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Groove Agent

Drum Workstation Plugin by Steinberg
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Groove Agent has an average user rating of 3.00 from 2 reviews

Rate & Review Groove Agent

User Reviews by KVR Members for Groove Agent

Groove Agent

Reviewed By Patchbaymic [all]
April 10th, 2022
Version reviewed: 5 on Windows

Since day one of the upgrade to groove agent 5 only select patterns or grooves actually make any play back noise or have signal. Seems to me like half of the maybe third of the beats that actually play are missing kick drum. Every time I start up the computer I don't know what I'm gonna get with groove agent could be a drum sound or it could just freeze up. I'm using a creation station computer from sweetwater seems to always have enough power for everything else I use it for except groove agent. I've spent many hours trying to figure out the play back issue only with GA do I have these issues. I've watched every YouTube video they have on line non are directed to this playback volume or signal issue. I would not recommend if you have other options check them out first.

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Groove Agent

Reviewed By GRUMP [all]
March 9th, 2020
Version reviewed: 5 on Windows

GA 5 has a lot of really inspirative Beats included. Lots of Know-How.

The Quality of the Sounds is exceptional. Very "polished", punchy, transparent, ...

Great GUI and Workflow. The Functionality is outstanding.

Very advanced Drum-/Percussion Options (not my Subject).

Concerning "Value for Money" this Tool is a "Nobrainer".

The Integration of the VST and Library into Steinberg Environments is worth mentioning, too.

What I like most is the Beat Agent Pattern Section and the advanced Mixing Possibilities.

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User Reviews of older versions

Groove Agent 3

Reviewed By Ned Bouhalassa [all]
May 28th, 2003
Version reviewed: 1.0 on unspecified OS

Installing Groove Agent was a breeze, except when it came to getting the kits to load for the first time. This problem does not occur with Cubase. If you’re a Logic, or other user, you can get the details about this extra procedure on the very useful Groove Agent website’s forum: http://vg.clubcubase.net/vgforum/viewforum.php?f=2

The samples are of high quality. There are dozens of kicks, snares, hats, percussion, from different time periods. Many have a boxy quality, but that’s expected when a 50s kit is used. Each element is also offered in one of two mic placements - very natural sounding. You can also route each element to one of four outputs, for further processing. The downside is that you can’t load your own samples.

GA has a fresh interface, the kits load quickly, and, since the pattern variations are MIDI sequences, it’s very easy to ‘jam’ with the machine in real-time. Everytime I start improvising with the complexity button, I easily loose an hour of my day.

The most authentic styles for me are found in the pre-80s offerings. The playing is very good, even a bit sloppy in some parts (that’s a good thing!). If you already have lots of techno, hip-hop, breakbeat, house loops, and you’re looking for something different, this tool might do the trick. As a soundtrack composer, I often have to re-create styles from the past, and this will now be the first VSTi that I will call up when I need a rumba, or a bossa nova, etc. On the other hand, I would not use this VSTi for more modern electronic music. Although, I did achieve a certain element of freshness when I combined their electronic kit with say, the bossa nova or fox patterns (50s).

In the info window, there’s a handy Range field that suggests a tempo range for each style. This helps to give your choice a realistic feel. I didn’t ‘get’ some of the styles until I set Logic’s tempo to a number in the suggested range. Of course, you can always play a Rumba at 174 bpm if you’re in the mood.

My favourite part is the MIDI keyboard shortcuts. Since all the samples are triggered below A#3, the keys above that note can do several things, depending on whether the MIDI channel is even or odd: you can select the level of complexity, add fills, mute elements, add accents, select memory locations (different kits!), even the mod wheel can add fills!

My major criticisism is that there could be more velocity layers for each element (kick, snare). You still get 3 to 5 different samples per velocity, but with the Giga libraries sometimes offering 16 samples per key, we’re all getting a little more demanding.

(As an update to this review, I'd like to state that along with many other Logic and DP users, I have experienced random muting in GA. This problem has been posted often on the official GA forum, but there has been no reply. I was hoping for news of an update, but 1 year after its release, there is nothing to report - too bad!)
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Latest 2 reviews from a total of 2

Comments & Discussion for Steinberg Groove Agent

Discussion
Discussion: Active
radoslavbanga
radoslavbanga
25 August 2014 at 1:59pm

Oh common Steinberg... Are you kidding me? I was testing and trying completely full trial version in Cubase 7 today and comparing to BFD3 (FXPansion) or Steven Slate Platinum Drums..this must be a joke. Sound is incredibly bad. No dynamics at all, sounds almost like a toy for kids! It has a lots of possibilities, but the most important - sound is really not worth to pay even 30 EUR.

indovnal
indovnal
13 February 2016 at 3:51pm

i bambini fanno ho....................

ATS
ATS
27 November 2016 at 7:49am

really? sounds incredibly good to me.

replicant X
replicant X
17 October 2019 at 4:31am

After Version 4, this program totally changed and improved.

Almost different program except its name.

It's an incredible great drum plugin now.

Rumdrum
Rumdrum
10 March 2020 at 12:34pm

GA 4/5 is NOT a good drum software. If it was the only one in the world, well I guess it would be called "the best". But, today there are dozens, if not hundreds, of drum software out there, both in the electronic and in the good old fashion way. I am using old school drumsets and just occationally electronic. A few much better drum softwares have already been mentioned. I would like to add Toontrack, EastWest and even the Abbey rd series from Native Instruments. So what is a "good" drum software? What should it be judged by? I guess the sound is first. It has to resemble, or be exactly like, the drum it tries to emulate. A drum yields different sound depending on both the surroundings but also how the rest of the drumset is set up. Software that are able to emulate different set ups are thus preferred. Next I would say comes the Velocity and Flams. That is how many velocity layers the software has and how it handles the bounce reflection of the drumstick after the hit. Next comes the bleed, that is how much of another drum you hear when hitting one drum, especially how much of the snare you hear when stamping on the kick. The posibility to get a realistic level, or to remove it totally is essential. Then comes the worksflow of the GUI. Here it is essential that you can have each drum on separate channels and each drum claims its own reverb, delay and other FX. Some of the softwares also gives you the opportunity to construckt a drumtrack within the software (like EZ Drummer), that some might find handy. All in all Steinberg fails on some of the criterias, especially the velocity part. It also has a browser that is very oldfashioned and seems like it was taken out of an old DOS world. It drags the workflow down. The GUI is further not intuitive and a lot of clicks is needed to get to "the right place". Sound I guess depends on what you really seek, but if it shall resemble the real world drums others are preferred. How anyone can put GA up to the top is beyond me and the only reason I can think of why it is so is either because those people do not know drums and that the software may be their first encounter with drums, or that they have no deeper knowledge of the far better softwares out there.

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