Unless I’m missing it, it appears you can’t crossfade samples in Groove Agent, but can only switch between samples by velocity.
Seems a weird omission if that’s the case. I’ll have to put it in the wish list, if true.
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Groove Agent plays samples (mostly drums) in response to midi input. It plays different samples in response to different velocities in the midi input it receives.
So how would the crossfade samples work? Serious question, I’m genuinely curious.
Crossfading samples would involve, having 4 kick samples on 1 pad, but each corner of the pad triggers a different Kick sample.
It would not suit me personally, because I like to program drums by writing in the MIDI Key Editor, not bashing away on Pads.
I like to program Drum Machines, not play them.
Probably 2% of Groove Agent users would want it, and Groove Agent 7 wont be out till 2030 minimum, so its not on the near horizon.
cross fading is a standard technique. Say you have three sample per note, pp, mf. ff. you map them 1-40 pp, 41-100 mf and 101-127 ff. at the junctures your going to hear an awkward change of tone as sample swap, so two crossfades around 40-41 and 101 to 102, or thereabouts smooth the sample transitions. I have not seen this in GA5, maybe its because the samples are percussive?
7am i think you talking layering
Like zero says - you have samples assigned to a pad. 3 samples for example.
As the velocity increases, one sample fades out as the next sample fades in - depending on the amount the ranges overlap, while maintaining a constant loudness.
It’s standard procedure for things like snare drums, where you want the sound to change smoothly as you hit harder, instead of an abrupt change in sound.
It can also be used for completely different sounds. It works the same way. One sound fades out while another fades in while keeping the loudness constant.
I’m very surprised that GA5 can’t do this. Like I said - maybe I missed it somewhere.
99.9% of people use Monophonic Mode regarding Drum machines, so smooth transitions seems pointless, 1 shots should cut off the previous sample, so you get a crisp clean sound, not allowing the tail of the previous sample to affect the Attack of the next.
If you want sounds to fade across another sound, you make each pad Have more than 1 voicing, so it is polyphonic (horrible for drums, because you will kill the clarity and crisp, harsh hits).
You appear to be talking about mixing 2 samples together when the midi input velocity is close to the upper/lower velocity range of the samples. That’s one way to change sound smoothly.
Another is to use enough samples at enough different velocities that the changes aren’t perceptible between samples.
My Yamaha DTX drum modules and Native Instruments Battery 4 have this feature and I use it all the time.
That’s probably why I was surprised that Steinberg GA5 neglected to include it.