Steinberg Groove Agent 2 Manual
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Groove Agent 2 English The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep- resent 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 media. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise 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 respective owners. Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark used under license. Macintosh is a registered trademark. Mac OS X is a registered trademark. © Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2005. All rights reserved.
Groove Agent English 3 ENGLISH Table of Contents 4Welcome! 6How do I use Groove Agent? 7What is Groove Agent? 7Register Groove Agent! 8The Steinberg Key 10 System requirements (PC version) 10 Installing Groove Agent (PC version) 11 System requirements (Mac version) 11 Installing Groove Agent (Mac version) 12 Activating the Steinberg Key 13 Setting up Groove Agent as a VST instrument in your host application 14 Setting up Groove Agent as a DXi2 instrument 15 Using Groove Agent in an AU compatible application 16 Groove Agent stand-alone and ReWire 17 First test 18 Groove Agent terminology 20 About the sounds in this VST instrument 27 Using Groove Agent 28 The LCD window 29 Range 29 The right-click menu 30 Sliders and buttons 39 Mute, grouping and instrument selection 40 Stop/Run 41 Under the hood 44 The setup lid 48 Creating a drum track in Groove Agent 50 Using Groove Agent’s MIDI output in Cubase SX 51 Using the automation in Cubase SX 52 Composing with Groove Agent’s Memory slots in Cubase SX 53 About the styles 71 Tempo Guide 73 80 or 160 BPM, what’s the correct tempo? 73 Finding a suitable style for your song 73 Jamming with Groove Agent 74 Smooth handling 74 Controlling Groove Agent from a MIDI keyboard 76 Contact, Internet 76 Credits 77 Last but not least…
Groove Agent 4 English Welcome! In early 2002, a member of our Swedish VST forum suggested that someone should create a modern-day drum machine VST instrument. Just like in the old days, when drum machines offered exotic musical styles like Rumba and Cha-Cha, this baby would be able to play a huge number of styles. And with today’s 24 bit audio technology, velocity layers, real ambience recordings and an easy to use control panel, what could go wrong? A year later it was time for Groove Agent, a modern day drum machine. Now it’s early 2005 and we’re presenting Groove Agent 2 – the next logical step. We’ve added content in the form of acoustic and elec- tronic drum kits plus 27 new styles and some improved functionality. But the basic behavior of our drum machine is still the same, so for any- one saying: - “I can’t program drums”, - “I don’t have the time to program drums”, - “Inspire me!”, Groove Agent 2 offers instant assistance and inspiration for producing songs, jingles, film scores or any other genre that requires versatility and speed. We also know that some Groove Agent customers prefer using our drum machine as a rhythmic source to feed external sound modules, or to use the built-in sounds for their own drumming. Or any combination thereof. I firmly believe that the slogan we used two years ago still holds true for this updated version of Groove Agent: “Create a professional drum track in the same 3 minutes it takes to play your song!”.
Groove Agent English 5 ENGLISH So why not skip the boring parts of life and concentrate on the inter- esting bits! I personally consider song-writing to be the finest craft of all, and Groove Agent 2 is designed to help anyone who needs drums in their music; instant drums to keep the creative flow. Computer tools can’t replace real humans, no more in music programs than in other software. We’ve done our best in maintaining the human touch in Groove Agent 2 by asking real musicians to contribute with their very best grooves. And when they thought the job was done, then came the hard bits; adding half tempo feel and sidestick versions of all 25 levels of complexity for each style! The results often surprised the musicians too, and the collected effort of all that musical activity re- sides somewhere there in those thousands of bars of drumming. Please use Groove Agent 2 to create sweet music! Music is good for your soul, and hopefully this musical tool will assist and inspire you to reach higher levels. Sven Bornemark /Producer
Groove Agent 6 English How do I use Groove Agent? You can use Groove Agent as stand-alone application or together with a host application, a sequencer program. If your sequencer supports VST instruments, then you can use Groove Agent. Here’s how to get started: 1. Prepare a track and load Groove Agent. 2. Select a style or a sub-style using the top slider in Groove Agent (see page 30). Wait while it loads its sound data. 3. Click the Run button and Groove Agent starts playing. Move the Com- plexity slider to hear variations in the style. 4. Choose another style and hear what it sounds like when you change the individual drum sounds, click the fill button, mute or un-mute the percussion instruments, try the half tempo feel or add a syncope (ac- cent). Have you found the ambience knob yet? Now it’s time to let Groove Agent act as a real drummer in your music!
