Steinberg
With Groove Agent 4 (9/10, 212) marking a
total and very welcome redesign of
Steinberg’s previously-anachronistic ‘virtual
drummer’ plugin, version 5 could in fact
reasonably be considered a second generation
release. In a nutshell, Groove Agent post v3 is a
comprehensive solution for programming
‘acoustic’ and electronic beats, providing a
familiar multilayered pad-based performance
and pattern triggering interface (plus playable
drum kit graphics), complete with deep MIDI
editing, mixing and efects processing, and a
capacious library of samples, patterns and
Styles (grouped sets of MIDI patterns – intro,
verse, chorus, ills, etc). With that fundamental
concept very briely summarised, let’s see
what’s new…
Kit and caboodle
Resplendent in a freshly darkened colour
scheme, the Groove Agent 5 (VST/AU/AAX/
standalone) interface is compatible with Retina
and HiDPI displays, and freely resizable by
dragging its edges or bottom right-hand corner.
Clicking the little button to the right of the Show
Keyboard button pops the new Browser out to
the right. This aggregates the Kit, Instrument,
Style and MIDI Load browsers in a single panel,
detachable from the main UI, should you wish.
S t e i n b e r g
Groove Agent 5 £153
Version 4 re-energised it for the modern producer, and the latest update
to this forward-thinking beat production platform takes it to new heights
“Simply named The Kit,
the new addition to
Acoustic Agent is a
14GB massively
multisampled drum kit”
MIXER
Balance and
process your kit in
GA5’s Mixer
KIT RACK
Load up to four Kits
at a time for
complex setups
KEYBOARD
View colour-coded keymappings
for sounds and patterns
RAW POWER
The new Raw Power pack
contains 30 Beat Agent Kits
PADS
Up to 16
sample-loaded
pads can be
viewed at
a time
PAT TERN
Switch the
display and
pads to MIDI
patterns
and Styles
MAIN CONTROLS
Tweak kit pieces and samples
with these knobs
BROWSER
The new
preset
and file
browser can be
detached
THE KIT
A 14GB sampled
drum kit for
maximum realism
PAD GROUPS
Up to 128 Pads are
stepped through in
eight banks of 16
Groove Agent 5 doesn’t add to the existing
Acoustic, Percussion and Beat Agents –
dedicated engines for acoustic drums and
percussion, and electronic sounds, respectively
– but it does throw in a ton of new content for
the irst and last. Simply named The Kit, the new
addition to Acoustic Agent is a 14GB massively
multisampled drum kit, comprising Pearl
Masters kick and Free Floating Brass snare
drums, four Yamaha Maple Custom toms (8", 10",
12", 14") and an array of cymbals by Zildjian,
Istanbul and Paiste, all recorded via a roster of
top-notch mics at Teldex Studios in Berlin. With
47 articulations (wood and felt kick drum
beaters, open and damped snare, shank and tip
hi-hats, etc), up to 20 velocity layers per
articulation, and ive round robins, it’s a
strikingly expressive and realistic kit with a big,
modern sound. It also brings with it 20 new
Styles, covering a range of genres from funk and
reggae to folk and rock. As good as The Kit is on
94 / COMPUTER MUSIC / March 2019
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