Groove agent patterns playing off the beat

[ejocvx]

Hi There,
Using GrooveAgent 5.1.20.213 and Cubase 12.0.70.464. I’m workling on a piece that starts out with 4/4 signature, somewhere in the middle there’s a single bar 3/4 and after that it is 4/4 again. In this last part I want to try pre/listen some groove agent patterns and see if there’s anything I can work with. However, groove agent is continuously on the wrong beat when playing its patterns - very cumbersome. What am I doing wrong?

[wildschwein]

I’m not really sure if you can change time signatures on the patterns mid song without somehow editing them at the MIDI level. I did a forum search and some information located applies to earlier GA versions but might help you out.

Someone in another thread says that:
“Hi - putting together a drum track by drawing notes on a Groove Agent track to trigger patterns.
Most of the track is in 4/4, but there is one bar of 2/4, created this using a signature track.
Unfortunately, all of the bars after the change in Groove agent are 2 beats out. Fills start half way through and the beat counter in GA is half a bar out.”

Groove Agent Patterns & Time Signature Change

Hi - putting together a drum track by drawing notes on a Groove Agent track to trigger patterns. Most of the track is in 4/4, but there is one bar of 2/4, created this using a signature track. Unfortunately, all of the bars after the change in Groove agent are 2 beats out. Fills start half way through and the beat counter in GA is half a bar out. I appreciate that patterns are in certain signatures, but is there any way to resync or reset GA to go back to “1” at a new bar start in Cubase?

Another similar instance here:

Strange groove agent 4 problem

Hi! Ive recently started to use groove agent 4. I have a project in 4/4 with some measures in 6/4 time signature and ive created a signature track to make it work with the metronome/tempo track etc. On this project im using samples from the acoustic agent studio kit. Whenever i trigger a sample from my midikeyboard after the the 6/4 measure the sample always trigger on beat 2 of the sample. So the first two beats of the sample is mssing. Everything else is ok and ive made sure to type in 4/4 af…

More here:

GA SE4: Follow track transport with Time Signature Change

Hi all, I’m working on a project in 4/4 containing time signature changes to 2/4 and back, and I’d like to sync Groove Agent SE4 to the project without using Midi data on a track. I activated “Follow Transport” and this works fine when I play the project, but as I get to the 2/4 bar, GA keeps on playing the 4/4 pattern, over the bar, instead of only playing the first half of the pattern on the 2/4 bar (as I would expect). Is it not possible to sync GA to a project with time signature changes…

And here:

Groove Agent 5 - So few styles not 4/4 signature

Hi, Just purchased GA5 and I’m truly shocked and disappointed with how few styles are available that are not in 4/4 signature with the default instrument sets. Is modern music really this boring! Can anyone tell me best expansion packs to purchase to access other time signatures…7/8, 5/4. 3/4, 6/8 etc. Shame I just missed the 50% off promotion. Is there any other way of getting hold of or sharing patterns with GA5? Thanks.

And also here:

how do you change time signature in GA4?

Hi, I just started using GA4, both standalone and with Cubase AI 7. In standalone, I see the time signature at the top and can change the value, but it has no effect on the patterns - they all play 4/4. Is there no way to change a pattern to something else? Ultimately I want to use GA 4 in AI 7. I can change the time signature in AI 7 but then when I drag a pattern onto a track, the beat totally changes. It’s still in 4/4 but doesn’t sound like when I play off the scratch pad. Any help would …

[cparmerlee]

Same problem in Dorico.

MIDI trigger (Groove Agent SE) can't handle meter changes

When using GASE, the MIDI triggers get off if there is a meter change and you can never get the pattern back on the beat. In the following example, I have a 12/8 pattern from “Connection Established”, kit “Classic Rock 01-146 - 12x8”, pattern C0. In the MP3 file you can hear that the pattern is perfect in mm2-3. The pattern has a splash on the downbeat and snare on 2 and 4. That’s exactly as expected. But after the 9/8 bar, everything is shifted off by one beat. I would expect that if I st…

[ejocvx]

Hey thanks for this research - it seems more people are struggling with exact same issue. I should have had a closer look before posting I guess.

[wildschwein]

Hi,

We don’t know there’s a problem until we bump into it and there are no silly questions – just learning opportunities. I didn’t know about it until you posted and I would generally just have straight 4/4 tempos in most of my songs so may never encounter the issue.

I think that it’s something that has come up here and there in the forum over several years and appears to be a limitation with Groove Agent.

Cheers,
Canaan

[dNoise]

I like to change signature a lot and this issue drives me crazy, as jam mode is a real quick way to set up a drum. I found a foolish workaround, and maybe Steinberg wants to have a look at this. Before I change my signature (for example to 6/4) I added an EXTRA 4/4 signature in the bar before, mind you, we were in 4/4 at that moment so this should have no effect, but now my GA5 counter is in sync with the cubase counter and everything is fine. Before it would start at 2/4 later (so bar#.3,1), now it starts at 1. Crazy!. But maybe you can try this trick too, good luck.

[noise]

I’ve run into this as well. I’ll try this next time. Thanks, dNoise!

[dNoise]

The root cause seems to be that contrary to what the doc says, the sync to beat option is not switched off in Jam mode. The result is that it tries to calculate the first beat of a bar, bij dividing the number of beats by the current signature, without taking in account that there are multiple signatures in the song. That results in the weird counter in Groove that is totally different from the cubase counter, and may begin at beat 3 or whatever. A simple solution for cubase guys could be: check if sync to beat is indeed switched off in Jam mode, and/or calculate the groove counter from the LAST signature, then it will start at the beginning of the bar. For now the only real workaround is to make sure that de new signature starts at a beat number that is a multiple of the signature. Example 10 bars of 4/4, start 3/4. 10x4 is 40, is 13x 3/4 +1. So groove will start 1 beat later. Solution add 2x 4/4, total 48, divide by 3 is 16 is a multiple. Now groove will start in the beginning.