PatternsĪs well as being a drum sampler, Groove Agent SE also packs pattern-playback capabilities, accessible by switching the trigger pads into Pattern mode. All of this serves to create a very realistic and believable acoustic drum-kit emulation but it also limits how deeply you can dive into editing and personalising an Acoustic Agent kit. Here, each drum instrument (kick, snare, etc) has multiple velocity switches, and each velocity layer has multiple articulations (that is, alternative samples that are played in turn so that no two consecutive hits sound identical).Įach close-mic’d drum hit sample is accompanied by samples recorded through overhead mics and room ambience mics, and you can even simulate the kick drum sound bleeding into the snare mics. The second engine, Acoustic Agent, approaches things in much the same way as virtual drum-kit instruments such as Superior Drummer and BFD do. Each pad can hold multiple velocity-switched samples, and sample start, end and loop points can all be modified from within Groove Agent SE. Samples are assigned to the trigger pads – which are themselves associated with a MIDI note, of course – and are passed through a conventional sample-and-synthesis signal path featuring envelopes, filters, etc. Beat Agent is the more conventional of the two, and is most like a traditional MPC-style hardware drum sampler, to the extent that it can actually import some MPC file types. Groove Agent SE can host two different drum engines, referred to as agents. It integrates exceptionally well with Cubase (and Nuendo), complementing the DAW with a surprisingly versatile drum toolset. Groove Agent SE is, in fact, a veritable drum and rhythm powerhouse. But, as is often the case with free plug-ins, appearances can be deceiving. It’s a set of trigger pads and an editing area.
Nowhere is this more true than with Groove Agent SE, included in Cubase Elements, Artist and Pro.Īt first blush, Groove Agent SE looks fairly straightforward. In Cubase’s case, however, the majority of the bundled plug-ins are actually rather impressive.
They’re tools that will be useful in a wide range of recording scenarios but are relatively primitive examples of their ilk. Many of these, it’s fair to say, are of the bread-and-butter variety. Most DAWs come bundled with an endless assortment of effects and instruments.
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