Groove Agent English 7 ENGLISH What is Groove Agent? Technically speaking, Groove Agent uses thousands of custom de- signed MIDI patterns created by Swedish top musicians. These pat- terns trigger samples especially recorded for this instrument. That’s basically it! The Timeline slider allows you to choose a musical style or sub-style and its associated drum kit. Some of the kits are acoustic, others are electronic. The Complexity slider provides you with increasing degrees of advanced play. For each level there’s an associated fill, half tempo feel pattern and sidestick version. On top of that, there’s an Edit section where you can tweak the sounds and even change your instruments. We’re especially proud of the fine musicianship behind every single level of the styles available. This piece of software was produced by musicians for musicians! Register Groove Agent! Before getting carried away with Groove Agent, which we’re sure you will be, please take a moment to complete and return the enclosed registration card. This will entitle you to technical support, and we’ll also keep you up to date with the latest news and updates.
Groove Agent 8 English The Steinberg Key ❐ Please read the following section before installing the Groove Agent software. Included with the Groove Agent package, you will find an activation code (not to be confused with the serial number) for the Steinberg Key (sometimes referred to as a “dongle”), a hardware copy protec- tion device that is part of the Groove Agent copy protection scheme. Groove Agent will not run if there is no Steinberg Key and if this key hasn’t been properly activated. You can either separately purchase a new Steinberg Key for use with Groove Agent, or use a key previously bought for use with a different Steinberg application. • If you have a Windows PC and have never used a dongle on your computer before, the installation routine may initiate a restart of Win- dows after installation of the key drivers. After the restart, the key must be plugged into the USB port for the installation routine to continue. • If you already own software that requires a Steinberg Key, it should be plugged into the computer’s USB port after installing Groove Agent and restarting the computer! When the key is plugged into the USB port, Windows will automatically register it as a new hardware device and will attempt to find drivers for it – these necessary drivers won’t be present until Groove Agent has been installed and the computer restarted. The Steinberg Key
Groove Agent English 9 ENGLISH 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 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. This way you need only one USB key for both your host and Groove Agent (see below). ❐ The Steinberg Key must not be plugged in before or during the installa- tion of Groove Agent if this is the first time you use such a key. Other- wise Windows will register it as new USB hardware and try to find drivers that won’t be present before Groove Agent installation.
Groove Agent 10 English System requirements (PC version) To run Groove Agent you’ll need: •A PC with a 800 MHz Pentium or Athlon processor (1.4 GHz or faster recom- mended). •384 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended). •450 MB of hard disk space. •Windows® XP Home or Professional. •Windows MME compatible audio hardware (an ASIO compatible audio card is recommended). •If you want to use Groove Agent as a plug-in, you’ll need Cubase or Nuendo (version 1.5 or higher) or another VST 2.0 or DXi 2 compatible host application. Please note that some features may not be supported in other host applications. •A Steinberg Key and a free USB port. •Monitor and graphics card supporting 1024 x 768 resolution (a dual monitor setup and a display resolution of 1152 x 864 are recommended). ❐ Please also observe the system requirements of your host application. Installing Groove Agent (PC version) To install Groove Agent on your PC: 1. Switch on your computer and wait for Windows to load. 2. Insert the Groove Agent CD ROM into your CD ROM drive. 3. Open the Windows Explorer, or the “My Computer” window, and dou- ble-click on the CD ROM drive icon. 4. Double-click on the Groove Agent Installer icon to run the installation program, and follow the on-screen instructions.