in a single projects of course and not to the plugin itself), but I just realised that I might have misunderstood you. I don't know if that was in parts your suggestion - I could just make one massive project filled exclusively with a lot of GA-tracks so I can listen through either all the kits or at least through the ones I consider "possibly useful" for the future.
That sounds way more comfortable than loading the kits one by one and go clicking through the virtual drum pads which really annoys me.
...I may have a tendency to babble.
And this very second I was about to write why this sounds like making lists and why a single project file won't help me for future projects (as notes are only stored in a single projects of course and not to the plugin itself), but I just realised that I might have misunderstood you. I don't know if that was in parts your suggestion - I could just make one massive project filled exclusively with a lot of GA-tracks so I can listen through either all the kits or at least through the ones I consider "possibly useful" for the future.
That sounds way more comfortable than loading the kits one by one and go clicking through the virtual drum pads which really annoys me.
...I may have a tendency to babble.
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- KVRAF
- 1791 posts since 17 Sep, 2002
With a lot of these tools nowadays, I think you pretty much have to take some time to do "prep work." It might be worth taking an hour or so to write up a document or spreadsheet that lets you know, "Kits 2, 4, 17, and 29 have awesome kicks. Kit 3 & 47 have killer snares," etc.
I keep a big dry-erase board on the wall next to my DAW that is great for these kinds of notes. I'll use it to jot down keyswitches, take numbers, chord progressions, or whatever.
You could also consider sampling individual notes from the plugin as their own wav files (just draw out a midi that triggers each sample for one bar, and then render it as audio) and then building your own kits this way, but I don't know how Groove Agent works so I'm not sure this approach would work for that. This way, you could rename and categorize them according to your own criteria.
I'll have days where I have a few hours free for music, but the ideas just aren't flowing, so I'll spend the time organizing samples, hunting through presets to find the ones I like, making lists, etc. That way, next time I'm in the studio, I'll know exactly what to reach for when I want a specific sound. This might not suit your workflow, but for how I work, it seems like a necessary "evil." Doing this sort of groundwork ahead of time means that next time, when you're hot and everything is flowing like water, you don't have to stop and think "oh shit, which sample was that" because you already spent a dedicated session prepping for that very moment.
In time, you will develop a level of familiarity with your plugins and digital tools that is not too different from being familiar with the layout of a piano keyboard or a guitar fret board. It just takes time, patience, and a bit of dedication.
I keep a big dry-erase board on the wall next to my DAW that is great for these kinds of notes. I'll use it to jot down keyswitches, take numbers, chord progressions, or whatever.
You could also consider sampling individual notes from the plugin as their own wav files (just draw out a midi that triggers each sample for one bar, and then render it as audio) and then building your own kits this way, but I don't know how Groove Agent works so I'm not sure this approach would work for that. This way, you could rename and categorize them according to your own criteria.
I'll have days where I have a few hours free for music, but the ideas just aren't flowing, so I'll spend the time organizing samples, hunting through presets to find the ones I like, making lists, etc. That way, next time I'm in the studio, I'll know exactly what to reach for when I want a specific sound. This might not suit your workflow, but for how I work, it seems like a necessary "evil." Doing this sort of groundwork ahead of time means that next time, when you're hot and everything is flowing like water, you don't have to stop and think "oh shit, which sample was that" because you already spent a dedicated session prepping for that very moment.
In time, you will develop a level of familiarity with your plugins and digital tools that is not too different from being familiar with the layout of a piano keyboard or a guitar fret board. It just takes time, patience, and a bit of dedication.